Where have all the leaders gone? Bring back Thatcher.
Ten Things to Love about Lady Thatcher
1) Not needing to be popular
Lady Thatcher accepted that difficult decisions made you unpopular. George Osbourne thinks he is unpopular because of his plan for cuts. No George, you just have one of those faces we want to slap. Thatcher on the other hand, was unpopular because she knew better.
2) A working mother – but no one knew
Not till Mark Thatcher started doing strange things with models and fast cars did any of us even realise Thatcher was a mother. Did she ask for flexi time, maternity leave, short days, child care support? – did she hell. Would she have belonged to mumsnet? Never.
3) It was never about her
Thatcher was a Prime Minister that just wanted to get on with being Prime Minister. She wasn’t softening the American market for advisory positions, she wasn’t writing memoirs and competing for nonfiction chart No.1, she wasn’t trying to map out a future lecture circuit. She just wanted to be PM.
4) She didn’t have a prat for a partner
Unlike Prince Phillip, Dennis knew better than to try to speak to the natives. He was the unseen dream. Nowadays, it seems no one knows their place. Cherie was a gurning monstrosity with the steeliest ambition at No.10; Mrs Sarkowsy is a fool if she thinks we buy this demure coy nonsense – you stole a husband love. And old ‘green fingers’ Obama is more powerful than Opra.
5) The handbag
We knew Thatcher was real because she carried things about. In a handbag. We like that. And she looked like she might wield it in anger if required. And we liked that even more.
6) Cool lines
Alan Sugar gets fed his through an ear piece. New politicians get theirs written for them. Thatcher has one liners all of her very own – and they kept the boys in their place for years.
7) Private not public
Just like her family life, Thatcher believed our society needed to be private not public. And she went about privatising everything. Her faith in the ‘invisible hand’ to deliver a slap on the bottom to the nanny state was impeccable
8) Peter Mandelson
She would never have employed Peter Mandelson. Not once, not twice, not ever.
9) The special relationship
She nurtured our ‘special relationship’ with the States; she may even have been instrumental in its longevity. But she never fawned on the other side of the Atlantic. She never wanted Ronald as her best friend and never acted like the clingy guy at the party.
10) The lady is not for turning, or burning.
When the IRA tried to blow up Thatcher in Brighton, she did press at 4am, got M & S to open early so the conference delegates could get new clothes, and cracked on. Stoic, brilliant, irreplaceable.
Tags: katie hopkins