The Spectator

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The Spectator

Letters | 11 April 2013

From our UK edition

Health tourists must pay Sir: The extent of the use made by non-entitled patients from abroad (‘International Health Service’, 6 April) should come as no surprise. This increasing stream of information demonstrating the volume and variation will cause even louder gasps and shock. The NHS is the standard-bearer of the politics of equality and, like all great collective institutions of the left, however altruistic, is fundamentally corrupt. The corruption is so insidious that only those inside gain insight after the collapse. In the health service there are often concealed two or more levels of care with varying degrees of competence.

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Mrs T’s unfinished business

From our UK edition

Soon after Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of the Conservative party she came for lunch at The Spectator and our then proprietor, Henry Keswick, wanted to offer his congratulations — and his advice. It was time to crush the trades unions, he told her. ‘Mr Keswick,’ she replied. ‘You have spent the past 14 years in Hong Kong, where such things may be doable. I have spent them in Britain, where things are very different.’ She was advocating a simple principle: practicality comes before ideology. The only point in fighting battles is to win them. Her victories were so decisive and spectacular that it is possible — as we have seen in the last few days — to dwell almost entirely on them (and those who didn’t like them).

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 11 April 2013

From our UK edition

Home Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister from 1979 to 1990, died aged 87. She had suffered a stroke while reading in her room at the Ritz hotel, where she had been staying since being discharged from hospital at the end of 2012 after a minor operation. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, cancelled talks in Paris with President François Hollande and returned to Britain. News broadcasts and newspapers were dominated by coverage of her political career. Seven policemen were injured when perhaps 200 people gathered at Easton, in Bristol, celebrating the death and setting fire to dustbins after dark. Both Houses of Parliament were recalled for a day in tribute to Lady Thatcher, a life peeress since 1992.

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Audio: Lords’ tributes to Margaret Thatcher

From our UK edition

As Isabel said yesterday, the standout speech in the Upper Chamber yesterday came from Norman Tebbit, who served for six years in Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet, first as Secretary of State for Employment, then as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, and finally as Chairman of the Conservative Party.

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Cecil Parkinson, Charles Powell, John Simpson and Steve Hilton remember Margaret Thatcher

From our UK edition

Cecil Parkinson: Underestimated – but unbowed Even among Mrs Thatcher’s original shadow Cabinet, there were those who simply did not believe that she would be capable of dealing with the problems of a declining country. To a man they were wrong. Each underestimated the determination of Margaret Thatcher. She did not regard the manifesto on which she had been elected as a set of pledges designed merely to win an election and to be abandoned when the going got tough. She intended to honour hers: to reduce the role of the state; to transfer power to the people. Trade union members were given the right to elect their leaders at regular intervals and to vote before being called out on strike.

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Her brilliant career

From our UK edition

In 1975, when Keith Joseph dropped out of the race for the Tory leadership and his campaign manager stepped into his place, almost no one took it seriously. She was ‘precisely the sort of candidate… who ought to be able to stand, and lose, harmlessly’ said the Economist. Only one publication in Britain backed her then, and our endorsement is reprinted in our supplement. The values she represented are the ones The Spectator has championed for decades: small government, low taxes and personal freedom. And a preference for those who enter politics to do something, rather than be someone.

Wednesday

Tuesday

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Andrew Neil on The People’s Margaret Thatcher

From our UK edition

This morning, Andrew Neil presented a Radio 4 special recalling how voters felt about Margaret Thatcher. Including opinions from her supporters and detractors, it's a fascinating look into how she was perceived by the electorate throughout key moments in her premiership. Here is what people had to say: On her public perception: 'She doesn't convince me for a start she doesn't understand the problems of working class people. She talks down to people' Debating the cost of the Falklands War: 'Our village school is going to be closed. The cost of keeping it open would be about a hundredth part of £1 million. Wouldn't our school be a better use for money than wasting £454 million a year 8,000 miles away?

Monday

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Papers mark Thatcher’s death

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.

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David Cameron’s tribute to Margaret Thatcher: full text

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.

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Margaret Thatcher in quotes

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.

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Tributes pour in for Margaret Thatcher

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.

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