Saturday, October 14, 2006

Something to Warm the Cockles of a Thatcherite Heart...



Makes me remember why I got involved in politics...

PS I'll be on the News 24 paper review at 11.45pm with Yasmin Alibhai-Brown...

58 comments:

ian said...

Because you like a pearl necklace?

Anonymous said...

Evening Iain,

My Mum rang me that day and was such a happy lady!

We could all see that my job - and me and our kids' future - was out of the control of those awful people spitting venom outside our hospitals.

Good day to be a Tory, we were well pissed off with the softies and lefties then...

Jonathan Sheppard said...

Hasnt Yasmin seen enough of you this week?

Anonymous said...

It was nice to be a small part of it.

Anonymous said...

Is this wise, Iain, in the days of the Cameroons?

Anonymous said...

So you'll be getting out of politics now, Iain, now your beloved Dave has so decisively repudiated everything that Mrs Thatcher ever did or said? Or is it still that enticing lure of a safe metropolitan A-list style seat, and be damned to principles...

Anonymous said...

I agree completely, and this is something that the mongs who are too young to remember should be made aware of. Can you imagine what Sion Simon would say if he and his ilk were forced to look at the facts instead of the propoganda put out by the likes of recess monkey?

Look at Scargill and what he was like. Livingstone?

These people are still there.

Fuck it...the Tories need to get dirty and REMIND people about what the UK in 1975 and beyond was like becauyse they have conveniently forgotten and Bliar and New Labour like it that way.

Had an interesting conversation not so long ago with someone over the miners strike, he is youngish...early thirties. I explained that the miners strike was the THIRD and they had held the Government to ransom for two years, and the third strike beginning in 1982 was the straw that broke the camels back. He didn't know but soon changed his tune.

The Tories should tell it like it was instead of this soul searching.

Anonymous said...

What is it with you and Yasmin, Iain?

The Druid said...

A great PM who truly did save her country. Makes you nostalgic.

It all went wrong for the party when a toxic combination of euronutters and spineless backbenchers assassinated her. The party has never been the same since. Major was a study in abject failure. His cabinet - prize plonkers the lot.

If I was running things those who put "europe" before country and party would be out in the cold on their arses. Peers or not.

Croydonian said...

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Younger people just don't know how awful and ramshackle Britain was pre-1979, and how humiliating it had become to be British. Remember that in the 'Winter of Discontent' things were so bad that bodies weren't being buried.

It really seemed that there was no way back for the country when establishment voices spoke about a 'managed decline' for the nation. Disillusionment with conventional politics was pretty intense then, I recall.

It took most of us a little while to come to terms with Thatcher. We had actually elected a PM who believed that decline wasn't inevitable and was willing to do something about it - even if it was unpopular or went against the liberal consensus. And she had a cabinet of extremely clever ministers who were intellectually streets ahead of those who came later - and particularly those we have today.

Now that some of the personal hatred of Margaret has died down a little, it is increasingly evident that she (like Ron Reagan) was a great leader who had a decisive influence nationally and internationally.

Anonymous said...

It will be a long time before we see the likes of her again - and I suspect a long time before we feel the passion that we felt back then too.

Anonymous said...

I have just been wondering if perhaps I've misjudged Dave. Maybe he was just acting out Norman's "Get on your bike message" and hadn't realised it wasn't directed at those of us with chauffeurs?

What a wonderful video clip. I'll be springing up the stairs to bed in a moment. Lets hope I can remember where I'm going when I get to the top. And I could hear the inspiration and leadership in Maggie's voice - a bit different from the followership timbre of Dave's tones.

Mathew Parris in his Times podcast even commented on a glotal stop in Dave's address to the troops last Wednesday. Followership rools ok.

What a woman Lady T. is and was.

Anonymous said...

I thought there was going to be some kind of evil twist at the end of this. Like - and then came Major followed by Dave............

Anonymous said...

Simply fantastic. What a heroes and role-models Margaret Thatcher and the rest of that generation are for the country.

The Editor said...

Iain, you and Yasmin are a bit of an open secret now.

We are all just trying to work out who wears the nightie - my money is on you.

Anonymous said...

