I consider reading Moore's stolid prose on Thatcher a form of self flagellation, like watching a German documentary on sea turtles sex life. Are you trying to find out why you didn't like her? I think your instincts were right back then: she looks good only by comparison with the dismal characters that followed her as PM.
I appreciate him too as one of the best political columnists out there, but I haven't read a one thousand page book since I finished 'War and Peace'. And he's no Tolstoi.
While we are at it, here's Maggie legacy in less than five hundred words:
Was privatisation so wonderful? The privatisation of electricity, and the resulting dissipation of our nuclear skills, is one of the reasons we will soon be having power cuts. The hurried and mistaken closure of the coal mines is another. Lady Thatcher’s early embrace of Green dogma (repudiated too late) is another.
At least the old nationalised industries actually dug coal, forged steel and built ships. And at least the old industries provided proper jobs for men, and allowed them to support their families. Young mothers didn’t need to go out to work.
As for council house sales, that policy was in the end a huge tax-funded subsidy to the private housing industry, a vast release of money into the housing market that pushed prices up permanently and – once again – broke up settled communities.
She was a passive, defeatist liberal when it came to education, morality and the family. In 11 years she – who owed everything to a grammar education – didn’t reopen a single one of the grammar schools she had allowed to be closed as Ted Heath’s Education Secretary.
She did nothing significant to reverse or slow the advance of the permissive society – especially the State attack on marriage through absurdly easy divorce, and the deliberate subsidies to fatherless households.
She loaded paperwork on to the police, and brought the curse of ambulance-chasing lawyers (and so ‘health and safety’) to this country. She introduced the catastrophic GCSE exam into schools.
In foreign policy, she made a lot of noise, but did little good. It was her diplomacy, and her determination to slash the Royal Navy, that made the Argentinians think they could grab the Falklands.
She realised, a few months before she was deposed, how great the European danger was. That, I think, was why she was overthrown by the ‘Conservative’ Party. But for most of her time in office she allowed the EU to seize more and more power over this country and its laws. Had she been as great as she is held to be, we would not be in the terrible mess we are now in, deindustrialised, drugged en masse by dope and antidepressants, demoralised, de-Christianised, bankrupted by deregulated spivs, our criminal justice system an even bigger joke than our State schools...
I will always like her for her deep, proud Englishness, her fighting spirit and her refusal to follow the bleating flock. I despise the snobs and woman-haters who sneered at her and sometimes made me ashamed of my class and my sex. I am proud to be able to say that I actually met her and spoke to her.
Let's remember Maggie for what she really was... a tragic failure By PETER HITCHENS
Musk reached out to us before he polled his followers about Twitter's commitment to free speech. He wanted to confirm that we had, in fact, been suspended. He even mused on that call that he might need to buy Twitter.
Paul Marks: Mr Begin was a hard man to like - for example when he was being interrogated by the NKVD they complained about him, rather than begging for mercy (as they were used to) he mocked them with what they described as incredibly insulting and abusive language. Essentially trying to provoke them into killing him. Of course that would have ended his suffering - so they did not. After his experiences with both the Nazis and the Soviets, and with fellow Jews (for example the Labour Party used machine guns and artillery on "right wing" Jews who trying to leave a ship) he had a rather grim view of human beings and the world.
Posts
Would bombing railways leading to Auschwitz be terrorism?
ReplyDeleteDoing penance?
ReplyDeleteSorry. I don't understand you.
DeleteI consider reading Moore's stolid prose on Thatcher a form of self flagellation, like watching a German documentary on sea turtles sex life. Are you trying to find out why you didn't like her? I think your instincts were right back then: she looks good only by comparison with the dismal characters that followed her as PM.
DeleteHe writes very good prose - who wrote that?
DeleteI didn't say that his writing is bad, just insipid, tedious and bland.
DeleteIf you describe someone as stolid, you mean that they do not show much emotion or are not very exciting or interesting.
Deletehttps://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/stolid
He is very interesting indeed and writes very well. I turn to him first.
DeleteI appreciate him too as one of the best political columnists out there, but I haven't read a one thousand page book since I finished 'War and Peace'. And he's no Tolstoi.
