Baroness Thatcher (pictured then and now, thanks to the Telegraph) has given a speech (text/audio) commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War. She concluded her words by relating it to the present:
"So, as we recall - and give thanks for - the liberation of our islands, let us also recall the many battlefronts where British forces are engaged today.
There are in a sense no final victories, for the struggle against evil in the world is never ending. Tyranny and violence wear many masks. Yet from victory in the Falklands we can all today draw hope and strength.
Fortune does, in the end, favour the brave. And it is Britain's good fortune that none are braver than our armed forces."
Dr Nile Gardiner of the Thatcher Center for Freedom has written a must-read paper expanding on the lessons from the Falklands:
"The world needs a confident, powerful Britain that stands as a warrior nation in the defense of freedom and Western civilization. To all intents and purposes, Britain and America today are at war globally against a vicious enemy and ideology that seeks their destruction."
Deputy Editor
A good well worded speech from Baroness Thatcher.
Posted by: Cllr Iain Frost | June 13, 2007 at 18:42
Why does the BBC cut off the speech though? The audio suddenly stops about two-thirds in, this leaving out the best, i.e. last, bit. Very odd.
Posted by: Goldie | June 13, 2007 at 18:52
What a woman, what a leader. Politics is a worse a place without her.
Posted by: Ash Faulkner | June 13, 2007 at 18:54
Goldie,
The audio did not cut off earlier so I guess the beeb have changed the file. You're right it does cut out the fine ending.
I'm sure there is a political agenda for doing so as with everything else the Blair Broadcasting Company does....
Shame On Them!
Posted by: John | June 13, 2007 at 19:12
Gardiner's paper is wolly-headed jingoistic pap.
He completely overlooks how close Britain came to defeat in the Falklands. That makes our armed forces achievements all the more remarkable, but it also means that one of the lessons is how much robust armed forces cost if those we had in 1982 were not enough to be sure of victory.
He goes on to completely ignore the modern experiences in places like Sierra Leone, the Balkans or current deployments Iraq and Afghanistan. It doesn't seem to occur to him that the threats of the Mahdi army to defend Iran from inside Shi'a Iraq might have some bearing on whether we start bombing Tehran. We are currently engaged in poorly prepared, civilian-driven, ill-defined missions with no exit strategy. Compare that to the Falklands campaign.
But the real icing on the cake for this paper, was Gardiner's recommendation that all that was needed by the military was 4% of GDP. He had no suggestions as to what we should spend the extra money on. Should it go on the Navy to provide them with 4 new aircraft carriers? Should it double the size of Trident? Should we add new divisions to the Army? Are long-range bombers for the RAF a priority? What about stealth technology? Should we prepare to be combatting Russia and China or Iran and Sudan? Maybe he doesn't know. Maybe he doesn't care.
Where do we get these sawdust Caesars from?
Posted by: Adam | June 13, 2007 at 19:40
An excellent broadcast from an excellent leader
Posted by: Ivan The Yid From Bradford | June 13, 2007 at 20:02
"Britain was victorious in the Falklands War because it was free to shape its own destiny and willing to use military power to aggressively defend its interests."
Yeah! And without the AIM9 Sidewinder, stripped out of USAF squadrons and rushed to the expeditionary force, to equip the Harriers, the defeat of the Argentinian air power might not have occurred. As it was, it was a close run thing.
Posted by: Richard North | June 13, 2007 at 20:50
So now the Law Lords have ordained that the Human Rights Act 1998 supersedes The Geneva Conventions with respect to those held in the custody of British Forces overseas........looks like Britainwill have to subcontract holding centres to the Iraqi Interior Ministry......but for the Law Lords to decide that UK Law overrides the laws of the occupied country modifies the Geneva Conventions unilaterally
Posted by: TomTOm | June 13, 2007 at 21:01
Great to be reminded what a class act Mrs T was and still is.
Posted by: Adrian Owens | June 13, 2007 at 21:08
Talking of Britain at war, here's my response on Richard Spring's blog to his comments about Iraq, as featured on ConHome yesterday:
Tory Sage said on June 13th, 2007 at 8:50 am:
Sorry Richard. Your post shows either naivete or cynicism.
The world is watching Britain. In particular, our enemies are watching. What interests them is whether our undoubted military strength is matched by the willpower to deploy it and see a job through.
Carping at the Government and demanding post-mortems while are troops are still on the ground and generally giving the impression we can’t wait to get out sends a truly wretched message to Britain’s enemies. It suggests that we simply don’t have the stomach for a bloody, messy, drawn out fight. That we’re only interested in quick victories.
The bad guys (and there are plenty of them out there) can always sniff weakness. The lesson that will be learned is that if you want to break the will of Britain then all you need is to bomb, maim and kill as many people as possible and generally create bloody chaos. That will ensure that we’ll throw our manicured, liberal hands up in horror and say ‘we’re doing no good here - let’s go home’.
That, of course, is exactly what the bad guys want. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the original decision to go to war, this is now a test of wills. I’m ashamed to say that the official Opposition motion to hold an inquiry into the war was a morale boost to our enemies.
I just hope it wasn’t done for motives of petty, partisan advantage-seeking.
Posted by: Tory Sage | June 13, 2007 at 21:32
Now, in the gloaming days,she remains quite simply head and shoulders above the political pygmies of modern times (and I firmly include Blair amongst the latter). A simple speech that places head of hammer firmly on head of nail.