God I miss her!

Blair isn't worthy to kiss her feet.

She always called things as she saw them, where he is a pathological, shameless liar.

She supported our armed forces, where he f*&"s them over.

She cut taxes where he has raised them.

She appointed outstanding ministers, where he appoints talentless, crooked non-entities.

She made a mistake or two along the way, but she was the best peacetime Prime Minister we had since Lord Salisbury.

Anonymous said...

A copper about to cosh some one is nothing to celebrate,and we are now dependent on foreigners for energy. Maggie swung her handbag at brussels but we are even more contolled by the eu now than then.
some victory.

Anonymous said...

It's a bit like an obituary... but I know she's not dead because the BBC hasn't interupted normal programming to celebrate.

Hearing the excerpts from her speeches reminds of how far the standard of oratory has fallen.

Who will inspire us in the future? Certainly not Cameron.

Anonymous said...

I'm 40.

As a kid I remember power cuts and candles. Fun when you're a kid, but what a way to run a bloody country.

In hindsight, Maggie was by far the best PM we've had since WWII.

That short clip reminded me of being proud of our country.

Signed: an ex-labour voter.

Anonymous said...

God bless her!

Anonymous said...

Yes, it leaves one quite misty of eye to remember mass unemployment bringing harmony in place of discord, and hope in place of despair, right across Northern England.

As we see the Unions once again rising, we need to halt their advance by destroying any final little pockets of employment that persist outside the City of London.

You know it makes sense.

Anonymous said...

A great PM who truly did save her country. Makes you nostalgic.

Indeed so.

And on the same theme, I say bring back Pitt the Younger. Re-enact the Corn Laws. Repeal the Great Reform Act of 1832 and bring back the rotten boroughs. Ask the Duke of Wellington to get over to Portugal and take on these Frenchies all over again....

....or we could come up with some policies that suit 2006 instead.

Get real, Iain. Maggie did great things in the '80s. But these things are now done deals. She belongs to history, just like Pitt the Younger, or Churchill.

For all their many and various faults, even the Labour party has largely accepted the changes she made. There is no return to these days, and increasing swaithes of the electorate would not even have been around then, just as few of those who voted for Pitt are still with us. It's all ancient history now, like the Napoleonic Wars or Cesaer's Conquest of Gaul: interesting perhaps, but irrelevant to what matters today.

And, by the way, even she was not always right:

She supported our armed forces

Um, no she didn't. If the Falkland invasion had happened six months later than it did, the Thatcher-ordained cut in our forces, particulary in the navy, would have made it impossible for us to respond.

Nostalgic, especially when misplaced, does not win elections. It's like sentiment in business: there is none, only the illusion of it.

Anonymous said...

Will Longmore asks, "Who will inspire us in the future? Certainly not Cameron. "

I remember and celebrate Margaret Thatcher, but David Cameron is doing just fine. We have an election to win.

Infoholic UK said...

Yes, yes, all very laudable and all that, but as Question of Sport puts it

"What happened next ?"

Politaholic said...

Dr Strabismus says...now that some of the personal hatred of Margaret Thatcher has died down a little...

Not in my house it hasn't.

Anonymous said...

What a shame that Cameron and his ilk betray those great days. For we should always remember that we are the heirs to that first revolution. Where good triumphed over evil. In light of this, the five point plan for the party should be:

1. Smash the remnants of unionism and bolshevism. This would ultimately include arresting the hardcore agitators that infest these organisations.
2. Complete withdrawal from Europe and its federalist institutions.
3. The absolute privatision of the NHS.
4. The reduction and eventual elimination of taxation on income.
5. The use of our military to liberate and free the oppressed peoples of the world.

Anything short of these things is a betrayal of those great days. Thus Cameron is a traitor and deserves no support.

Anonymous said...

Cameron has charisma and none of the Labour lot have it.Imagine Brown or Reid 'talking' with the kind of loony lefty fervour they did in those days.People would laugh.Johnson might be likeable in person but it doesn't come across on television.When Blair leaves, the new boy will claim 'my hands are clean'.We have to keep reminding people day after day after day about TEN YEARS of sleaze,corruption and criminal waste.If the BBC and others don't report things adequately COMPLAIN.With their control of the media it's going to take a huge effort to get this lot out.We all have to make our best efforts everyday to see it through.

