So the million-dollar question is why did all this mythology arise, and why was there such tension between Scotland, or more accurately the majority of Scots, and Thatcherism? It seems to me that hating Mrs Thatcher (who apparently hated Scotland) was simply a convenient excuse for not addressing some of the issues she legitimately raised in relation to the role of the state and the status of the individual. So instead of confronting head on long-term problems facing Scottish industry and society, we bundled up everything perceived to be bad and gave it the wicked-sounding name of ‘Thatcher’, while grouping all the supposed alternatives into something with the more positive-sounding tag of ‘devolution’.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Quote of the day
David Torrance does a fine bit of myth-busting:
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2 comments:
I agree with all these revisionists(who have taken an age to come oot the closet btw) Scotland does have a lot to thank Thatcher for. Though I bet we disagree on just what.
Ultimately a statue of Thatcher may grace Holyrood as a kind of anti-hero and catalyst for the re-emergence of a great nation.
Well ye never know ;¬)
Tony
True
It was interesting that MacWhirter took the revisionists to task in his column yesterday. BYT (Bad Young Tory) Torrance has been trying to sell Thatcher to Scotland long past her sell-by date.
Another interesting thing was yesterday on BBC Parliament which repeated the 1979 election programme etc. I was fascinated that the pundits then picked up on the relative lack of support for the Tories in Scotland and the implications of this------------
Dimbleby was vexed about it. Robin Day was vexed about it. There was even a cartoon of a Scot with claymore and kilt with a Labour rosette waving a sword from Scotland at Tory-rosetted John Bull standing in the south of England.
A young David Steel was warning about it. Fascinating.
It countered the revisonist argument that devolution was dead as a topic in that election and nodded omniously to the arguments that were to dominate in Scotland during the 1980's and 1990's.
It was very interesting indeed.
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