Like her or not, she was the Iron Lady. She knew what she wanted & got the job done.
I follow programmes on the debate on climate change when they come up & for the 2nd time I’ve caught a programme that delved into the politics of the 1980s. Surprisingly climate change was on the cliff of becoming a mainstream political agenda. Margaret Thatcher spoke on climate change in public – funny how looking back that didn’t stick in my mind as something that I remembered about her.
This morning Radio 4 has been looking back. I started the day hearing clips from Thatcher & Bush senior, extolling the urgency of tackling climate change & environmental issues. I heared them both, although somehow my mind can’t compute this.
Thatcher is such an emotive politician – lover her or hate her we’ve all made our minds up & its hard to rearrange emotion from the facts. Today we were reminded that Thatcher was a science graduate and according to the programme this morning, she was actually interested in the climate / environmental issues. She was actually instrumental in putting these issues on the agenda for a G8 summit.
It’s obvious now that this fundamental agenda, never hit the priorities of the world’s politicians back. Even now it’s struggling. But this morning I wondered where we would be now had Thatcher chosen to pursue these policies through her time in office – she could have been The Green Lady. Had she gone down this route, which such tenacity, I wonder what the world would look like now.
Check out the Radio 4 programme Uncertain Climate by Environmental Analyst Roger Harribin – part one – it concludes next week.