Anonymous said...

Mrs T. wanted to be in Number 10 so she could do something; conversely the current generation of politicos would do anything to get into Number 10. After that they plan to merely tinker at the edges while doing nothing about the incubus of a bloated state and whining about 'concensus' and 'our partners in Europe'.
Thirty years and they still haven't figured out that they ain't partners, they're competitors. Wankers.

Conviction politics, it's about time it made a come-back.

Anonymous said...

Indeed. Best advert for the Labour Party in a long time.

Bryan Appleyard said...

I'm very worried about the Yasmin thing. The Thatcher vid illustrates the Tory problem. The enemy has gone to be replaced by a bizarre simulacrum. History, in spite of cliches to the contrary, never repeats itself.

Anonymous said...

Reminds me why *I* got involved in politics too...

Anonymous said...

Great stuff.

Now I remember why I joined the Conservative party (1978).

Anonymous said...

Iain, when will the Downining Street Years comer out on DVD? Or for that matter your best political commercials and PPBs?

Man in a Shed said...

Thanks Iain - made my Sunday !

Curly said...

I joined the party during the leadership election where she set history by becoming the first female leader of a major party. Her victories were a stunning rebuke to the socialist sinners who were determined to break this country's back.

Without doubt we needed a strong, and at times unpalatable, medicine to cure our ills. We should be forever thankfull for the lady who put the "Great" back into Britain!

Sometime in the future, her leadership style and policies will be returned to, as the wheel turns full circle again.

Anonymous said...

A copper about to cosh some one is nothing to celebrate

A miner who violently wants to prevent another miner from going back to work is nothing to celebrate.

Anonymous said...

who's the nutter ranting about bringing the media into common ownership?

Anonymous said...

Good to watch Iain, thanks.

I'm sure they'll be a new version coming out in a few years time, documenting how Labour destroyed this country from 1997-2009 and how Cameron saved us. Introducing a police state, destroying our public services, wrecking our economy, uncontrolled immigration, rising unemployment, corruption, scandal after scandal - Labour have certainly got enough to fill a 2-minute slot!

Anonymous said...

Ahahahaha

Watching you lot snivel on about Thatcher really warms the cockles.

Have you forgotten it was you that got rid of her?

That video takes the biscuit - "Where there was discord she brought harmony, where there was despair she brought hope" - except to anyone not earning £100k a year and living in the home counties. There was precious little hope for the people who had to survive in the inner cities or who had to suffer the regular-as-clockwork recessions during her misrule.

And I am the only one who sees the ridiculousness of a group called Conservative Way Forward who can only talk about the past?

Is it because you all recognise that Cameron is a false dawn and the Tory part will have splintered into a dozen separate (but equally disregarded) pressure groups in ten years time?

Wait til she carks it - the streetparties will soon convince you that its only old Tory blowhards like yourselves that have any kind of positive memories of the old bat.

Aaron Murin-Heath said...

Isn't that what we call historical revisionism?

Anonymous said...

....and, if you read David Davis's article in today's Sunday Telegraph, you may (like me) regret very much that he is not the Conservative Party leader. He is clearly streets ahead of David Cameron, speaking authoritively and with a conviction that Cameron could only envy. Well done David Davis!

Johnny Norfolk said...

Never foget that it was the MPs that ditched Mrs T not the members.

They have not been forgiven

Anonymous said...

shotgun: Thanks for the history lesson! By the way, the third strike started in 1984, not 82.

I'm only too well aware of the glories of the 80s and 90s. Spiralling unemployment, interest rates rocketing upwards, public services in decline, attacks on minority groups to appease the Tory 'family' wing (Clause 28, anyone?)... The Falklands War was a lucky victory and a fight that could have been avoided if foreign policy had been different (it is also true to say that if it had occurred a year later, we wouldn't have been able to fight it at all).

Truly, those were the days.

Anonymous said...

I beginning to think that you did ask Yasmin the question I suggested when she appeared on 18 Doughty Street.

The Daily Pundit said...

