So far, the best summary of the legacy of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is a line from Mark Steyn: she was the "anti-declinist." Mrs. Thatcher's predecessor as prime minister, the amiable but forgotten Sunny Jim Callaghan, once confided to a friend of mine that he thought Britain's decline was irreversible and that the government's job was to manage it as gracefully as possible. By 1979, even this modest aim seemed beyond the capabilities of the British establishment, and the nation turned to a woman who was one of the few even in a supposedly 'conservative' party not to subscribe to the Callaghan thesis. She reversed the decline, at home and overseas.
The Last of the Indomitable Britons
The Last of the Indomitable Britons
The Last of the Indomitable Britons
So far, the best summary of the legacy of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is a line from Mark Steyn: she was the "anti-declinist." Mrs. Thatcher's predecessor as prime minister, the amiable but forgotten Sunny Jim Callaghan, once confided to a friend of mine that he thought Britain's decline was irreversible and that the government's job was to manage it as gracefully as possible. By 1979, even this modest aim seemed beyond the capabilities of the British establishment, and the nation turned to a woman who was one of the few even in a supposedly 'conservative' party not to subscribe to the Callaghan thesis. She reversed the decline, at home and overseas.