One piece of advice that we have been given in this competition is to write something provocative to elicit debate.
Well, on the issue of Europe (among many others) they don’t come much provocative than the likes of Margaret Thatcher.
However, I’m not just writing a post about the Iron Lady because of my deep-seated desire to provoke.
It is coming up to 30 years since she became Britain’s first female prime minister, and hence, in Britain, there has been a rash of memorialising of the woman many love to hate. I wrote a review of one BBC drama on my blog (which to my surprise has been driving traffic to to it like nobody’s business). But more than that, Thatcher has exerted an influence on British politics - especially in relation to Europe - and a grip on the British psyche, like no other politician I can think of.
So, in the name of multimedia blogging, below are my top 5 Maggie euro videos for your enjoyment with a few selected quotes thrown in for good measure…
“Mr Chairman, you have invited me to speak on the subject of Britain and Europe. Perhaps I should congratulate you on your courage. If you believe some of the things said and written about my views on Europe, it must seem rather like inviting Genghis Khan to speak on the virtues of peaceful coexistence.”
“It would be folly to try to fit [EU member states] into some sort of identikit European personality.”
“We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain only to see them reimposed at a European level with the European superstate exercising a new dominance from Brussels.”
“What is the point in trying to get elected to Parliament only to hand over your sterling and to hand over the powers of this House to Europe?”
“I’m enjoying this! I’m enjoying this! … I was talking about Europe!”
Margaret Thatcher’s more frank reflections (and those of others) on her approach to the EU - after her resignation.
We weren’t getting a fair deal on the budget and I wasn’t going to have it. There’s a great strand of equity and fairness in the British people - this is our characteristic.
There’s not a strand of equity or fairness in Europe. It’s they’re out to get as much as they can. That’s one of those enormous differences.
She was pretty direct and she was - not offensive exactly - but she went on and on about it, and the others became more and more put off by this and Helmut Schmidt pretended he was asleep and everybody else looked away. It was a fairly dreadful occasion.
They were more or less alienated by the forceful tone in which she spoke and by the rigidity with which she fought for what she perceived as British interests, All of us have some national interests to defend but all of us had learned over 30 years ot so to come to compromises. And this is something which she … hadn’t started to learn as yet.
Not much to do with Europe, but had to be included….
(6 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
Loading ...
“There is no such thing as society”…what a scary phrase by her!!!! i m sure there would be many people who would be happy, when she….you know!!!
The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration.