The Iron Lady: A Grocer's Daughter Who Mounted the World Stage

The Iron Lady:
A Grocer's Daughter Who Mounted the World Stage
United Daily News editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)
A Translation
April 10, 2013

Summary: Like her or not, Margaret Thatcher was a global leader of far-reaching significance. She championed the free market. She promoted privatization. She opposed meaningless subsidies. She cut public spending. She led with an iron fist. Her influence was felt as far away as Taiwan. It marked the beginning of internationalization and liberalization.

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Like her or not, Margaret Thatcher was a global leader of far-reaching significance. She championed the free market. She promoted privatization. She opposed meaningless subsidies. She cut public spending. She led with an iron fist. Her influence was felt as far away as Taiwan. It marked the beginning of internationalization and liberalization.

Without the reforms implemented by Thatcher during her 12 years in office, London today would not be a global financial center. The UK economy would still be mired in labor confrontation and disparities in wealth. The skies over England would still be covered in gray smoke from its sunset industries. The "Iron Lady" stepped down as Prime Minister over 20 years ago. But she left behind massive changes. Since she passed away, her legacy has become increasingly clear with the passage of time.

She was the most noteworthy British Prime Minister of the past half-century. Born the daughter of a small town grocer, she acquired her father's honesty and integrity. She grew up in a small town filled with of hard-working citizens. Her experience in her father's grocery store inculcated in her a pragmatic economic outlook. Her experience made her different from Britain's aristocrats, who were born into wealth and received elite educations. She experienced no Original Sin. She felt no duty to engage in Noblesse Oblige. As a result, she could look at the "British disease" through different eyes. Union struggles paralyzed Britain for thirty years. She dealt with them with an iron fist. Her methods alarmed even her conservative comrades.

Thatcher's opponents often described her as an arbitrary leader "without compassion." When she served as Minister of Education she ordered the cancellation of free milk for elementary school students. This led to taunts of "milk snatcher." When she was prime minister her privatization policy led to a significant increase in unemployment. Unions denounced her as "the blind Prime Minister." But Britain faced a political, economic, and social dilemma. Were it not for this dedicated and decisive Prime Minister, national transformation would have been impossible. Britain would not be where it is today. From this perspective, allegations that she was "without compassion" were gross oversimplifications.

National leaders can be divided into three types. The first type has clear objectives, stands on the front line, leads the charge, and relentlessly advances. The second type stands on the front lines, rattles sabers, and shouts "Charge!" But deep down inside, lacks values and direction. Everything is mere show. The third type lacks direction, dares not stand on the front line and dares not shout "Charge!" and instead changes directions with the political winds. Thatcher was clearly the first type of leader.

Britain's left-wing media frequently criticized her. But even they admitted that her greatest virtue was that she did not care whether people liked her or not. Her liberalization and privatization led to massive changes in economic power and ownership. She defied the politcal currents, at great risk to her political career. In the process, Thatcher demonstrated consistency in her beliefs. As she saw it, only individual liberty could enable a nation to become great. She promoted systemic reform. She championed the individual's right to direct his own life. During Thatcher's 12 years in office, she never indulged any selfish desires or engaged in any cronyist practices.

As Britain's only female prime minister. Thatcher attracted more world attention than any prime minister before or after. She was resolute in her beliefs. She was straightforward and fair-minded in her reforms. She was closer to the common people than the critics who blasted her. She liked to quote Lincoln. "You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong." "You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich." It was her philosophy of life, acquired from her experience as a grocer's daughter.

Thatcher's 12 years of governance created prosperity. It facilitated economic and social transformation. It narrowed the gap between rich and poor. Alas, the legacy she left the Conservative Party was internal division. This was perhaps inevitable in the wake of a "strongman." It included her opposition to the expansion of the EU, which led to widespread opposition, and may have contributed to her stepping down. Whether her departure was a blessing or a curse remains difficult to determine. In any event, at the end of the Cold War, Thatcher's decisive actions enabled British capitalism to find its way out of the fog. It set an example for other countries. It even helped Mikhail Gorbachev lower the Iron Curtain and open the Soviet Union. These were achievements that cannot be ignored.

The grocer's daughter became an Iron Lady who mounted the world stage, who cast a giant shadow, and wrote her own page in history.

