Re: The Iron Lady.
A new film about the life of the former British Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has been released which stars Meryl Streep.
The producer is Damien Jones, who says, “Whatever ones politics you can’t deny Margaret Thatcher had a profound effect on this country” (England)
The British tabloid The Sun called it “a true story of feminism in action.” However, according to Charles Moore in the British Daily Telegraph, it is the “most powerful piece of propaganda for conservatism.”
Meryl Streep said, “I admire her achievement. I stand in awe of it, even while not agreeing with a lot of her policies. The fact she got things done, even though many people did not like her, was extraordinary.”
The reality is that the things “achieved” by Thatcher were done in her capacity as the mouthpiece of big business and not as any kind of champion of feminism.
After the initial euphoria of her election to high office had worn off, Thatcher became a hate figure for the majority of women in the U.K. who suffered at her hands.
The policies of Thatcher were a significant contribution to the dire economic position that Britain is in today.
Britain is now a renter economy relying on the finance sector. Most of the manufacturing capacity has been destroyed and little real wealth is produced.
The deliberate running down of manufacturing has left huge parts of the U.K. with no real function, riddled with unemployment, crime, drugs, anti-social behaviour, misery and despair.
Thatcher was oblivious to the destruction of lives and communities, in the industrial areas in particular, which were the direct result of her policies.
Thatcher privatized everything possible and presided over almost four million unemployed.
To glorify her vicious reaction to the miners’ strike and to those who opposed the poll tax, which was a tax on the least well off, is to ignore the struggles of ordinary people.
Workers, including the miners who fought to save jobs and communities, were treated as the enemy within. Thatcher even compared them to terrorists.
The heartless managerial practices of Thatcher were reminiscent of the industrial revolution; they created a temporary paradise for charlatans and speculators.
The result of the deregulation of the financial institutions by Thatcher is plain for all to see, the collapse of the U.K. banking system and its subsequent bailout by the state.
Those who lived through the Thatcher years cannot be fooled by a false interpretation and glorification of the past.
Keith Norman Wyatt
Innisfail