Dubbed the "Iron Lady" by a Russian journalist for her staunch opposition to communism and the Soviet Union, Lady Thatcher was a formidable free-market conservative who successfully fought the socialist trend in her own nation, crushing union strangleholds and privatizing "vast swaths of British industry" that had been taken over by government. She "transformed a nation in one decade," reported one news service today, "putting Briton back among the leading industrial nations of the world." (For a review of her considerable achievements, read "A Heroine and a Hate Figure — for Better or Worse Baroness Thatcher Remade our Nation.")
We collected some of our favorite video clips of her in tribute below, and it is followed by a few samples of her wit and wisdom as quoted in Statecraft.
"Whether manufactured by black, white, brown or yellow hands, a widget remains a widget, and it will be bought anywhere if the price and quality are right. The market is a more powerful and more reliable liberating force than government can ever be."
"The larger the slice taken by govenrment, the smaller the cake available for everyone."
"When all the objectives of govenrment include the achievement of equality — other than equality before the law — that government poses a threat to liberty."
"The accumulation of wealth is a process which is of itself morally neutral. True, as Christianity teaches, riches bring temptations. But then so does poverty."
"Socialist have always spent much of their time seeking new titles for their beliefs, because the old versions so quickly become outdated and discredited."
"Individualism has come in for an enormous amount of criticism over the years. It still does. It is widely assumed to be synonymous with selfishness. ... But the main reason why so many people in power have always disliked individualism is because it is individualists who are ever keenest to prevent the abuse of authority."
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