Thatcher's none-too-splendid legacy
Kevin Rafferty says her strength as a leader could not compensate for the weakness of her policies
Baroness Thatcher was finally laid to rest this week. In her declining years, she was a sadly rusted version of her "Iron Lady" image, a reminder of the wisdom of the eminent neurologist Oliver Sacks, who said, "I don't know whether there are any good ways to die".
She was undoubtedly a great leader, who gave the world "Thatcherism". To her credit, though Thatcher was prepared to flutter her eyelashes when it suited, she climbed to the top of what Benjamin Disraeli called the "greasy pole" of politics not as a token woman but by force of will and leadership.
If necessary, she dealt ruthlessly with opponents. Being handbagged by Thatcher was the end of many a promising career.
This goes to the heart of the problem of Thatcher in particular and of strong leaders in general. She could not stand sycophants, but by her determination to get her own way, she reduced her colleagues in government to nonentities.
A famous scene from the satirical British television series Spitting Image showed a Thatcher puppet surrounded by her cabinet colleagues in a restaurant. "What will you have, Madame?" the waiter asked. "A large steak, extremely rare," she replied. "And the vegetables?" the waiter asked. "They'll all have the same," said Thatcher.
It was sad to watch the simpering procession of former cabinet ministers praising Thatcher on the BBC. Yes, she had good ideas, and was ahead of her time in imagining a great European democracy stretching from the Atlantic to the Urals. She raised legitimate doubts about the way the European Union worked, but she lacked someone at her elbow to whisper firmly that there were better ways of achieving her wishes to more lasting effect.