BBC 2 are repeating some of Terry Wogan’s programmes at lunch time. They’ve been showing “Terry and Mason’s great food trip”, where our Tel went round Britain with a cabbie. I think it’s the best thing he did. There is no greater spectacle than the great Irishman bantering away and tucking into good old fashioned grub.
They’re also showing “Wogan: the best of”. Today we had him interviewing Margaret Thatcher when Prime Minister in 1990. Referring to male MPs in the House of Commons, Wogan asked:
Do they make any concessions to the fact that you are a woman?
At this, Mrs Thatcher looked aghast and replied:
No. Why should they? And I don’t make any concessions to the fact that they are men.
Good answer.
By the way, there only two quotes from Mrs Thatcher which I admire. That one and when, during her last speech as Prime Minister, she responded to some jousting with Denis Skinner with:
I’m enjoying this!
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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11 Comments
“Socialists cry ‘power to the people’, and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean – power over people, power to the state.”
“The state has no source of money other than money which people earn themselves.”
Paul Walter, surely more than two. How do you like this quote?
“Britain does not dream of some cosy, isolated existence on the fringes of the European Community. Our destiny is in Europe, as part of the Community”
@George – spot on, perhaps some of the self-professed Thatcherites who are supporting Leave need to be reminded of their Thatcherite principles… 🙂
@ Paul Walter “Do they make any concessions to the fact that you are a woman?”
At this, Mrs Thatcher looked aghast and replied: “No. Why should they? And I don’t make any concessions to the fact that they are men.
Good answer.”
Is this the same Paul Walter who supported A.W.S.?
David
I admire your ingenuity at dragging that in.
AWS is not a concession to women, it is a concession to a completely skewed system.
Paul, surely you don’t mean that a Liberal party did it for the system, not for the individuals? How very bureaucratic. But liberal …..?
Or: “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
I used to admire Thatcher in my early 20s. Some people just love business and Mrs Thatcher speaks for that demographic. However, once I realised how little waste there is in the public sector my views became more moderate.
It would be useful though if we could take a risk at time and introduce some unfunded tax cuts and see what it does for the economy, which after the scrapping of the benefit cuts we now basically have.
I also don’t believe in unlimited wealth, but there we go.
David (Evans)
Can I refer you back to the very thorough debate at York after which the party conference made the decision – “very clearly”, according to the chair? There wasn’t even a need for a card count:
https://youtu.be/QcvR_tHa5HQ?t=44m10s
AWS helps to remove the skew in the system to give the right outcome for individuals. In the debate, our President Sal Brinton said that John Stuart Mill was clear that there are always situations where you need interventions to achieve fairness and equity – she gave the example of the pupil premium – positive action for a specific group.
@BubbaClyde: “The problem with Thatcherism is that eventually you run out of North Sea Oil and public assets to sell off cheap to your friends”.
‘I don’t think the family suffers at all through my political ambitions’.
‘The key to the whole thing was a first class nanny- housekeeper to look after things in the wife’s absence’.
As for women in less fortunate circumstances, she stated in 1979:-
‘I do passionately believe that many women women take the view, and quite rightly, that when their children are young, their first duty is to look after their children and keep the family together’.
I still remember the guilt inducing term ‘ latchkey kids’ that many women who had to work because of economic necessity were burdened with.