Remembering the Iron Lady, the best she did and the rest

I was amused at the vitriol spouted on Facebook aimed at the late great Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Baroness Margaret Thatcher, may her soul rest in peace. I was equally uplifted by how many people remembered with gratitude her lasting impact on the modern political debate in the UK, on issues of the economy, on labor issues, on relations with the US and Europe.

Above all it is her courage and stubborn determination to stand up to a militarist bully in Argentina that stands out for me. In that bold yet risky move, and ignoring all advice not to send troops, Thatcher reawakened the great British lion from its deep sleep and rebuilt the image of a once great colonial power in the eyes of the world. Even in her relations with the US she was constant in her friendship but firm and unwavering in her criticism of ill advised US military adventures including the occupation of the Island of Grenada.

It struck me how much Thatcherism has influenced New Labor and Tony Blair in particular who went further in support of his US ally than is prudent for any prime minister of any sovereign nation. The fact is, she was a woman, and as a woman what she did was not only extraordinary it was not the traditional and expected meek role for a woman and maybe that made her more hated by her enemies than a man would have been, but also more admired by her friends and allies for blazing a trail for so many. 

I am no Tory, which should be remarkable in view of what I have written so far in this post. But I do like to be fair and give credit where credit is due. Maggie came to the premiership at a time in the UK’s history when labor unions had turned from ‘healthy cells’ in the body politic that helped workers obtain their rights through collective bargaining, to a cancerous growth that overwhelmed a weak government and threatened civic order and the economic health of a country.

In Lebanon we had a small dose of what unions can do. Civil service and teachers' unions made life very difficult over the past months, especially for students of public schools who missed an entire month of schooling as a result of the strike action. I am all for social justice, for helping the poorest in society to have access to food, shelter, education and health care and to earn a living wage. But I am also cognizant of the need to maintain the stability of the national currency, to curtail excessive borrowing that fuels excessive public sector spending, to privatize vital utilities like the electricity company and the telecoms sector, to make them competitive rather than a drain on state resources, like EDL, or a tool for indiscriminate indirect taxation as telecoms has become.

So, for me I can only dream that a Thatcher-like figure would come along with enough vision, political support and enough votes to come into office and sweep away the caked dust from our aging institutions, from our economy,  and take courageous decisions. Of course not all Thatcher's policies were right, but the fact she recognized the need for change, the need to sweep away the old decaying structures of a once flourishing industrial past, that was what made her right for that particular time.

I would like to see a more equitable distribution of resources throughout Lebanon, more development in the North, the South and the Bekaa, higher and fairer taxes on high income earners, which Maggie might not agree with me on, but it is nonetheless essential for us. I would like to see someone come in and sweep away clientelism and nepotism and the entrenched political class, now that would be a miracle.

Thatcher’s failing was her inability to show sympathy for the plight of the communities her policies affected the most and in many cases helped destroy, not that her aim was to destroy, but rather to revive a country by cutting away dead flesh. Her other fault was her own hubris that eventually led to her downfall when her own Cabinet turned against her. No extreme ideology is without fault, every one of them in living memory has left countless victims in their wake. Thatcher proved that, Communism in the USSR proved that, but they make great history. So, love her or hate her, you will remember her and so will generations to come.