The Fatal Legacy (Margaret Thatcher, the last Churchillian Brit!)

The Sunday Times ^ | January 30, 2005 | John Sergeant

[quidnunc]

When Margaret Thatcher left No 10 in tears her influence was thought to be over. But John Sergeant reveals how politics and the destiny of Michael Howard and Tony Blair – one of her biggest fans – are still under her sway

Tony Blair met me in the cabinet room and ushered me through the french windows into the garden of No 10. “It’ll be quieter here,” he said.

The prime minister had agreed to see me to talk about Margaret Thatcher. What surprised me was the extent to which he was prepared to acknowledge her strengths, and to make it clear that he wanted to emulate her.

“She was a very fine intellect,” he told me, speaking as one former lawyer about another. “She had a really uncluttered mind, a very clear mind … a clear way of expressing herself.”

I should admit that at the time of our interview he was still enjoying one of the longest political honeymoons in British political history. It was the summer of 2002, and the war in Iraq lay in the future. But there was still plenty to concern him; he was worried about the need to give his period in office a sense of direction, about how his narrative might appear to future historians.

As a politician, what Blair most admires is the way that Thatcher set a course for her party in government which radically changed the history of Britain. He was particularly impressed by her “tremendous clarity of objective, matched by huge determination and vigour”. Compromises along the way were acceptable, but “she never yielded her ultimate goal”.

-snip-

[Al Simmons]

Outstanding. Being ignorant of the inner-party machinations of UK politics, I remember being sorely disappointed - dismayed, even - that 'Maggie' did not carry the fight into the party runoff election. Now, it appears, it was her failure to attend to the detail of the first election that doomed her.

Hubris, it seems. I kept thinking while reading the article "Man, if this was 'W', the FIRST THING he would have done would be to personally talk to every one of the party voters BEFORE the first ballot, and engage in some serious arm-twisting." Because he understands that politics begins at the grass roots, and one only forgets that at his or her own peril (witness '41's' fate for basically forgetting that lesson.)

But, unlike most politicians, 'W' is not consumed by a sense of his own self-importance as, it appears, Dame Thatcher was to a certain extent.

Personal humilility, it appears, is an effective virtue in the public arena as well (so long as matched with an iron determination to always do right).

[Churchillspirit]

Currently reading a biography of Condi Rice.

A lot of similarities with Margaret Thatcher.

Thank God for both of them

[tjwmason]

But, unlike most politicians, 'W' is not consumed by a sense of his own self-importance as, it appears, Dame Thatcher was to a certain extent.

I don't think that Lady Thatcher was being self-important, but rather it was thought that for her to canvass personally would have been an admission of weakness which would have damaged her.