Should Mrs Thatcher apologise to Scotland?
Curious that Mrs Thatcher chose to celebrate the 30th anniversary of her 1979 election victory with a visit to Glasgow at the weekend. The title of David Torrance's new , "We in Scotland: Thatcherism in a Cold Climate" says it all. Even after all those years, the Iron Lady and her legacy still provokes a negative reaction from the Scottish public — as the overwhelming majority of callers made clear on today's Morning Extra.
Take Margaret Curran for example. The Glasgow Baillieston MSP has called on the former Prime Minister to for neglecting Glasgow's heavy industries and for introducing the hated poll tax that contributed so much to her downfall after 11 years.
Mrs Curran said: "Margaret Thatcher should apologise to Glasgow for her policies that wreaked havoc on our city. The constituency I represent is still trying to recover from the destruction that ensued from her plans and political approach. This is the woman that closed down our shipyards and steel mills, believed that unemployment is a price worth paying, and then told us that she knew best."
Should Mrs Thatcher apologise to Scotland? Or should we, in fact, be thanking her for saving us from ourselves — as the former Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth did in Glasgow on Saturday evening?
At a dinner organised by the East Renfrewshire Conservative Association, Mr Forsyth praised the former Prime Minister for rescuing Britain from the "horrors of Labour in the 1970s," congratulated her for taking on the trades unions, for "unleashing a new age of enterprise and wealth creation," privatising businesses and selling council houses.
So what was Mrs Thatcher's legacy to Scotland? Did she break "the dependency culture"... or just break society?
Links:
- Re-live the 6-hour long Decision 79: Election Night results on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Parliament
- And if that's not enough there's Decision 79: The Morning After
- : archive audio and video
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