Review: Short Introduction to the Iron Lady
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 2, 2013
Margaret Thatcher has become one of the foremost icons of the twentieth century. The first female British prime minister and one of the longest-serving prime ministers in Britain, she had acquired the reputation of unwavering dedication to the core conservative principles, and a steadfast way of implementing them through the public policy. Internationally she is also known, with Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II, as one of the main actors throughout the last decade of the Cold War that brought the end to the European Communism. It is exactly her firm and unapologetic repudiation of Communism in all of its forms that had earned her the moniker "Iron Lady" by her Soviet critics.That passing of Margaret Thatcher earlier this year marked the end of an era. It also marked the revival of the many debates concerning her influence, policies and legacy that have been dormant for a while. This short Kindle Single, written by one of her most ardent admirers, is an attempt to put into a perspective many of the key aspects of her life and career. It is a fairly personal account that also manages to provide a wealth of information that many of us have forgotten, or were not as keenly aware of.Even though Thatcher's changes have had enormous impact on the UK policies and life, they have always had their more than fair share of detractors. Many of her critics to this day are all too eager to point to some failure - real or contrived - of her policies. However, as this short Kindle Single rightly points out, it's neither fair nor intellectually honest to criticize an essentially right-wing politician along the metrics of the left-wing desiderata. What her opponents to this day consider to be her biggest failures are still things that have garnered her an enduring admiration on the right.Nonetheless, Baroness Thatcher did have her share of failures and setbacks, something that she herself was always more than willing to acknowledge. Some of those were apparent while she was still working at 10 Downing Street, while the others are the unintended consequences of her policies that have only become obvious in the recent yeas. It's these latter ones that this Kindle Single zeroes in. The gradual but unmistakable deterioration of the British social fabric can in a large measure be attributed to the unbridled individualism that has come to dominate the country's way of thinking and can be traced to the economic and social changes in the 80s. In that light the title of this Single, "Always Right," is not without its small share of irony.This is a very well-written and timely short introduction to the Iron Lady. It's a much-needed reminder of her greatest accomplishments and legacy.