U Turn if You Want...

Well, it’s fair to say that this woman divided opinion!  Margaret Thatcher died this week after a stroke, and following a battle with ill health and dementia.  Her legacy will always be a matter of opinion here in the UK, but to me she represented strength in both leadership and political will.  If only the current crop of politicians had half her conviction, just maybe we would turn a corner on this prolonged and dreary recession!

The passing of Baroness Thatcher has thrown up a fascinating amount of old news coverage, which got me thinking about the national and international political landscape during Thatcher’s time in office.  From the Falkland’s Conflict, the miners’ strike, Ireland, the Brighton hotel bombing, the poll tax, the break-up of global Communism, those ‘love-ins’ with Ronald Reagan, and her eventual ousting from office.  Few prime ministers have enjoyed such iconic memoires, nor endured such troubled times.

What I find most interesting is the way the death has been received abroad.  From condolences to scorn, messages have flooded in from all corners of the globe, proof that this woman was far-reaching in her impact.  The Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs tweeted that Thatcher was a “fearless champion of liberty, stood up for captive nations, helped the free world win the Cold War.  Deserves a statue in Poland.”  Barack Obama said America had “lost a true friend”, whilst Vladimir Putin paid tribute to her as “one of the outstanding political figures of the modern world.”  Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl told how he “greatly valued Thatcher for her love of freedom, her incomparable openness, honesty and straightforwardness.”  There were, of course, less complimentary headlines (namely Argentina’s left-leaning paper, Pagina 12, which stated that “Galtieri waits for her in Hell”), but on the whole I thought the tributes were remarkable in their respect and sincerity.  My personal favourite is German paper die Tageszeitung, whose headline read: “England Has Lost its Best Man.”

So we say goodbye Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first woman prime minister who, incidentally, had more balls than nearly any of the others before or since.  Love her, hate her, admire her, despise her, the world has lost an iconic woman.  Rest in Peace.