Just a couple of personal observations; as a bright-eyed young BBC Researcher, I put together the logistics for one of Margaret Thatcher's key interviews (with Robin Day) for the General Election of 1979 that brought her to power. What a heavy burden of guilt!
I grew up in a Britain where the two major Parties, Labour and Conservative, basically agreed on the fundamentals of a Liberal Democracy: quality education and decent housing for all, the National Health Service, benefits and pensions for all who needed them - what we call Civilization. Thatcher threw much of that out of the window, and it seems as though the rest is swiftly following under the present lot. I remember observing at the family dinner-table, "I didn't know what conservative was, till Thatcher came to power." What a happy state that was.
At the time I couldn't understand why she and Reagan were such close pals. Everyone in Europe knew that Reagan was way too dumb to be fit for high office, no matter what they thought of his politics. Apparently no one in the American public noticed that he was senile when he went to the White House, and completely gaga by the time he confessed on videotape that he OK'd the "neat idea" (per Oliver North) of the Iran-Contra balls-up.
Nobody "noticed" that he confessed, either.
Once I got to the USA, and saw real, 18th-Century, dog-eat-dog Capitalist brutality and hypocrisy at work, I understood that Thatcher and Reagan were complete political soul-mates, even though one was brilliant and forceful, and the other stupid and pussy-whipped.
Great stuff!
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