kernow

I don't think you can compare people from different era's, whether it be politics or sport. In athletics the modern track surfaces are totally different to the old cinder tracks of the past. A modern PM is facing totally different World than the one of 50 or a100 years ago. Lets face it 4 of our last last 7 PMs, (so-far not including the present) would have been hung for treason in any other era!

rjt

Well I would rather have a democracy than any other form of government, at least in a democracy the 20% have a chance to persuade the others by peacefull means that there way is best. You have to persaude others that your way is the way to go Smidgey. The only other way impose all policy in the form of a dictatorship.

its democracy or dictatorship which do you prefer? At the moment you have a chance to change things peacefully.

__________________
Mr Delors said that he wanted the European Parliament to be the democratic body of the community, The Commission to be The Executive and The Council Of Ministers The Senate. NO! NO! NO!
(Margaret Thatcher 30 Oct 1990)

Ignore List: The Prophets of ST Al the Unelectable.

Smidgey

Who said a dictator wouldn't be able to dismantle the welfare system in a peaceful manner? If there were any violence it would be on the part of those who did not wish it to be dismantled. I don't accept dictatorship, however. I accept the J.S. Mill idea of limited democracy.

__________________
How vain is man, who boasts in fight the valour of gigantic might!

-Georg Friedrich Händel

Britannist

She was confirmed as a great British politician the very moment she had succeeded in getting extreme europhile out as leader of the Conservative Party in 1975. Her part in the fall of Heath was, in itself, a great act of patriotism for the British people and nation.

mkpdavies

Shame she undid it all by further giving the country away and not getting us out when she had the chance.

She is a traitor, barely better than Heath or Kinnock.

__________________
http://brits4ronpaul.blogspot.com/
http://wokinglibertarians.blogspot.com/
http://lpuk.org

My ignore list

Labour, Blue Labour, Lib Dems

Phil Sheldon

Rather harsh words I think.
In her book 'Statecraft' she wrote:

‘What we should grasp, however, from the lessons of European history is that, first, there is nothing necessarily benevolent about programmes of European integration; second, the desire to achieve grand utopian plans often poses a grave threat to freedom; and third, European unity has been tried before, and the outcome was far from happy'.

Lady Thatcher was and is a good European. She understands that Britain’s character has been shaped by its relationship with the people and history of Europe.
But she doesn’t make the mistake of thinking that Europe and its diverse peoples is the same as the European Union.
Again, in Statecraft she recognises that the European Union for what it is:
‘a classic utopian project, a monument to the vanity of intellectuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure: only the scale of the final damage done is in doubt.’
She called Britain's membership as "a political error of historic magnitude".

In her Bruges speech in 1988 she advanced the idea that ‘the willing and active cooperation between independent sovereign states is the best way to build a successful European Community.’
What Thatcher failed to comprehend at the time was that this kind of Europe had never been on offer.
She also believes we should have a referendum on the EU Constitution/Treaty.
Hardly the words and actions of a 'Traitor'

__________________
Those who would sacrifice Freedom
for Safety
deserve neither.

rjt

yes unlike others I think Lady Thatcher has learnt her lesson, she stated in the HOL at the time of Masstricht that she had her fingers burned when she signed the SEA and that Masstricht would thus be a treaty too far.

The Bruge speach as an imaginative attempt to reshape the direction of the EU, regretably for her many decided once she had made it that she had to go.

__________________
Mr Delors said that he wanted the European Parliament to be the democratic body of the community, The Commission to be The Executive and The Council Of Ministers The Senate. NO! NO! NO!
(Margaret Thatcher 30 Oct 1990)

Ignore List: The Prophets of ST Al the Unelectable.

mkpdavies

.

Harsh but fair. By her actions she is a traitor. Even her words AFTER she had the control to do something about it fail to hit the mark.

She is an Aunt Sally figure. A fake. A fraud. A useful tool for Blue Labour to con many gullible people into sticking with the rotten party.

__________________
http://brits4ronpaul.blogspot.com/
http://wokinglibertarians.blogspot.com/
http://lpuk.org

My ignore list

Labour, Blue Labour, Lib Dems

Britannist

Just thought I would mention that few thought she (Lady Thatcher) was "a useful tool for Blue Labour (i.e. the Cameron-Conservatives)" when she appeared a couple of months ago with Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the steps of 10 Downing Street after having had "a pleasant and cordial" one hour and ten minute chat with him and his wife at tea after a tour of her former home.

I notice that within days of her well-publicised visit to the Prime Minister, pro-EU and anti-UKIP David Cameron (who had not - up to that point - ever had a proper full meeting with Lady Thatcher and who has repeatedly avoided describing himself as a 'Thatcherite') was quick to organise a meeting with her at the House of Commons.

One UKIP friend of mine commented "Cameron was probably desperately worried that - unless he started being more friendly to Lady Thatcher and was seen to be friendly to her - she might visit Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street again just before the next General Election and come out onto the steps after the meeting to say what a good Prime Minister he is."

mr.growbag

Personally I would say John Redwood is the greatest leader the Tories NEVER had.