The Iron Lady is dead; Margaret Thatcher is dead. She was killed by a stroke yesterday, April 8th, 2013, the day that I celebrated the third birthday of my son, Tyrone-Popo; the day that Kofi Annan celebrated his 75th birthday. She was 87, having been born on October 13th 1925 in Grantham,┬áLincolnshire, the same year that Sir Ketumile Joni Masire was born. Masire was born July 23rd 1925 in Kanye. The message came from Lord Bell, Thatcher’s spokesman. It was short and melancholic: “It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning. A further statement will be made later.” Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979 when Britain was on the brink of total economic collapse and transformed it. When she left power in 1990, it was the one of the financial capitals of the world. She is associated with her political philosophy of Thatcherism, based on low taxation, low public spending, free markets and mass privatization. She was hated however by those who believed that she destroyed workers’ rights and reduced public spending drastically. During her tenure she had to deal with mass unemployment, out of control inflation, endless strikes, a war with the Falklands and an attempted assassination by the IRA.
I remember her cutting humour and powerful voice. In particular I remember a speech she delivered in 2001. I was then just completing my Masters in 2001 at Lincoln College, Oxford when she addressed the Conservative party election rally in Plymouth. Margret Thatcher was herself an Oxon having graduated from Somerville College, Oxford in 1947 in Chemistry. She started her speech by these memorable words: “It’s wonderful to be here this evening, campaigning for a Conservative victory, in this enterprising port of Plymouth. I was told beforehand my arrival was unscheduled, but on the way here I passed a local cinema and it turns out you were expecting me after all. The billboard read┬áThe Mummy Returns.” The film The Mummy Returns had just been released. In this column I share some of the interesting Margaret Thatcher quotations. “What Britain needs is an iron lady.” “A man may climb Everest for himself, but at the summit he plants his country’s flag.”
“Defeat? I do not recognise the meaning of the word.” “I, personally, have always voted for the death penalty because I believe that people who go out prepared to take the lives of other people forfeit their own right to live. I believe that the death penalty should be used only very rarely, but I believe that no-one should go out certain that no matter how cruel, how vicious, how hideous their murder, they themselves will not suffer the death penalty.” “If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.” “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” “No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had money as well.” “It pays to know the enemy ÔÇô not least because at some time you may have the opportunity to turn him into a friend.” “I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.”
“Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.” “What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.” “If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.” “I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.” “I love argument, I love debate. I don’t expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that’s not their job.” “If you want to cut your own throat, don’t come to me for a bandage.” “It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs.” “One of the things being in politics has taught me is that men are not a reasoned or reasonable sex.” “If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn’t swim “Platitudes? Yes, there are platitudes. Platitudes are there because they are true.” “Constitutions have to be written on hearts, not just paper” and of course the famous one “This lady is not for turning.”
Botswana is Britain’s former colony; or a protectorate as some say. There is much that must instruct us on some of Thatcher’s achievements and failures. She was a controversial figure whose controversies must teach us important lessons as a people. In 1985 a group of Oxford dons voted to refuse her an honorary degree in protest against her in funding for education. An overwhelming 738 voted against her while 319 voted in favour. Her dealings with the unions was unnecessarily frosty and lead to multiple strikes which could have been avoided. Thatcher will however be missed for being a solid British leader. Many will share in the words of David Cameron that “”We’ve lost a great leader, a great prime minister and a great Briton.”
