Wednesday, April 10, 2013
After Thatcher
Although Lady Thatcher has been out of action for some years and has not even made any public appearances for the last couple of them, her presence was something many of us took almost for granted and found reassuring. Her death has temporarily united the Conservative party in grief and admiration and somewhere behind that unity are the thoughts that her political "defenestration" in 1990 left a wound that the party has not yet healed. It is a bigger wound than the Maastricht debates and quarrels of the Major years. Will the lady's death finally heal that wound?
They are much more likely to annoint her as a kind of patron saint of the Tory party, without readopting her policies. They voted her out of office because they didn't agree with her back then and they aren't likely to do so now.
ReplyDeleteMostly they got rid of her because they were afraid she would lose the coming election. They were wrong, of course. She would have won; a great part of Major's appeal was that he was seen as Maggie's boy though he wasn't. You are right, of course, they are not going to adopt any of her ideas of policies.
ReplyDeleteSo it was more opportunism than conviction. Interesting, but also very predictable, if you think about it.
ReplyDeleteShe suppose will be the Tory party's equivalent to the Republicans' Ronald Reagan. It has been a long time since a true Republican Reaganite has been spotted in the wild - they'd have to be bred in captivity to build up the stock again. ;)
To qualify: I am not aware of any Republican politician who is a Republican
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