From our UK edition
A remarkable clip from an interview with Swedish television. No-one asks Margaret Thatcher to "jump" and gets away with it. One does rather think that some of her successors would have been happy to make fools of themselves in this fashion.
From our UK edition
Conor Burns, a close friend of Margaret Thatcher, gave a fascinating interview with Radio 4's The World at One today about his memories of the Iron Lady. Like so many accounts, it focused on Thatcher's disregard for opinion polls and focus groups. Burns said: 'I think it’s a failure of politics that looks too much at focus groups and too much at public opinion polls. Again, I remember last November showing her a poll in one of the Sunday papers and it showed that we were nine points behind, and she asked when the next election was, and I said it wasn’t for another two and a half years and she said: ‘that’s not far enough behind at this stage.
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Conor Burns, a close confident of the late Baroness Thatcher, has lifted the lid on the former Prime Minister’s reaction to the biographical Meryl Streep film I mentioned yesterday. The Tory backbencher recounts: “I went from Leicester Square to watch the Iron Lady to Chester Square to have a gin and tonic with Lady T, and I told her ‘I’ve just been to see a film about you.’ She said ‘what do you mean a film about me?’. "I said: ‘Well they’ve made a film about your life and career as Prime Minister, and it’s an hour and half long’ and straight away, she said: ‘I couldn’t imagine anything worse’.
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- Full story pages 1-96. You turn if you want to …………………… handbag …………….. polarising …………. didn’t like the IRA …………………….. was sad that her husband died …………….. not keen on miners ……………………. polarising influence ………………. resolute ………………not a huge laugh, all things considered ………… won back those islands ………….. Tory wets stupid ………..
From our UK edition
On my way home last night, I dropped by Windrush Square in Brixton to observe an alternative reaction to Baroness Thatcher’s death. It was easy to find the party simply by following the cacophony. Around 200 people turned out to engage in a cold evening of drinking, dancing and heckling. Three competing sound systems blasted music against occasional shouts of 'Maggie Maggie Maggie, dead dead dead'. Was the crowd attempting to make a serious point or was it just an excuse for a drunken party? These pictures should give you an impression of the impromptu event: Ironically from what I could see, many in the crowd appeared rather too young to remember Thatcher: some looked too young to have even been alive when she was in power.
From our UK edition
MPs will pay tribute to Margaret Thatcher in the Commons tomorrow. One set of speeches worth listening to with some care will be those from the 2010 intake of Conservative MPs, raised during the Thatcher years, and often considered the group most enthusiastic about keeping her flame alive in the party. It is also likely that from this group will emerge the next Conservative leader. They are a confident bunch, bursting with ideas, books and essays about how to reinvigorate Conservatism. Paying tribute to the former Prime Minister will also be an opportunity for some of them to pay tribute to her policies, and perhaps her conviction in driving through policies that she knew were right, even when colleagues protested vehemently.
From our UK edition
Tomorrow's newspapers pay tribute to Margaret Thatcher, some praising her for changing Britain for the better, others nodding at her ability to divide opinions, even in death.
From our UK edition
‘For many of us, she was, and is, an inspiration’, David Cameron said of Margaret Thatcher in his tribute to her. It was him, firmly — and proudly — placing himself in her tradition. Cameron has moved in Thatcher’s political direction as leader. He has become —partly, through circumstance and necessity — less interested in being a unifying figure, and more interested in getting things done. There has, in recent years, been an end to any attempts to distance the party from her legacy. Thatcher’s life-story is a truly remarkable one. Cameron rightly dwelled on the sexism she had to take on to become Tory leader. But she also had to overcome the class prejudice of large sections of the Tory party. Parliament will be recalled on Wednesday.
From our UK edition
Today we lost a great leader, a great Prime Minister and a great Briton. Margaret Thatcher didn’t just lead our country – she saved our country. And we should never forget that the odds were stacked against her. She was the shopkeeper’s daughter from Grantham who made it to the highest office in the land. There were people who said she couldn’t make it; who stood in her way; who said a woman couldn’t lead. She defied them all. She fought her way to a seat in Parliament…to the leadership of her Party…and then to lead our country…winning the backing of the British people three times in a row. She will be remembered for the big political battles she fought. Taking on the union barons. Privatising industry.
From our UK edition
The political tributes and barbs cast after the news of Margaret Thatcher’s death have been covered on Coffee House today, but what of the world’s other great egos: those in showbiz? Steerpike was impressed by Meryl Streep, who having played Thatcher in the controversial 2011 biographical film ‘The Iron Lady’, is slightly better placed than her Hollywood comrades to pass comment. Streep told the Washington Post: ‘to me she was a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit,’ and while she acknowledged Thatcher’s detractors, the actress has some rather sound opinions: ‘Her steadfast, almost emotional loyalty to the pound sterling has helped the UK weather the storms of European monetary uncertainty.’ Quite.
