Former Bermuda Governor On Thatcher’s Legacy
Former Bermuda Governor Lord Waddington — who served as Home Secretary in the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet — said the “Iron Lady” of UK politics was “not an easy person to work with. On most matters she was convinced she was right; [and] she usually was.”
The longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and the only woman to have held the office, Margaret Thatcher died in London yesterday [Apr.7] at the age of 87.
David Waddington served as a Conservative Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons from 1968 to 1990, and was then made a life peer.
He was the Conservative Chief Whip under Margaret Thatcher from 1986 to 1989, was appointed to her Cabinet as Home Secretary from 1989 to 1990.
He was Leader of the House of Lords from 1990 to 1992 before serving as Governor of Bermuda from 1992 to 1997.
“Margaret Thatcher was tough and did not suffer fools gladly,” Lord Waddington said in his recently published autobiography [pictured here]. “Diplomacy was not her strong point and the word ‘compromise’ did not feature large in her vocabulary …
“Margaret Thatcher had great qualities of leadership which stood the country in good stead in times of crisis, and she was giant on the world stage.
“It was sometimes difficult to describe her without using adjectives more familiar to the reader of ‘Jane’s Fighting Ships’ than the student of political biography — indefatigable, indomitable, intrepid and courageous.”
Lord Waddington told a British newspaper he owed Margaret Thatcher a personal debt because she broke the mould of British politics by becoming the first UK party leader to campaign in a by-election when he won the Ribble Valley constituency in February 1979 – just months before she became Prime Minister.
The 83-year-old statesman said last night: “I remember meeting her on the by-pass near Whalley and we went straight to a mill in Padiham. At first, she got a pretty chilly reception but she won people over with her sheer enthusiasm.
“By the time we got to Clitheroe, the streets were so packed with people you could scarcely move. It was a triumphant visit.
“Her death is very sad. She was an immense political figure. It would be presumptuous to say she was my friend but it was a privilege to know and work with her.”
Margaret Thatcher campaigning with David Waddington in 1979
In his 2012 memoirs, Lord Waddington said Margaret Thatcher’s impact on the Cold War politics of the 1980s and ’90s was immeasurable.
He said the former Prime Minister — who stepped down to avoid further intra-party blood-letting following an attempted 1990 palace coup by Conservative MPs — had helped to end the East-West impasse which dominated post-World War Two geopolitics for more than 40 years.
“Her determination to resist every threat to pace from the Soviet bloc, her willingness to face any amount of unpopularity at home in order to see her country properly defended and the West secure [gave] her the moral authority to speak for the West and made the Soviets realise that they had no hope with their far more limited resources of forever preventing democracy in Eastern Europe, let alone extending their particular brand of tyranny further west,” he said.
Lord Waddington concluded that “the British people owe her an immense debt and history will be kind to her.”
Margaret Thatcher paid two well-publicised visits to the island — the first as Prime Minister for a Good Friday summit meeting with US President George H.W. Bush in 1990, the second in 2001 as a private citizen to address a meeting organised by former Bermuda Premier Sir John Swan.
none of us is 100% right ….. I’m certain that she regretted her position on South-Africa later in life. With few exceptions, her mind-set worked in favor of the UK in general. The unions were out of control (as is one BDA Union), their economy was bankrupted (as is our economy), Government operated industries were wallowing in red ink (as are our Tourism and IB revenue Tax returns and quangos)the UK government itself was bloated and inefficient(as is the BDA government) and the nationalist racist bigots were using the state of affairs to promote their anger and frustration (as we see here with unecessary comments meant to incite social anger)….the OBA has several positive examples to draw from 1980′s Thatcher mind-set to fix our economy.