Cameron's desire to airbrush her from history is something which many who have voted for and worked the Conservative party find particularly hard to stomach. Assuredly he will never be big enough to wear her boots, even if he knew where to find them
Posted by: Michael Huntsman | June 13, 2007 at 21:36
If Mrs Thatcher wants to use her time to advantage she needs to speak up about the EU. Pushed out of power for 17 years by the likes of Howe, Hurd and Heseltine over 'Europe',and what has she said or done to try to remedy the damage she and her party have done?
Posted by: Dave Wilson | June 13, 2007 at 21:59
"she needs to speak up about the EU"
Looking at her on the news today, she needs to try and remember where she is first. Its quite cruel to trot her out like that.
Posted by: Not So Great Gatsby | June 13, 2007 at 23:46
"Cameron's desire to airbrush her from history is something which many who have voted for and worked the Conservative party find particularly hard to stomach."
Me too. If this incompetent clown Cameron had been placed in the Flaklands situation he's have been whining for peace. Running away from the fight like a scared rabbit.
"Assuredly he will never be big enough to wear her boots, even if he knew where to find them"
As we used to say in the army a bloke like Cameron cant find his d--- with both hands.
Posted by: John Irvine | June 14, 2007 at 06:42
This thread was suppose to be about remembering a conflict where people died for a noble cause. It says a lot about our present leaders opponents that they stoop so low as to try and use it to attack him. Pathetic!
Posted by: Jack Stone | June 14, 2007 at 07:59
Margaret Thatcher was the boldest and most courageous leader since Churchill, whose finest hour for all the important things she did in domestic politics will always be as a war leader in defending the falkland Islands.
As for all this stuff about Cameron trying to "airbrush her out of history" complete nonsense in my view, Lady Thatcher was the greatest leader in the second half of the 20th century and we are rightly proud of all she achieved. However there comes a time when a political party has to move on and emerge from its great leaders shadow. Margaret Thatcher won the battles of the 1980s so now we must move on and show we have new answers for todays challenges.
Posted by: Graham D'Amiral | June 14, 2007 at 08:06
As for all this stuff about Cameron trying to "airbrush her out of history" complete nonsense in my view
Whether he himself has or not, we can all think of many instaces when those close to him (usually quoted anonymously in the press) have brayed that Cameron was turning his back on the Thatcher legacy.
We had the nonsense about 'Section 28' of course. It would have been instructive to run a poll to find out what percentage of the population had the faintest idea what 'Section 28' was. Anyway, Cameron originally supported it, and it was abolished by Labour, so no cigar for 'Dave' there.
Another instance was Cameron's disgraceful comments in South Africa about the policies of his predecessors. More an attempt to dump on Thatcher than to 'airbrush her out of history'. Actually the only people you can 'airbrush her out of history' are intellectual dwarfs such as Major and Cameron - not giants like Thatcher and Churchill.
Margaret Thatcher won the battles of the 1980s so now we must move on and show we have new answers for todays challenges.
So what 'battles' do Cam and his 'Roons intend to win? All we've heard so far are the socialistic squealings of ciabatta-eating PC surrender monkeys.
Posted by: Traditional Tory | June 14, 2007 at 08:29
What a sad thread after a first class speech from Lady T.Does every thread no matter what the subject have to descend to a level of childish abuse of David Cameron? These moronic comments say more about the posters themselves than anything else.
Posted by: malcolm | June 14, 2007 at 10:18
The comments of Tom Tom and Traditional Tory appear to be to be entirely negative about the Conservatives today.
There is something troublesome about the way that the anonymous sources get quoted in the press and I don't know what those 'sources' say or whether they are accurately reported or not. Having said that, is it not time that we, as Conservatives, recognise some home 'truths'.
To win, the Conservative Party will need to recognise that mistakes and errors were made in the course of the 18 years of Thatcher and Major. That does not mean that the overall effect of that period was not overwhelmingly positive and that the UK came out of those 18 years in a much better state than it entered them. If we fail to accept that mistakes and errors were made on the way, we will not persuade voters, who we need to vote for us in order to win, that we have learned the lessons of those 18 years (and the last 10 years).
We need to tackle the problems that exist now rather than fight battles (such as resolving overwhelming trade union power) that existed in the past. The battles that we need to face are over reforming public services, simplifying the tax system, overcoming the difficulties in foreign relations that exist now, creating a manufacturing and business friendly environment that allows us to compete with our European and world competitors, resolving the representational problems created by devolution etc. etc. These are not the problems of rampant inflation, economic decline, political and national despair, extreme union domination and so on that faced Magaret Thatcher in 1979.
Posted by: Evan Price | June 14, 2007 at 10:25
"To all intents and purposes, Britain and America today are at war globally against a vicious enemy and ideology that seeks their destruction."
What enemy would that be - 'Terror'? How can we fight an enemy that we can't even name?
Posted by: Simon Newman | June 14, 2007 at 10:33
No Jack,
what is pathetic is your continued attempts to support a leadership which seeks to turn the Conservative party into a wet centre left organisation and effectively disenfrachise the 40% of people in this country who are natural Tories.
Margaret Thatcher was the best leader the Conservatives and the country ever had and even now in her twilight years the current gang of nobodies leading the party are still a million miles from her in ability, charisma and philosophy
Posted by: Richard Tyndall | June 14, 2007 at 17:43
Hear! Hear! Richared.
As for the 'battles' Evan Price cites there's no evidence that Cameron and his lieutenants intend to address any of these.
No. The stated policy is to shadow Blairite social democracy in the hope that Brown and Co will trip up and let in 'Heir to Blair'.
Sad that our old motto 'Onward!' has been supplanted by 'Say anything to win'.
Posted by: Traditional Tory | June 14, 2007 at 18:05