Margaret Thatcher

April 28, 2014|Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan

The Lady Turned Britain Upright

British commentator Theodore Dalrymple asked recently on Law and Liberty: “Was Margaret Thatcher’s legacy one of free markets, of laissez faire?” He professed himself “not so sure.”

The former British prime minister, argued Dalrymple, did little to roll back the frontiers of the State during her 11-and-a-half years in office:

Mrs. Thatcher was loved and hated not so much because she changed things, but because she said she wanted to. . . . My impression is that her effect, where it was long-lasting, was predominantly negative.

I have long admired Mr. Dalrymple’s punchy, prescient and always entertaining articles, frequently to be found in the pages of The Spectator, but I beg to differ with his assessment of Thatcher’s legacy.

April 15, 2014|Margaret Thatcher, Not for Turning

Robin Harris Discusses the Rise, Fall, and Legacy of Margaret Thatcher

by Robin Harris|

Margaret Thatcher’s death one year ago sparked much commentary either critical or adulatory. You were certainly hard-pressed to find balanced commentary on her legacy unless you were reading Theodore Dalrymple’s thoughtful assessment on this site (his latest on Thatcher is here). Now contributing to this site's ongoing appraisal of Thatcher is Robin Harris, her speechwriter and policy advisor. He comes to Liberty Law Talk to discuss his highly-acclaimed 2013 biography of the Iron Lady entitled Not for Turning: The Life of Margaret Thatcher. Harris worked closely with Prime Minister Thatcher from 1985 until her departure from Number Ten. He left…

April 8, 2014|Anthony Blair, Clinical Government, David Cameron, Free Markets, Margaret Thatcher, Marxism, Peter Bauer, Small Government

Did Thatcher Leave a Legacy of Freedom?

by Theodore Dalrymple|

It was Robert Louis Stevenson who said: “Man is a creature who lives not upon bread alone but principally by catchwords.” Refining our thoughts with qualifications can get tiring, so we recur to slogans to capture a reality that is almost always complex.

Alas, what should be the shorthand of thought often turns out to be the short-circuit of thought. When we think of Margaret Thatcher, for example, we think of free-market reforms—whether we are for such reforms or against them, whether we welcome or abominate them.

Is this right? Was Mrs. Thatcher’s legacy one of free markets, of laissez-faire? I am far from sure.

April 12, 2013|Accelerating Democracy, Chai Feldblum, Free Speech, Immigration policy, Joel Kotkin, Margaret Thatcher, Religious Liberty

Friday Roundup, April 12th

by Richard M. Reinsch II|

The current Liberty Law Talk is with Vincent Cannato, author of American Passage: The History of Ellis Island, on the Constitution and immigration policy. Would that the majority in Arizona v. United States had read their history on this subject.

The Books section this week features Bradley Smith’s review of John McGinnis’ Accelerating Democracy: Transforming Governance Through Technology.

Betting on the effects of homeschooling, Art Carden puts his money down at Econ Lib.

So the future is predictable, boring even. A respected Seattle florist refuses to create a wedding floral arrangement for a same-sex ceremony, and, of course, she’s being sued by the Washington Attorney General’s office for allegedly violating that state’s Consumer Protection Act.
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April 10, 2013|Margaret Thatcher

What Hath Thatcher Wrought?

by Theodore Dalrymple|

Margaret Thatcher aroused admiration and loathing in equal measure, but not even her worst enemy would have called her nondescript. Hardly anyone could remain indifferent to her and even with the passage of time, which normally introduces qualifications and nuances into reputations, she remains a divisive figure in Britain and elsewhere: most people are still either entirely for her or entirely against her. Of no political figure of the recent past has it been so difficult for people to say ‘On the one hand… but on the other.’ Such was the force of her personality that, according to a paper published in the British Medical Journal in 1985, she was able to impress herself even upon the memory of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

November 27, 2012|European Union, Labour Party, Margaret Thatcher, Political Class, United Kingdom Independence Party

The UK’s Policy of Truth v. Existential Failure

by Theodore Dalrymple|

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Ministry of Love promoted nothing but hatred and the Ministry of Truth spread nothing but lies. Although totalitarianism of the kind described and analyzed by Orwell has all but disappeared from the face of the earth, give or take a country or two, totalitarianism of another, softer kind is marching its slow way through the institutions. In the name of diversity and tolerance, it enforces uniformity and bigotry: and there is no vice as insidious as that which, in the search for power, takes itself for virtue.

In England, this degeneration has gone further than almost anywhere else in the western world. In northern town of Rotherham recently a perfectly decent couple who fostered children in need of care and attention had their foster-children removed from them because they were members of UKIP, the United Kingdom Independence Party, which was deemed by the local council, controlled by the Labour Party, to be racist. There were no allegations that they couple had maltreated any children; indeed, to all appearances they were exemplary foster parents (of children of non-British background, incidentally). Their only ‘crime’ was to hold the ‘wrong’ opinions.

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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