THIS LADY'S NOT FOR TURNING

Last night, ex Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher celebrated her 80th birthday with the Queen and even more exciting, Shirley Bassey and Joan Collins!!! Now I'm a child of the 80s being born in 1979 and grew up with news stories of Maggie. My parents and Nana were fervent supporters of her and I couldn't quite understand why some people in school were so against her. I was at a dancing medal presentation in 1990/91 and a young girl 2 years older than me had a tshirt emblazoned with the slogan "UP THE POLL TAX" I found it all terribly interesting but through sheer ignorance felt that what Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative party stood for was the right thing, most probably because of my family upbringing and the fact that they also voted Conservative at any election.

Now it wasn't really until 10 years later that I took somewhat of an interest in politics after coming out of the closet and reading about political party policies about gay and social issues. As it turns out, the Conservative party and Margaret Thatcher stood for most things that I disagreed with and the Liberal Democrat's should be my political party of choice. But something kept me thinking of good old Maggie.

Margaret Thatcher's name in a conversation always brings up heated debates and to be honest the majority of my friends and work colleagues don't like what she stood for. I think that for a lot of people, the way they are raised and their parent's views have a lot to do with which political side they'll stand on in later life. My parents agreed with many things that Margaret Thatcher believed in and I think i inherited some of these for example, she despised trade unions and now I'm very much of the notion that if there's a battle to be fought, I should do it myself rather than use a union to get it. I hate when public services go on strike - it's such a selfish thing to do especially when I need to get the underground!! Or the oil blockades a few years ago when people protested against rising oil prices, it didn't achieve much except a lot of queues and was generally a pain in the tits. Now without getting too deep or political which is something I despise in blog reading - in my opinion, Maggie may have had strong beliefs that aresn't to my taste but at least she had conviction and stood for what she believed in. The Prime Minister just now freaks me out with his odd staccato like speeches when feeling sad and also his rather wide mouthed publicity hungry wife Cherie. Needless to say that she'll be livid today as the papers had pictures of Mrs Thatcher meeting the Queen and Prince Philip at her party and also of Joan Collins arriving but none of our country's current Prime Minister.

Maggie had balls. She was Britain's first Prime Minister to be female, she fought Argentina in the Falkland's war, the island's were recaptured by Great Britain and her popularity soared. I'm a huge fan of strong women and Margaret Thatcher fits the bill. Especially exciting was her war against the trade unions. Tonnes of people worked in coal mines and Maggie closed them down putting thousands out of work as she deemed it unnecessary. She introduced privatisation of many companies meaning the public could own part of the companies they used. My friend's mention that Thatcher stole your milk as she apparently stopped free milk being given out in schools. We used to get that every day. My reply to that is that no-one's given it back to the school children as it's never been reintroduced! During the 80s where greed is good, Margaret Thatcher tried to foster a different type of Britain - she pushed people to their limits and broke down many barriers - literally!

At a Conservative Party Conference in the early 80s, a critic asked if she would change her mind on the Falkland's war to which she replied... "You turn if you want to, this lady's not for turning" A classic line which is still embedded in the public's mind today. Despite what anyone says, I for one, love Margaret Thatcher for her will power, her refusal to back down from a fight and her determination and belief to make Britain a better country. She may not have succeeded at all she did or been to everyone's taste but the Iron Lady certainly stood by for what she believed to be right. And of course, it helps when Joan Collins turns up at your birthday party! Anyway that's my political post over and unless I'm talking about the West Wing won't be mentioning anything at all political again and stick to my camp actresses.