DeleteWhile we are at it, here's Maggie legacy in less than five hundred words:
DeleteWas privatisation so wonderful? The privatisation of electricity, and the resulting dissipation of our nuclear skills, is one of the reasons we will soon be having power cuts. The hurried and mistaken closure of the coal mines is another. Lady Thatcher’s early embrace of Green dogma (repudiated too late) is another.
At least the old nationalised industries actually dug coal, forged steel and built ships. And at least the old industries provided proper jobs for men, and allowed them to support their families. Young mothers didn’t need to go out to work.
As for council house sales, that policy was in the end a huge tax-funded subsidy to the private housing industry, a vast release of money into the housing market that pushed prices up permanently and – once again – broke up settled communities.
She was a passive, defeatist liberal when it came to education, morality and the family. In 11 years she – who owed everything to a grammar education – didn’t reopen a single one of the grammar schools she had allowed to be closed as Ted Heath’s Education Secretary.
She did nothing significant to reverse or slow the advance of the permissive society – especially the State attack on marriage through absurdly easy divorce, and the deliberate subsidies to fatherless households.
She loaded paperwork on to the police, and brought the curse of ambulance-chasing lawyers (and so ‘health and safety’) to this country. She introduced the catastrophic GCSE exam into schools.
In foreign policy, she made a lot of noise, but did little good. It was her diplomacy, and her determination to slash the Royal Navy, that made the Argentinians think they could grab the Falklands.
She realised, a few months before she was deposed, how great the European danger was. That, I think, was why she was overthrown by the ‘Conservative’ Party. But for most of her time in office she allowed the EU to seize more and more power over this country and its laws. Had she been as great as she is held to be, we would not be in the terrible mess we are now in, deindustrialised, drugged en masse by dope and antidepressants, demoralised, de-Christianised, bankrupted by deregulated spivs, our criminal justice system an even bigger joke than our State schools...
I will always like her for her deep, proud Englishness, her fighting spirit and her refusal to follow the bleating flock. I despise the snobs and woman-haters who sneered at her and sometimes made me ashamed of my class and my sex. I am proud to be able to say that I actually met her and spoke to her.
Let's remember Maggie for what she really was... a tragic failure
By PETER HITCHENS
There is hope:
ReplyDeleteAlma Deutscher - plea for Harmony at the European Culture Prize ceremony in Vienna
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPGkN-Ravig
Merry Anti-Russia Video
ReplyDeletehttps://rumble.com/v22ehx2-merry-anti-russia-video.html
Study Finds 100% Of Men Would Eat Any Fruit Given To Them By A Naked Woman
ReplyDeletehttps://babylonbee.com/news/study-finds-100-of-men-would-eat-any-fruit-given-to-them-by-a-naked-woman
Ha ha ha. I saw that. Unlike the Onion, Babylon Bee is very funny. They got banned from Twitter for calling U.S. Admiral Levine Man Of The Year.
ReplyDeleteTheir bannig was the reason Musk bought Twitter.
DeleteThey're back on:
https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee
I knew they were back but not that they were the straw that broke his back. Was it really? There were so many, many scandalous expulsions.
DeleteSeth Dillon (@SethDillon)
DeleteApril 5, 2022
Musk reached out to us before he polled his followers about Twitter's commitment to free speech. He wanted to confirm that we had, in fact, been suspended. He even mused on that call that he might need to buy Twitter.
https://twitter.com/SethDillon/status/1511325246967660547?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Musk is a vocal fan of The Babylon Bee and a former guest on the outlet’s podcast.
DeleteAccording to Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, Musk consulted with the company’s leadership before launching his bid to acquire Twitter.
“Musk reached out to us before he polled his followers about Twitter’s commitment to free speech,” Dillon reported.
“He wanted to confirm that we had, in fact, been suspended."
“He even mused on that call that he might need to buy Twitter."
https://slaynews.com/
Interesting. Thanks.
DeletePaul Marks: Mr Begin was a hard man to like - for example when he was being interrogated by the NKVD they complained about him, rather than begging for mercy (as they were used to) he mocked them with what they described as incredibly insulting and abusive language. Essentially trying to provoke them into killing him. Of course that would have ended his suffering - so they did not. After his experiences with both the Nazis and the Soviets, and with fellow Jews (for example the Labour Party used machine guns and artillery on "right wing" Jews who trying to leave a ship) he had a rather grim view of human beings and the world.
ReplyDelete