{"id":5369,"date":"2013-04-12T05:00:49","date_gmt":"2013-04-11T20:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=5369"},"modified":"2013-04-15T10:07:03","modified_gmt":"2013-04-15T01:07:03","slug":"margaret-thatcher-on-the-verge-and-after-the-bacon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/margaret-thatcher-on-the-verge-and-after-the-bacon\/","title":{"rendered":"Margaret Thatcher: on the verge and after the bacon"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>Margaret Thatcher sent me to cover a war, she showed me how leaders do diplomatic knife fights at the summit and she gave me a front row seat as she bruised and bent Britain in the effort to remake it. She was brilliant and she was a bulldozer.<\/p>\n Mrs Thatcher was like a few other big leaders I\u2019ve covered\u2014think Mahathir or Lew Kuan Yew or Paul Keating. They always produce a story\u2014whether by friction, force or lightning\u2014a \u00a0reporter can ask no more.<\/p>\n For such leaders, it\u2019s not just the politics or the power. It\u2019s the personality: their ambition, intellect and impatience mean they can\u2019t help themselves\u2014the tongue can\u2019t be still and the hand can\u2019t be at rest.<\/p>\n The Soviet Union did Mrs T. a huge favour by attacking her as the Iron Lady. Beyond that useful insult, Francoise Mitterand got closer to the complexity with his judgement that she had the \u2018the eyes of Caligula and the mouth of Marilyn Monroe\u2019. And there you have it\u2014the war of the sexes and the war of politics all in one great line.<\/p>\n Part of the Thatcher effect was an ability to capture a big issue in a single phrase. As she fought the European Union to cut British budget payments, the London tabloids loved the idea that this was Mrs T. in handbag mode, insisting loudly: \u2018I want my money back\u2019.<\/p>\n As she did battle with Britain itself, the phrase that became a mantra was TINA, standing for, \u2018There is no alternative\u2019. In politics, of course, there are always choices; the war I reported from Buenos Aires was the ultimate war of choice. Still, the leader who could, with a straight face, say \u2018The lady\u2019s not for turning\u2019 had created a powerful weapon.<\/p>\n