Margaret Thatcher
Norman Tebbit - a key confidante of Margaret Thatcher entirely ignored in the recent film The Iron Lady - is commonly remembered for two prescriptive statements. The first was that, instead of complaining or rioting, the unemployed should get on their bikes and look for work.
The second article of Tebbitism is that immigrants should take a ‘cricket test’ of national loyalty and identity. If you’re living in one country but decline to support it against your nation of origin in an international sporting contest, Tebbit implied, you have failed that test.
Australia had its own less strict but more formal version of a cricket test in the sample question about Don Bradman in the original Australian citizenship test under the Howard government.
Continue reading "Is it unAustralian to barrack for the other team?" »
“There Is No Alternative” was a favourite line of Margaret Thatcher’s whenever she was trying to push one of her ideas on to the public.
The “TINA” philosophy has become part of the armoury of governments, big corporations, and others who want to convince us that we are naïve, ill-informed or stupid when we try and question the wisdom of their decisions.
Qantas is the latest example of a major company trying to convince us that There Is No Alternative to its plans to shift its operations offshore, and to cut about 1000 jobs here in Australia.
Continue reading "The flying kangaroo need not be a flying panda" »
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Andrew says:
Ged your comments also sound pretty hypocritical given the government has just dropped a bomb of money to help BlueScope steel employees, also another privately owned Australian business. Why aren’t you calling for support for Qantas employees instead of whinging about managements decision to restructure. Would you prefer 1000 employees… Read more »
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acotrel says:
@Dovif The free market was introduced into Australia by Hawke, Keating, Hewson and Howard. How is Kevin Rudd to blame? All he did was continue the process of removing barriers to trade, when he allowed foreign airlines access into Australian airports. I suggest you are fixated on an ideology, and… Read more »
In this country we are blessed with some outstanding economists. But can they be collectively wrong? The Gillard Government thinks not. They claim that no economist is backing the Coalition’s Direct Action Plan, which therefore proves that it is the wrong policy. Case closed.
Gillard’s claim is false: there are economists who back alternative approaches to her carbon tax including Nobel laureates and Reserve Bank board members. However, even when there is a massive consensus among economists, history shows that they can be wildly off the mark.
A prominent example of this was the letter that 364 economists signed against Margaret Thatcher’s Budget in 1981. Thatcher broke economic orthodoxy by cutting borrowings with aggressive fiscal measures in order to make it easier to control monetary policy and get inflation under control.
Continue reading "Believe it or not, economists have been wrong before" »
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Tom says:
Worth a read “Zeta says:11:17am | 06/07/11 ... I am interested in the hilarious chaos that will result from an ETS.” Read more »
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Tom says:
You got me lesley. Let’s all dance around the maypole. We can sing “everything is beautiful”. Bambi will be there with Iggle Piggle and Upsy Daisy. All the liitlle butterflies will flutter by and twinkle twinkle little star will become our national anthem. People are so beautiful if only you… Read more »
It’s Tuesday at The Punch
Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female prime minister today in 1979.
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Robert Smissen of God's own country, rural SA says:
N, I love it. Lady Thatcher is a beacon of common sense, unfortunately people always want an option that gives no pain. Britain could certainly use another Margaret Thatcher in today’s troubled times, the current crop of British Polllies are self serving whimps. Read more »
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Dan says:
Except like alot conservatives she doesn’t really understand that to have a fully developed society, you need a combination of socialism and capitalism. Read more »
History looks inevitable because we’ve lived it; we think it happened that way because it had to happen that way.
But history is really a series of hinge points, choices taken and not taken, each of which could have changed the future a little. Even the most insignificant can make a massive difference.
Everyone knows, for instance, that the First World War was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Fedinand at Sarajevo. What most people forget is that the killing only happened after the assassination attempt proper had failed; and that the gunman Gavrilo Princip only got his chance on his way home, because the Archduke’s driver took a wrong turn and stalled the car.
Continue reading "The chance conversation that helped Thatcher win her war" »
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S.L says:
Great article Mark. If you look through history it is full of chance meetings and conversations like Mr Fraser described. I remember seeing a program on TV years ago about if JFK survived Dallas. It looked at implications of the escalating Bay of Pigs drama and Russia and the USA… Read more »
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Dave in Perth says:
Tony & SN Give it up. Anyone who makes the case that FOX news is anything other than a the PR arm of political conservatives is either lying to you or riding on the short bus. Either way, you can’t win. Facts and reality are irrelevant to these people. Same… Read more »
Welcome to the weekend@ The Punch
Today in 1990 Margaret Thatcher quits her position as prime minister of the United Kingdom.
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Kiphehennache says:
Visit http://www.dofollowarticles.com to post articles in the following categories: babys, googlebot, GT, rhyming, son, cocktails, Frejya and more… Read more »
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ablactation says:
<a >royal 15 mx paper shredder</a> good forum buddy keep it up. Read more »
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