Margaret Thatcher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When Margaret Thatcher was ousted from power in 1990 I was serving as a Conservative Councillor in Dacorum Borough Council in SW Hertfordshire.
Just a few months before her fall from power I had attended Ian Gow’s funeral along with Dr Laurence Kennedy. Gow was a staunch supporter of Conservative Party organisation in Northern Ireland.
Thatcher, who attended Gow’s funeral with most of her cabinet, sat in the front row of the church. It was a long ‘high church’ service. It made little reference to the manner in which Gow had died. The overriding memory I have of the service was the apparent rock-solid unity of Thatcher and her team. But that solidity melted away from her when she needed it most, just a few months later.
The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) today published several quotations from people who knew Margaret Thatcher and respected her.
Writing in Today’s Times Lord Saatchi, CPS’ Chairman, said:
“Like Locke, Rousseau, Jefferson and all the great champions of liberal democracy, she recognised that a paternalist government, based on the benevolence of a ruler who treats his or her subjects as dependent children, is the greatest conceivable despotism and destroys all freedom. She saw that human dignity in fact resides in independence, individuality and self-determination. The guiding thread of her Conservatism was the need for humankind to be responsible for and master of its destiny — that the goal for each person is the fullest development of all their latent powers and abilities, their human potential. Her achievement was to capture those words for Conservatism.”
Margaret Thatcher was one of the greatest Prime Ministers because she believed in the primacy of the individual. Her political agenda was to get the government off people’s backs. And by doing so she gave them the opportunity to be proud of themselves and their country.