Bull your boots and press your combats - Your country needs you.

Perry de Havilland said...

Iain I am delighted to see you run with this... therefore the moment you join an actual conservative party (i.e. the UKIP) and are thus be able to run for Parliament in a party not make up of Social Democrat Euro-Fedarists, I shall make a point of voting for you :-)

Anonymous said...

I am a Thatcher child. Until about I was about 10, she was the only prime minister I had ever lived under. (In fact i've only lived under 3, and that's counting John Major.....)

I was so depressed reading the paper today, no good news in it at all, and its reflected in every day life, potical correctness gone mad, the hospitals and police not working, greater and greater tax burden on the middle classes. More rules and regulations for everyone to follow, from what they can think, to what they can eat.

There is something rotten and wrong in this country at the moment, and that can only be levelled at the labour part. More concerned about their jobs and the next leader than their duty. Making this country a better place.

I truely beleive that this country is calling out for some strong, true leadership. Where you have a leader who actually has principles and doesn't care about pleasing everyone.

Dave Cameron, nows the time to pull yourself together. Lay into Labour, give it a good kicking, and drag this country back from the malaise and discontent it's in.

It's not difficult. Just give the power and the responsility back to the individual. Give strength to the police to make them a force again. Give support to our armies and trust the general when they talk to you.
Listen to the teachers in the classroom, not educational theorists who have never seen a child. Cut the rules and red tape, make business run smoother without the need for for a brain the size of a planet to understand the tax code.

Above all, trust people and let them get on with running their lives, not the state running it for them. That is the true Thatcher legacy and lesson....

P.S: Some tax cuts would be nice too.

Anonymous said...

I'm worried. A piece on maggie and no comment from that socialist councillor twat from Brummagen?

Anonymous said...

Yes, Thatcher's achievements are obviously worth celebrating: Mass unemployment, the return of homelessness, the needless destruction of British industry, the wrecking of public services, the victimisation of tabloid-chosen minorities, the foundations of a police state, the Prussianisation of the education system (Enoch Powell's phrase), the breakdown of society, the undermining of democracy, the destruction of an entire nation. On the plus side, she's ensured the Tories will never again be in government alone, and able to do those things. On the minus side, she's now got New Labour doing these things for her.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, makes me remember why I got involved, too, coming from a mining community - and it also reminds me that the next time I will get SOOOOOOOO pissed is the day on which the evil cow dies, preferably after an extremely long and painful illness in which she is covered with putrefying, puss extruding boils. OK?

Anonymous said...

Oh and, by the way, Nobby (is your name Clark or is it just a general opinion?) the Socialist Councillor twat from BrummageM is happily commenting on his own blog - councillorbobpiper.blogspot.com

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

which socialist councillor twat? piper or fair deal phil? poor old phil, he got such a pasting the last time he appeared here, he hasn't been back

Anonymous said...

Here's some more counter-cultural fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wth_p4p0rfY

Should rile the leftists...

Anonymous said...

cwf would do better if it spent a bit more time and effort worrying about the way forward and rather less wallowing in it's past.

Anonymous said...

"Yes, Thatcher's achievements are obviously worth celebrating: Mass unemployment,"

The employment before Thatcher (and it wasn't that great to begin with) was not sustainable because it was being supported with the government handout and subsidy that was sinking the country.

Moan all you want, but the problems of stagflation were serious and had to be tackled. This required radical change: the freeing of the economy (which inevitably led to all the job cuts), the high interest rates, the reductions in public spending.

It wasn't pleasant, but neither is open-heart surgery. It was however necessary, else we would not have had a country to speak of.

" the needless destruction of British industry,"

Industry that was unprofitable and dragging the economy down. If those industries could support themselves, then they would have remained strong after privitisation. But they were weak and so they faltered. We're not keeping industry around for shits and giggles. It has to make economic sense.

Anonymous said...

One thing this interesting vid shows is how bad things were prior to Thatcher . David cameron does not have this advantage and is therefore not in a position ot be other than moderate.

I did enjoy it though and do think there is a place for nostalgia whthin limits

Luke Young said...

good god!

Think i'm gonna be sick - hehe