Tag: Margaret Thatcher

This week on “The Learning Curve,” co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Charles Moore, a columnist for The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator, and the authorized, three-volume biographer of Lady Margaret Thatcher. Lord Moore explains why Lady Thatcher is considered the most important female political figure of the 20th century, and reviews the challenges she faced at home and abroad, from trade union strikes to high inflation rates and political discord. They talk about Prime Minister Thatcher partnering with American President Ronald Reagan and standing in solidarity with Poland’s Lech Walesa to face down Soviet communism. Lord Moore describes her middle-class background and a leadership style that led to her 12-year tenure as prime minister in the male-dominated arena of British politics (including nearly 700 sessions of the world-renowned Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons). They also discuss “Thatcherism,” her foundational economic principles and their applicability to other domestic policy topics, as well as lessons for today’s world. The interview concludes with Lord Moore reading from his biography of Lady Thatcher.

Stories of the Week: Attorneys general from 14 states are suing the Biden administration over the Department of Justice’s calls to monitor parental protests at school board meetings. In Alabama, a group is seeking to address the teacher shortage by suspending the requirement to pass a Praxis content mastery exam.

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https://youtu.be/WP-6qxlwQtQ I like to spend my Friday nights watching old programs on YouTube or DVD. This content is often footage of past election but can also be sport or music. At the moment I’m watching the coverage of the 1983 UK Election. This election was the high water mark of the great Margaret Thatcher and […]

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Can Trump Solve the Chinese Puzzle?

 

Xi puzzle“Facts don’t care about your feelings,” as Ben Shapiro is wont to say. Indeed, John Adams admonishes us: “facts are very stubborn things.” In the midst of all the virtual ink spillage, and pundit and politico posturing, the inconvenient truth is that Hong Kong is a city in communist China. This unfeeling and stubborn fact fundamentally limits what the United States, any other nation, and people inside Hong Kong can do to affect conditions on the ground. Yet, there may be a move, within the larger Chinese puzzle, that President Trump can play now that might slow Hong Kong’s descent into normal Chinese city status.

Cautionary Tales of Careless Words:

We hear conservatives and constitutionalists argue against “do something” as a reaction to mass shootings. Yet, we hear from some of the same sources that the president of the most powerful nation in the world must “do something,” where “do something” is just “say something.” Educated and wise counselors and leaders may be charged with knowing our own history with presidents “saying something.”

Quote of the Day: The Iron Lady Speaks

 

“I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.” — Margaret Thatcher

Other than observing that, of course, this trenchant observation can be applied to a wide variety of arguments beyond the stated one (I usually substitute either the word “rational” or the word “thoughtful” for the word “political” when I say it to myself), I don’t think I can improve upon it, or that it needs further clarification or explanation.

I think it’s my favorite Attila the Hen quote. Do you have one?

Peter Robinson 30 Years After “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall”

 

On this special 50th episode of Whiskey Politics, we are honored to welcome Peter Robinson, Speechwriter to President Ronald Reagan. Among hundreds of other speeches, Peter is now celebrating the 30th anniversary of the history-making Brandenburg Gate speech where against advice from the White House, State Department, and Germans, President Reagan called on General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall!” We discuss this pivotal moment in history, the relationships with Margaret Thatcher and Milton Friedman and his upcoming Ricochet and Uncommon Knowledge interview with Pat Sajak at the Reagan Library.

Sunday Morning Reflections: When Politicians Matter

 

When I first proposed to write a book about Margaret Thatcher, I had a smaller book in mind. The title I proposed was Coal and Iron. I wanted to look at one episode in Margaret Thatcher’s career: the crushing of the National Union of Mineworkers between 1984 and 1985. To me, this was the most interesting story from her time in power. But publishers did not agree. The proposal was rejected everywhere I sent it; only Basic Books took an interest, but they asked me to broaden my focus. They wanted a proper biography of Margaret Thatcher, which they would sell as part of their series about the significance of various historic figures. The best-known in that series is Christopher Hitchens’ Why Orwell Matters. Thus my proposal became a book titled Why Margaret Thatcher Matters. While it was always clear to me that she was an interesting and significant 20th century figure, I couldn’t bring myself to conclude with certanly that she mattered in quite the same way Orwell did. It was, I thought, too soon to tell; and in the conclusion of the book, I nearly said so:

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Miss Berlinski once asked, on a whim, a rather dangerous question: What do you believe to be true that no one else believes to be true? That is the way to start a civil war. Happily, I am a stranger, so I believe I can afford to answer that question–not without all due apologies, not […]

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Why Europe is No Help, Or, Okay, Now What?

 

Even if President Obama demonstrated an appetite for imposing serious sanctions on Russia, it’s not at all clear that the European Union would support him. Why? From the London Spectator:

[T]he gaping rift between the EU and America stands exposed. The Washington hawks gained almost no traction in western Europe, where there was little appetite for conflict. Even if Russia didn’t supply a third of Europe’s oil and gas, other commercial ties still bind. EU trade with Russia was £280 billion in 2012. America’s total was a twelfth of that, little of it in hydrocarbons. No wonder the hawks have been frustrated that the EU won’t do more.