From our UK edition
There is a poignant passage in Margaret Thatcher's memoirs during which she contemplates her failure in Scotland. She seemed puzzled by this, noting that, in her view, many of her ideas and principles had at least some Caledonian ancestry. And yet, despite her admiration for David Hume and, especially, Adam Smith, there was no Tartan Thatcherite revolution. Sure, there were some true believers - Teddy Taylor, Michael Forsyth - but Scotland never warmed to the Iron Lady. And she never quite knew or understood why. Two issues, above all, led to her downfall. Europe and the Poll Tax. The former was a Westminster affair and a matter of internal internecine conflict within the cabinet; the latter lost her the country. It was a policy conceived in Scotland.
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In 1983, a Spectator piece argued that 'the most faithful followers of the Thatcher cult are to be found within the Labour Party'. Baroness Thatcher's passing was always going to be as much of a test for the Left as it would be a sad day for the Right. The Labour leadership knew this, and took care to craft statements and tweets which, while acknowledging the glaringly obvious political differences, praised Thatcher the woman. The party has suspended its political campaigning ahead of the local elections as a mark of respect. Ed Miliband's tribute in particular made clear that he had no sympathy with those in his party tempted to celebrate the death of the Iron Lady.
From our UK edition
For the record, I did not accuse Rahman of being a 'bully,' as he tells Spectator readers. I accused the Mayor of Tower Hamlets of being 'sly' and 'unappetising'. His letter to the Spectator bears me out, I think. As does his ludicrous allegation that Rob Marchant and other Labour Party activists were threatening to murder him. In an insinuating passage, he links Marchant - a principled man, and anti-racist - to the English Defence League. Look at how he does it: 'Unsurprisingly, as a prominent Muslim figure, I frequently receive abuse and threats - mainly from racist extremists of the EDL-ilk.
From our UK edition
Margaret Thatcher was always the candidate from the outside, both because of her background and because of her sex, and so it was an extraordinary event in the middle of the 1970s that what was considered the stuffiest of the political parties chose her and once that had happened, of course it was transformative. It was transformative, not only for the Conservative party but much more importantly for the country. Her approach to industrial relations was very controversial.
From our UK edition
"I don't think there will be a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime." - 1975 'To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say. You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning.' 'I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.' 'If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.' 'I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.' 'To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukaemia with leeches.
From our UK edition
Margaret Thatcher is the most significant British political figure of the past 50 years. In her time in office, she transformed the British economy, promoted the vigorous virtues and offered strength and support to the dissidents of Eastern Europe and. On top of all this, she was — of course — Britain’s first female Prime Minister. In future, people will find it hard to believe just how nationalised Britain’s economy was before the Thatcher revolution. As she said in her 1982 conference speech, ‘How absurd it will seem in a few years' time that the State ran Pickford's removals and Gleneagles Hotel.’ With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to underestimate the state of crisis that this country was in before Margaret Thatcher’s election in 1979.
From our UK edition
The Spectator was the only national publication to fully support Margaret Thatcher in the first ballot of the Tory leadership contest. Patrick Cosgrave explain why in this political column from 23 January 1975: If I start with a reference to the sorry condition of the Tory Party, I hope readers will not immediately turn to another page, on the grounds that this record has been played too often. For I want to add that, if only the Tories can take a fairly cool look at themselves, it will quickly be apparent that the condition is not as serious as all that; and that it is certainly capable of repair. Housman's ancient "three minutes of thought" will suffice to show that there is only one direction in which the Tories can go.
From our UK edition
Margaret Thatcher died this morning following a stroke. Downing Street said this afternoon that the former Conservative Prime Minister's funeral will have the same status as the Queen Mother and Princess Diana, with full military honours, a service at St Paul's Cathedral, followed by a private cremation. She will not lie in state, in accordance with her wishes. The flag over No.10 is flying at half mast and the tributes are flowing in. David Cameron's tribute is posted below. Here are some others:- Barack Obama: 'With the passing of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend.
From our UK edition
Germany has elections on the way, Spain is just about holding a lid on its economic crisis while keeping a wary eye on the uphill struggle that its neighbour Portugal faces to avoid a second bailout, and François Hollande has his own political crisis to deal with (and is apparently also mourning the death of a camel). So is now really the best time for David Cameron to pitch up in Madrid, Paris and Berlin to argue for reform of the European Union? The PM visits the first two cities today, with a meeting with Angela Merkel planned for later this week on the same topic.
From our UK edition
The below is a response from the Mayor of Tower Hamlets Lutfur Rahman, in response to a blog written by Nick Cohen. Nick Cohen has attacked me as a ‘bully’ for reporting to the police some threatening tweets by Rob Marchant, a blogger who used to work for the Labour Party. I make no apology to Cohen in respect of my response to such outbursts. Unsurprisingly, as a prominent Muslim figure, I frequently receive abuse and threats — mainly from racist extremists of the EDL-ilk.
