Tuesday 9 April 2013

R.I.P Britain's strict grandmother


When I was a young child and had been particularly naughty, my parents would threaten a sentence at Gran’s house where she would sort me out. This used to put the heebie jeebies up me and I would immediately start obeying my parent’s orders so I wouldn’t have to go. Now that I reminisce, I find it quite funny that I was so petrified to stay at my loving grandmother’s house – and she really is lovely – but I guess it’s because, despite her lovable nature and sense of fun… she did NOT take any crap.

The reason I tell you this…

 As I watched the social fall-out from the news of Maggie Thatcher’s death yesterday and tried to grasp a better idea of why she was so loved as a Prime Minister by some and despised by many more I came across a video clip of her in the house of Lord’s telling how the then President of the European Commission “wanted the European parliament to be the democratic body of the community, he wanted the commission to be the executive and he wanted the council of ministers to be the senate” to which she did not agree and quite simply barked, “NO, NO, NO!”.

(This reminded me of my Gran telling me off and now that I think about it they look quite similar…)

She then goes on to suggest that the Labour party would give up a degree of the country’s independence by agreeing to a single currency in line with Europe… a premonition perhaps?

This video clip speaks volumes on the type of leader she was. She made her decisions and she stuck with them. She had a mighty back-bone to go with her iron fist and I’ve never seen a Prime Minister like her in my lifetime so far. Sure, her politics didn’t benefit everyone but no Prime Minister realistically has that power.
It is very easy to remember a person’s failings. For example, my sister will never let me forget that the scar on her forehead is from when I hit her with a ‘skydancer’ when we were children. However, the good that people do can often be overlooked. I believe the same rule applied to Lady Thatcher. Yes she introduced the Poll Tax which was devastating for a lot of families, she took the children’s milk away and many people feel that the Falklands war could have been avoided… but she also reduced the country’s debt and turned us from one of the poorest in Europe to the third wealthiest. I personally don’t think we’d be in the economical state we’re in now if she were still in power.

Let me make it clear that I am in no way a right wing girl… or a left for that matter. My political knowledge is very limited and I simply agree with some ideas and disagree with others. I just feel that on the eve of her death, there was a little too much celebration and not enough respect for one of Britain’s most influential leaders so far.

R.I.P Margaret Thatcher – Britain’s strict grandmother.

                                   Kayleigh's Gran?
      Margaret Thatcher?

3 comments:

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  2. Nice to see a blog with a bit of a sense of history, Kayleigh.

    See you been studying some media law and ethics. Maybe you migh like to do my survey here
    Who am I? I am research student at the Universit of Lincoln and a lecturer at the Unversity of Hertfordshire. Here is my work email: p.cowan@herts.ac.uk and my home email: philipjcowan@gmail.com


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  3. Thanks Philip. I have filled that out for you. Thanks for reading.

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