R.I.P. THE IRON LADY
- 10/4/2013 <--Prev : Next-->
Margaret Thatcher is to be given a ceremonial funeral, one step down from a state funeral. Quite an honour for a Lady who is credited with dramatically changing society, finance and politics in the United Kingdom and, to a large extent, the world. After more than 20 years from the time she was in power her influence is still apparent, even in Africa.
Of course not everything she has left us with is working now but that is more the responsibility of those who have been left to carry on her legacy. Tony Blair largely followed Thatcher's way but in a different era and without the appropriate controls.
Africa still remembers her direction in organising free and fair elections in the then Rhodesia which brought independent Zimbabwe into being, thus putting pressure on the pariah apartheid state in South Africa. From then the writing was on the wall for De Klerk. Thatcher cannot be blamed for Mugabe's later atrocities in Zimbabwe. Nor can she be blamed for the Blair/Brown mismanagement of the economy in the United Kingdom.
Now the UK is in mourning the death of a great leader and Thatcher is being respected by politicians from all parties. And, despite the 'celebrations' of her death from the loony Left, there will be a huge turnout for her funeral.
But where was all this respect for the past twenty years? Thatcher has long suffered from ill health and for the past few weeks has been laid up in a London Hotel room. Margaret Thatcher's husband, Denis, died some years back and her daughter, Carol, and son, Mark, who is not the brightest button in the box, live in different parts of the world. They have been put very much in the background during the outpouring of grief.
Just disappointing that Thatcher's legacy was only highlighted after her death. For much of her latter years she was out of the glare of publicity and open to ridicule by those who would want UK to return to the grey days of the bankrupt Seventies when trade unions ruled the roost, unproductive mines were kept going and competition was frowned upon. But they are lesser politicians who will never aspire to inspire others and will eventually fade into obscurity.
Donald Henderson
http://nightwriter.webplus.net/
