We could really do with our own Iron Lady

In these dire times, do we need someone with the strength of the Iron Lady?

Love her or hate her, you have to admit that the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher achieved an enormous amount in her 87-year life — from ambitious and opinionated grocer’s daughter to Britain’s first female prime minister, and also the longest serving PM of the 20th century.

Her death on Monday has seen a media trawl back through her 11-year term as PM of our nearest neighbour and trading partner, and, yes, the occupier of all or part of this island for over 800 years.

Yes, she was divisive, but then who isn’t if the objective is to take on deeply entrenched vested interests and unelected self-perpetuating cliques.

While she did much of what had to be done at the time in order to pull Britain by its coattails from being a proverbial industrial wasteland and basket case into a vibrant and growing economy, she also did much that resulted in desolation and ruination for many.

If she had been allowed to stay in power longer and had not been backstabbed by her own party and replaced by the grey and invisible man, John Major, would she have rebalanced the divide between the haves and the have nots? Would she have reinstated measures to provide for those unable to help themselves?

Who knows? The truth is we will never know, but it’s a fair bet that she would not have.

However, unlike those now having street parties to celebrate her death, any fair observer must admit that she achieved an enormous amount and did start the process of putting Britain back on its feet in a time of dire need.

We are also in dire need and much of it of our own making. That is not to suggest that we are all tax dodgers, manipulators, usurers, or just plain greedy.

It is to say that we elected the people we elected and they behaved exactly as we wanted them to, not that we will admit that to ourselves or anyone else. We forgot, however, that old axiom: “Be careful what you ask for, it may not be what you want.”

In any event, to use a favoured phrase of this and earlier politicians: “We are where we are.” It was much easier to get into trouble than it is proving to get out of it.

How much of that is caused by a weak, populist, and vacillating government? Would having our own Iron Lady or even Iron Man make a difference? Would we be better off with a coherent and determined plan, as long as it gave us a sense of direction and a feeling of achievement, a real feeling of light at the end of the tunnel?

The Government came into power with a massive majority on the back of commitments to resolve our economic problems, do the devil and all, and undertake vast improvements in the provision of public services and public sector administration, and also, of course, on the back of one of the most disastrous governments in our history.

Thus far it has failed to persuade the troika of its mistake in imposing an ever-worsening austerity programme. It also failed to deal with the vested interests across the economy.

Government continues to borrow billions to maintain pay levels for many at the “top”, who have proven time and again that they do not deserve it. It continues to bestow upon its members a largesse that is unique given our circumstances. It is, in effect, spending what it apparently sees as free money, as nobody’s money — aka public money.

However, as Maggie Thatcher said: “There is no such thing as public money, there is only taxpayers’ money.”

Perhaps if we at least took that message from the Iron Lady we might be less flaithulach and only spend what we have.

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