Tributes on historic date for Thatcher

The Daily Telegraph ^ | 4 May, 2004 | George Jones

[tjwmason]

Tributes on historic date for Thatcher
By George Jones, Political Editor
(Filed: 04/05/2004)

Lady Thatcher is preparing for a week of commemorative events to mark the 25th anniversary today of her accession as Britain's first woman prime minister.

On Friday, May 4, 1979, Margaret Thatcher, the daughter of a Grantham shopkeeper, entered Downing Street after the Tories were returned to power with a Commons majority of 44.

She went on to win two more elections and serve 11 and a half years in No 10 before being ousted by Conservative MPs fearful that she had become an electoral liability.

The principal event will be a dinner at the Savoy Hotel in London tonight organised by Conservative Way Forward, where Lady Thatcher will be the principal guest.

At the dinner, Michael Howard, the present Conservative leader, will pay tribute to the woman whom he described last week "as the greatest British prime minister since Winston Churchill".

On Saturday, Lady Thatcher will attend a reception organised by Young Conservatives and Conservative Students in her honour at a venue to be announced in central London.

But before that, on Thursday, four of her principal lieutenants will be paying tribute to her legacy at a reception at the Oxford and Cambridge Club hosted by the Adam Smith Institute, the free-market think-tank that contributed to many of her policies.

Lord Saatchi, the joint Tory chairman, whose advertising agency helped to get her to power, will be present along with two former Tory chairmen, Lord Tebbit and Lord Parkinson, as well as Lord Powell, who was her foreign policy adviser in Downing Street. Lady Thatcher is not expected to attend this event.

Her close friends say that Lady Thatcher is now coming to terms with the death of her husband, Sir Denis, last year, and that her health has been improving. She is still under doctors' orders to make no public speeches but as one of her colleagues said: "You can never tell with her."

[tjwmason]

It is the 25th Anniversary of the then Mrs. Thatcher's appointment as Prime Minister. Since then socialism has been defeated here, as has Russian communism.

Truly the greatest British P.M. since Sir Winston Churchill.

[anniegetyourgun]

I consider it a high point in life to have met her and shook her hand. Whether in her presence or seeing this portrait of her, you sense her dignity and greatness.

[Always Right]

It is the 25th Anniversary of the then Mrs. Thatcher's appointment as Prime Minister. Since then socialism has been defeated here, as has Russian communism.

Thatcher did a wonderful job at fighting socialism, but the fight against socialism is an on-going battle. Nations have a tendency to increase socialistic policies, and it is a rare bird that actually reverses that trend. We need more Reagans and Thatchers or we will end up like our European and Canadian counterparts.

[DM1]

God Bless Thatcher and Reagan
The dynamic Duo of the western world

[WestSylvanian]

"Truly the greatest P.M. since Winston Churchill."

Amen to that! She personified courage, tenacity, and the kind of indomitable will that the British showed during WWII. An inspiration and a great lady.

[tjwmason]

Thatcher did a wonderful job at fighting socialism, but the fight against socialism is an on-going battle.

I was making the point that in 1979 Britain had had incomes policies; the electricity, gas, water, coal, steel and car industries (to name but a few) were state owned; most people lived in state owned housing &c.&c. Socialism is certainly still around, and under the Blair government has grown somewhat (though in a more cautious and hidden form); but compared with where we were, where we are is a magnificent achievement. I certainly did not mean to imply that we could rest easy, merely that overt socialism is universally acknowledged to be a spent force.