Margaret Thatcher Dead.

[Guest scottishguy]

A formidable World figure but also possibly the most divisive PM in modern British political history.

 

I'll leave it at that.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067155

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10364876

[Guest fountainhall]

I find it rather strange that it is war that has defined two of the UK's relatively recent Prime Ministers. Some praise Thatcher for pulling Britain out of its long post-second World War lethargy, but it's almost certain she would have been a one-term wonder had it not been for events thousands of miles away. Her action in engaging in a short, sharp war with Argentina over the invasion of the tiny Falkland Islands earned her almost mythical status for much of the next decade. If memory serves me correctly, she was deeply unpopular prior to that war. Without it, her party would almost certainly have lost the 1983 election. My guess is that she would then have lost the next leadership election and be remembered merely for having been the UK's first woman PM.

 

Contrast that with Tony Blair whose great popularity in the elections of 1997 and 2001 was at first slowly, and then with much greater speed, eroded as a result of the invasion of Iraq. He was to hold on with a reduced majority in 2005 and his resignation a year later may have been less a result of the war than a pre-arranged pact with his Chancellor, Gordon Brown. But since then it is Iraq which has defined him and for which he is increasingly vilified in the nation which once all but seemed to adore him.

 

This evening on one of the new channels I heard Thatcher compared to Churchill. To me that beggars belief. As SG says, whatever her successes, she was a bitterly divisive Prime Minister.

[Guest scottishguy]

I think the essential difference as far as the "war factor" goes is that Thatcher was (and continues to be) seen by the British public as being 100% in the right as far as the Falklands War is concerned - caused by a hostile invasion of sovereign British territory.

 

Blair, on the other hand is now widely regarded as having deliberately lied to Parliament and the British people in order to involve British forces in an illegal war based on a false prospectus - and which had little or nothing to do with the UK.

[KhorTose]

I never could stand Ronald Reagan, but I must admit that he and Margaret did put tremendous pressure on the Soviet Union. Their confrontational policies and willingness to force the USSR into an arms race they could not afford did do a lot to cause the fall of the USSR. I also think they both had a personal connection with Gorbachev that helped convince him to let the Eastern block countries go their own way. Furthermore, she was absolutely correct on the Falklands war. As a student of that war I must admire her courage and willingness to do what needed to be done even in the face of criticism from some other nations.

 

On the other hand her use of force to put down the workers and remove a lot of the safety nets did not endear her to me. Like her or not, you must admit she was one of a kind. Also, I often complain that the people we elect try to make decisions by what is popular and not do what they were elected to do, which is to lead. She may have been a real bitch at times, but she did the leading based on her principles--right or wrong--, and truly earned the name "iron Lady".