鐵娘子：雜貨商之女走過世界舞台
【聯合報╱社論】
2013.04.10 02:03 am

不論喜歡她或不喜歡她的人，都無法不承認柴契爾夫人是一個影響深遠的世界級領袖。她鼓吹自由經濟，大力推動民營化，反對無謂的補貼，削減公共支出，以鐵腕引領世界風騷。即使遠如台灣，當時也被這股思潮席捲，邁開了國際化、自由化的旅程。

如果不是柴契爾十二年執政所推動的改革，倫敦不可能取得今天全球金融中心的地位，英國經濟仍將陷於勞資對抗、貧富懸殊的困境，英格蘭的天空仍將在老舊製造業的煙塵籠罩下一片灰濛濛。「鐵娘子」已離開首相職位廿多年，但她留下的巨大改變，在她辭世之後回顧，已被時間洗練得愈顯清晰。

這位半世紀來最出色的英國首相，出身只是一個小鎮雜貨商的女兒。她在家中薰染了父親的誠實和正直，在小鎮看到了勤奮的公民，在雜貨店培養了務實的經濟觀。這些經驗，使她和那些出身貴族階級、受菁英教育的英國統治者不同，她沒有貴族階級的原罪感和教養包袱，所以能以不一樣的眼光看待「英國病」，並向糾纏英國卅年的工會抗爭痛下鐵腕對付。她的作法，讓保守黨的同志都大驚失色。

柴契爾的對手，常把她形容為「毫無同情心」的獨斷獨行領袖。她在擔任教育部長時下令取消國小學童的免費牛奶，引來「牛奶掠奪者」之譏；在擔任首相時推動民營化造成失業率大增，被工會描繪為「盲目首相」。但回顧當時英國所面臨的政經及社會困境，如果不是一個篤信而決斷的首相堅決推動，國家轉型的動力恐將無以為繼，英國也不會是今天這般模樣。從這個角度看，「沒有同情心」的指控，恐怕也不能那麼簡單解讀了。

國家領導人的領導模式大致可分為幾類：一是有明確目標，並站在前面揮軍衝刺，堅定不移前進；二是站在前方揮刀喊衝，心中其實沒有確定的價值或方向，只是裝模作樣；三是既沒有方向感，又不敢站在前線喊衝，只能隨著社會氛圍忽東忽西。柴契爾的領導，應該屬於第一類。

就連對她頗多批評的英國左派媒體都說，柴契爾最大的「美德」，就是不那麼在乎人民喜不喜歡她。她推動自由化和民營化政策，造成經濟權力和所有權的大量移轉，這實在是冒著個人失去政治生命的風險逆勢而為。在這個過程中，柴契爾展現了相當一貫的信念：「只有個體獲得自由，國家才能變得偉大」；而她推動的制度改革，也一直朝向「使個人有權主導自己的生命」的主題前進。尤其，柴契爾任內十二年，人們沒看到她露出過什麼私心私欲，或者親信傳出什麼醜聞。

作為英國唯一的女首相，柴契爾比起她前前後後的多位首相都要更受世界矚目。這不僅是因為她的果決，而是她在改革時所宣揚的那些簡單而中肯的道理，比起各種批評她的滔滔雄辯都要更切近庶民的事理。包括她喜歡引用的林肯名言：「你不可能因把強者變弱，就讓弱者變強」、「你不可能拉下付薪水的人，卻以為可以幫助受薪者」，都是這位雜貨商的女兒從生活實踐中體驗而得的生命哲學。

柴契爾的十二年治理盛世，推動了英國經濟和社會的轉型，縮減了貧富差距。但她留給保守黨的「遺產」，卻是分裂的內部；這恐怕是「強人過後」的必然景象。包括她當年反對歐盟深化一體化的進程，導致反對聲浪四起，甚至因此下台；如今看來，是福是禍仍難斷言。無論如何，在冷戰年代的尾聲，柴契爾以其旗幟鮮明的宣示和果決的行動，幫助英國資本主義走出了進退失據的陰霾，更成功號召許多國家的追隨，甚至親善戈巴契夫而使蘇聯打開鐵幕，都是無法抹滅的光芒。

雜貨商的女兒，以鐵娘子的姿態走過世界舞台，留下如此深刻而巨大的身影，這是一頁傳奇。