In Tory world, it is a year for big anniversaries. One hundred years ago, Margaret Thatcher was born; fifty years after that, she won the Conservative leadership. To mark the occasion, various shindigs are planned, with the party conference next month expected to pay tribute to the Iron Lady’s legacy. A week after that there is a gala dinner for the eponymous centre, named in her honour.
Heading up the guests alongside the likes of Julian Fellowes, ‘Beefy’ Botham and Joan Collins is none other than Sir Mark Thatcher, son of Margaret and Denis. It is the first time he has given a public speech about his mother’s life and legacy, twelve years after her passing. But what caught Steerpike’s eye in the online preview was a trenchant attack on the current Starmer regime, some of whose members ardently opposed all Thatcher did in office.
‘Under this government’, declares Thatcher, ‘we will all be socially equal but the consequence of this is that is that we are also equally poor.’ ‘Only the power of the individual’, he argues ‘is strong enough to re-engage those who seek to establish their future outside of today’s socialism.’ Sadly, Thatcher says, ‘those beliefs and their relevance seem to be less visible today.’ That’s certainly true at the top of government, now that Starmer has banished Mrs T’s portrait from his office.
Still, with a phalanx of Tory peers, MPs and donors expected at the Guildhall next month, at least the flame of Thatcherism will burn brightly for one night in London eh?
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