Excerpt from her first speech as leader of the Conservative Party in Brighton, England, on October 10, 1975:
Whenever I visit communist countries, their politicians never hesitate to boast about their achievements. They know them all by heart; they reel off the facts and figures, claiming this is the rich harvest of the communist system. Yet they are not prosperous as we in the west are prosperous, and they are not free as we in the west are free.
Our capitalist system produces a far higher standard of prosperity and happiness because it believes in incentive and opportunity, and because it is founded on human dignity and freedom. Even the Russians have to go to a capitalist country - America - to buy enough wheat to feed their people - and that after more than 50 years of a state-controlled economy. Yet they boast incessantly, while we, who have so much more to boast about, forever criticise and decry. Is it not time we spoke up for our way of life? After all, no western nation has to build a wall round itself to keep its people in.
Language Points:
1. to boast about their achievements
- to talk about what they have done proudly
