Today marks the end of an era in British politics. Lady Thatcher has passed away. Many people will doubtless write blogs and articles about how she changed Great Britain, her role in the end of the cold war and her position as the only female Prime Minister. What interests me is the complete lack of any sort of legacy being left locally.
In the USA, when a president finishes their term, all manner of legacy is left. Libraries and monuments are set up, road names changed. Whatever you think of Lady Thatcher, how odd is it that she has been almost completely airbrushed out of the history of the area. If we were in America, I have no doubt that the Conservatives would have named the Arts Depot the "Lady Thatcher Centre". I think that the management of the Arts Depot probably missed a trick, as had they done this, the Tories would have been loathe to chop their funding!
Maybe if the Church Farmhouse Museum had a "Lady Thatcher wing", Councillor Robert Rams would have thought twice about closing it down. As it is, there is absolutely nothing open to the public anywhere, which commemorates her reign and no resource for people wishing to study her career.
Now as regular readers will know, I sit on the left of the political divide, but only an idiot would deny her role in the development of the country (for better or for worse). I am no fan of the Conservative Party, but it is shameful that this Conservative regime has waited for her death to even mention her.
I wonder if there is a touch of the green eyed monster amongst the political pygmies in the local Conservative party these days.
On a personal note, I have mellowed my opinion of Margaret Thatcher over the last few years. Not because I have reappraised my view of her policies, I haven't. It is just that like my mother, her fading years were spent diminishing under the effects of strokes and like my mother being finally killed by one. On a human level, I can only feel sympathy for her family. It is a sad way for such an influential persons life to end.
1 comment:
Very nicely put Rog. She was (for better or worse) Britain's last truly Tory Prime Minister. There is nobody on the current Conservative front bench in the Commons who is her equal.
Requiescat in pacem et lux perpetua luceat eis.
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