Glenda Jackson, star of one of my favorite movies, Hopscotch, and a member of Parliament over twenty years now, in a debate over whether the House of Commons should pay tribute to Baroness Thatcher.
Posted here not just for the emotional punch it packs, which is considerable, but also for the fact that she could very well be talking about Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney. Watch all the way through to the end for administration, by the speaker, of a very British spanking of the conservatives when they try to shut her down…
Please share widely!
…politics should stop at the grave. Of course the House of Commons should pay some sort of tribute to a Prime Minister, regardless of their opinion about her policies. Besides, according to Lawrence O’Donnell she was quite the Socialist.
And if you’re going to put the suffix “-ism” at the end of the name then you’ve already impacted enough people that politesse seems insufficient…
Despicable leaders remain despicable after their death. The despicable policies of those despicable leaders remain awful after their originator dies, and the occasion of that death should never, in my opinion, be an excuse to lionize the deceased, paper over the awful consequences of those despicable policies, and in so doing entrench those policies to be endured by future generations.
Richard Nixon was a despicable president. The damage he did to government, to public trust, and to the political process still reverberates. We do ourselves no favors by pretending otherwise because he is now dead.
Ronald Reagan wrought horrific wrongs to the America he governed. His policies prolonged the cold war and decaying Soviet Union by providing an immediate threat the Soviet leadership could point to in perpetuating their abuses. He dismantled vitally important government agencies, he began and celebrated the disconnect between party dogma and reality, and he spurred a generation of Americans to embrace selfishness, greed, and dishonesty as virtues that would somehow lead to a glorious and prosperous future. Ronald Reagan launched the GOP on its headlong rush into the chaos and dysfunction of today’s Tea Party and right-wing extremism unfettered by rationality, intellect, or respect for simple logic. America would have done well to be far less respectful of Mr. Reagan, and far more critical of his many failings — including after his death.
You have written here of your support for capital punishment. Shall we observe the same niceties for the criminals you would have us execute? Does their death somehow expunge the impact of their actions from society?
While I am of course not suggesting that Ms. Thatcher is a murderer, I am suggesting that the consequences of her governance were just as horrific for England and the world as the consequences of any criminal.
The speaker of the British parliament summed it up rather nicely at the end. Would that our leaders show similar courage.
To everything there is a season – a time to pay tribute and a time to turn a critical lens. I believe in the Roman saying “Nihil sed bonum mortui” (Nothing but good of the dead), with the possible exception of those who are so horrible that I could justify executing them, and yes, by bringing up the death penalty in this context you pretty much did compare Thatcher and others to unredeemable criminals. Thatcher, Nixon, and Reagan could all point to positive aspects of their legacies too. Nixon opened China and Reagan would never pass muster with today’s “tea party”. We rightly lowered our flags when the Presidents passed and I for one stood at attention as Reagan’s coffin passed by in DC. I too would have prefered others to have been Presidents and Prime Minister, but there is a time and place to express that and within a week of their deaths does not seem appropriate.
I think we can be quite sure that, if Reagan were around now, in the current political climate, he would indeed support voucherizing Medicare and weaning the country off Social Security. These are Republican positions going back a long way. In the 1980s, they were not as achievable as they seem today.
The man sold records in the 60s saying Medicare would be the death of freedom. Apparently people should be free to die or go broke.
FDR-Social Security segments, which were among the most disingenuous things I’ve ever seen on television, I don’t care what he has to say about anything.
Until the end, when she delved into whether Baroness Thatcher was an ideal representation of womanliness, she aimed most all her fire on Thatcherism as opposed to Thatcher. As the chair points out toward the end, these remarks do fit a discussion of whether the House should pass a motion of tribute.
However, I still would not have made that speech this week.
Let me introduce you to the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project. Founded by Grover Norquist in 1997, the project was to elevate Ronald Reagan’s standing so that it would provide a vehicle for the radical shrinking of government and hence taxes. One of their early successes was in renaming the Washington DC airport. Currently, the project bemoans the fact that Nevada lacks any major monument commemorating the supposedly greatest president of the twentieth century. They propose to rename a perfectly good mountain after the man.
Republicans rode on Reagan’s legacy throughout the entire Clinton Presidency. In fact, a large part of the appeal of the Republican brand resides in the (mistaken) idea that things were better under Reagan and because of Reagan. For this reason, the British Left is well-advised not to let the very human regard for the passing of Baroness Thatcher morph into a Thatcher Legacy Project that heaps unearned honors on a stingy, mean-spirited premiership.
that the hagiography of both Reagan and Thatcher has (nefarious) real-world meaning in today’s politics.
And I have boycotted that airport, which I shall forever call “National,” ever since.
That airport is my favorite and a great example of how smart urban planning leads to great outcomes for everyone. You can take the train right to the station, its easy to get to, security is a breeze and its logically organized and rather beautiful for an airport. But yeah, naming it not only after a terrible Hooverite like Reagan but also the very man who fired the air traffic controllers was an error of Orwellian proportions.
It turns out Mount Clay in New Hampshire, named after Henry Clay, has been renamed by the N.H. legislature to Mount Reagan. Not getting the approval of the institutions responsible for such naming didn’t stop them, but perhaps that’s why there’s an effort to rename Mount Sunrise (or is it Mount Frenchman?) in Nevada after Reagan.
There are already a lot of things that have been “gipperiezd”. Many highways, for example.
Oh, it’s certainly true that a lot of highways have been gipperized, bridges too. Here are some examples:
Gipperized bridges
Not just highways and bridges, either. Entire cities have been gipperized, especially in order to recognize his contributions to labor. Leading the parade is the city formerly known as Detroit:
Gipperized cities
Ah, yes. America and the GOP celebrates the glorious legacy of Ronald Reagan.
So’s McCain and Christie too, the man is too much a creature of Washington to know a real socialist if it hit him in the face. If he has Bernie Sanders on than we can talk.
What a fine, stirring, and energetic speech! Delivered firmly, without notes, without trumpery, without banners and backdrops, in passionate, simple, but intelligent English.
When was the last time we heard something this good in our own Congress?