An education for the Liberal Democrats about Mrs Thatcher

The President of the Liberal Democrats, Mr Tim Farron  was reported as having made a speech in which he argued for the Alternative Vote on the grounds that it would stop the 'wickedness of Margaret Thatcher'.  The absurdity of this comment is clear, not just because of Mrs Thatcher's many successes, but that, under AV, the Conservatives during her Premiership would have won many more seats - giving the Tory Government an even bigger landslide over Labour.

Given Mr Fallon's comments, today in the Commons, I asked for a debate on Mrs Thatcher, so as to give guidance to our Liberal partners:

Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): Can we please have a debate about the achievements of Mrs Thatcher, so that we can kindly educate our coalition allies about how she turned Britain into a nation of home owners, restored our place in the world and crushed militant trade unionism?

Sir George Young: As someone who played a modest role in Baroness Thatcher’s Administration, with a slight hiatus at one point, I disagree with the reported comments of the president of the Liberal Democrat party. The two reforms that were highlighted in the speech, namely the right to buy and the privatisation of the utilities, were actually continued under the succeeding Labour Government, so they cannot have been all bad.

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com