Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013)

This afternoon, while headed home from some work I was doing, I received a text that simply read: “Lady Thatcher is dead”. I knew the time would come eventually, as I know it will one day arrive for our dear Queen and indeed, for us all, but it was only self-control that kept me from shedding tears. As the Baroness - who once said “To wear your heart on your sleeve isn't a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best” – would have preferred, I did weep inwardly. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had after years of deteriorating health passed away from a stroke at the age of 87.

To many Americans such as myself, Ronald Reagan’s strongest ally was held up as one of the greatest Prime Ministers in the history of Britain. If she came second, it was only to the inimitable Sir Winston Churchill. But having lived in the UK half of my life, I now see that she is not universally loved. Friends of mine who lived in Thatcher’s Britain (I did not live at all during her 1979-1990 decade as Prime Minister) have often related to me the difficulties experienced under her leadership and the disastrous effects of some of her policies. Her occasionally less-than-conservative stance on social issues also leaves for me much to be desired. My attempt at nuance when dealing with such a polarizing individual as Baroness Thatcher might very well meet with her disapproval, perhaps a warning - “Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides” or something like that. Nevertheless, viewing her biblically through the Romans 12:9 paradigm (“Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good”) I can still find much that by God’s grace is good and worth honouring upon her death.

Whether she is loved or loathed - or maybe a bit of both - Margaret Thatcher, our first and only female Prime Minister, was stronger in her personality and her policies, her spirit and her words, than the so-called “men” who lead us today. Appropriately called “The Iron Lady” by a Soviet journalist, she once famously said of herself, “The lady is not for turning.” There seems to have been little she hated more than compromise in order to reach consensus. “Nothing”, she said, “is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus.” To her this “fashionable consensus” was “the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies...something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.” Accordingly, there was little she was better at than conflict. The hard-woman of British politics was self-described as “extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.” She believed her way was good, and entered politics “because of the conflict between good and evil” and the belief that “in the end, good will triumph.” Thatcher recognized that she would not get anywhere by leading from the crowd, and it was due to this that she called her work “a lonely job.” This loneliness may well have turned the woman who started her role as Prime Minister with the prayer of St. Francis on her lips into the more cold, calculating individual against whom her party eventually turned.

Thatcher’s job was not to be liked: “If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.” Her job was to lead. And lead she did, with “a touch of iron”, for good or ill. She did not want to see her country continue its decline into the gutter and down the drain and did not believe socialism provided the antidote – for her that would be like “trying to cure leukaemia with leeches.” Hard work (which called for hard workers!) and better stewardship of resources was key to getting Britain back on track. The Hollywood version of “Maggie”, movingly portrayed by Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, sums up the real-life Thatcher’s logic well:

“If we don’t cut spending we will be bankrupt. Yes, the medicine is harsh, but the patient requires it in order to live. Should we withhold the medicine? No. We are not wrong. We did not seek election and win in order to manage the decline of a great nation.”

I did not live in Thatcher’s era, much less her England. Perhaps the exercise and enforcement of her policies could have been less clinical and more compassionate. Whatever the case, there’s nothing in me that hates her guts. Thatcher’s time was less golden, more gritty and the Methodist lay-preaching grocer’s daughter who climbed the ladder and encouraged others to do so (without the babying interference of a nanny state) suited it well. She defied communism, defended the Kingdom and its citizens (even those living on that cluster of seemingly insignificant islands off Argentina!) and demonstrated a conviction that has since been unmatched in British politics.

Margaret Thatcher is survived by her twin children Mark and Carol. She is preceded in death by her devoted husband, Sir Denis.