Maggie’s Legacy: Divisive Thatcher looms over UK Tory race, #Maggies #legacy #Divisive #Thatcher #looms #Tory #race Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
LONDON (AP) — Two people are running for Britain’s next prime minister, but a third presence looms over the contest: Margaret Thatcher.
The late former prime minister dominated Britain in the 1980s and has left a large and controversial legacy. Critics see her as an unyielding ideologue whose free-market policies tore social ties and tore apart the country’s industrial communities. But to the ruling Conservative Party, Thatcher is an icon, an inspiration and the guiding spirit that has made Britain fit for the modern era.
In the race to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative leader and prime minister, both Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and former Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak claim to embody the values of Thatcher, who died in 2013 at the age of 87.
Asked who was Britain’s greatest prime minister? Both candidates say Thatcher without hesitation. Sunak delivered a keynote address at the hometown of the late leader, Grantham, declaring that he championed “common sense Thatcherism” while his wife and children took selfies in front of the bronze statue of the Iron Lady.
Truss talks about her own humble origins, invites comparisons to grocer’s daughter Thatcher, and adopts poses and outfits – daring blue dresses, bow-tie blouses – that reflect the signature style of Britain’s first female Prime Minister.
Historian Richard Vinen of King’s College London says Truss is an “Instagram Thatcher”.
Victoria Honeyman, an associate professor of British politics at the University of Leeds, says Thatcher is “a talisman” for conservatives. Robert Saunders, historian of modern Britain at Queen Mary University of London, believes that “she has become a creature of myth”.
“Like Thor’s hammer, Thatcher’s handbag can impart divine powers to those deemed worthy to lift it,” Saunders wrote on the Unherd website.
In a sense, the Thatcher fixation is easy to explain. She led the Conservatives to three consecutive election victories and was never defeated at the ballot box. She was eventually – like Johnson – overthrown by her own party, which had been ousted in 1990 after 11 years in power.
“Every Conservative leader since Margaret Thatcher has failed,” said Vinen, author of Thatcher’s Britain.
John Major lost party power in 1997 and the three leaders after him kept the Tories in opposition. Prime Minister David Cameron bet on a referendum in 2016 that would take Britain out of the European Union against his will. His successor Theresa May was defeated by the Brexit battle and Johnson has been kicked out by conservative lawmakers after months of ethics scandals.
Thatcher’s decade of power, through war and peace, boom and bust, also offers rich choices for acolytes to choose from. She was a war leader who defeated Argentina in the Falkland Islands, a Democrat who stood up to the Soviet Union and saw the Cold War end, a capitalist who destroyed the unions that unleashed the power of the financial markets.
“You can basically pick whatever you want,” Honeyman said.
That selective memory is at work when current conservatives, who are predominantly pro-Brexit, say Thatcher would have supported the decision to leave the EU. Vinen says “it’s almost sacrilegious” to point out, but “Thatcher was actually pro-European for most of her tenure.”
Thatcher’s economic legacy is also disputed. Truss and Sunak both claim to offer Thatcher’s economy, but their policies are very different. Truss says she will immediately increase loans and cut taxes to ease the cost of living crisis in Britain, while Sunak says it is vital to get the country’s rising inflation under control first. .
Both can point to decisions Thatcher has made in support of their positions, although Vinen thinks Sunak’s focus on fighting inflation is closer to Thatcher economically.
“She (didn’t) believe that you can cut taxes unless you cut spending,” he said.
Britain’s new leader will be elected by some 180,000 Conservative Party members, many of whom consider Thatcher a heroine. Millions of other British voters remember her differently.
Thatcher privatized state-owned enterprises, sold public housing and defeated British miners after a bitter year-long strike. Under her leadership, industries closed and millions became unemployed, especially in the north of England.
Johnson, whose Conservative hero is Winston Churchill rather than Thatcher, took a massive election victory in 2019 by winning over voters in the post-industrial towns of northern England who had never thought of supporting the Conservatives before.
Honeyman said Johnson’s successor would be wise not to praise Thatcher too loudly if they hope to stick with those northern districts, where people are still talking about factory and mine closures “and the impact that was having on their lives.” communities, about the way it broke people’s lives.”
“For some of these people, this isn’t ancient history,” she said. “This is their life experience.”
Those memories are not so vivid for 47-year-old Truss, who was a teenager when Thatcher left office. Sunak, now 42, was just 10 years old in 1990.
But 84-year-old Conservative veteran Norman Fowler, who served in Thatcher’s government and is now Speaker of the House of Lords, warned candidates for “exaggerating” with Iron Lady worship.
“I was in her cabinet for 15 years, shadow and real,” Fowler told Times Radio. “Even I wouldn’t say she was perfect in every way. And so the party doesn’t have to model itself entirely after its example. So I would let it rest.”
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