I love the chutzpah of the Right with their claims for civility via “don’t speak ill about the recently departed.” Nevermind their shittalking when Howard Zinn, Ted Kennedy and Paul Wellstone died. I’m confident they’ve been preparing some nasty, backhanded obits for Jimmy Carter.
To the Economist and their whitewashing allies behind Reagan’s deification, I say bollocks to you!
We agree that the UK had much more serious problems than the US when she became the prime minister. From what I’ve read and studied over years, the UK kept major elements of the economy in war mode well after 1945. The Hayek/Thatcherite apologists conveniently forget that the UK was already on the downward slide after WWI. The German u-boats sank much of their commercial fleet and the stupid conflict put the gears in motion to end their empire. The UK needed serious reform. Instead it received an anti-Robin Hood as she stole from the poor and gave to the rich through her politics of hate.
I’m more familiar with her odious foreign-policy record. Thatcher was no champion of freedom, especially if you resided in Chile, South Africa or Northern Ireland. She concocted her own Gulf Distraction with the 1983 Falklands/Malvinas War to call an election. The British Navy…mobilized to take back some worthless rocks and sheep.
Much like her American counterpart Reagan, Thatcher is given too much credit for the Soviets’ demise; I would say the label just changed, Russia isn’t any different 20 years later. To be more accurate, she helped spread instability in the world by putting the UK into lockstep with American sabre rattling, dictator support and polluting.
The Economist‘s lead says Thatcher will leave “…an ideological legacy to rival that of Marx, Mao, Gandhi or Reagan” They’re about half right, see number two and four. Her real, immediate legacy is turning the Labour Party into the Tory Lite Party (see Blair), making the Tories push even worse austerity measures under Cameron, widening the wealth gap amongst the British people and getting a bloated, overpriced funeral. After I’m dead, Thatcher will be lucky to be a footnote. She was no Disraeli or Churchill. Just a mean, divisive predecessor who made the world safe for Sarah Palin.