A funny sort of peace

Since I'm on a bit of a wonder through Thatcherism at the moment.

One of the commonest bits of praise you hear about her; well from those who like her, growing up in South Wales I've met a fair few people who don't have a great opinion of her for reasons you can probably guess (hint: the whole mine closing thing didn't go down well). Anyway she's credited with being the first to have the testicular fortitude to really take on the unions.

Which is a bloody odd idea if you even take half a glance at the situation before she came to power. Heath had the three day week and the infamous "who governs" election, Callaghan even more famously had the winter of discontent to deal with.

If they weren't going to war with the unions then it didn't look much like peace.

Praise Thatcher for winning, but don't pretend she was the first to go into battle.

The Grocer's daughter

I'm currently ploughing my way through John Campbell's biography of Margaret Thatcher, because it's on my reading list rather than a great personal desire. Nothing against the iron lady but I find biographies generally very tedious, particularly the early lives of them (where often they're not very different from the young lives of many other people who didn't go on to become very important). Plus the writers usually know that this is a dull part and get tempted to start finding clues to later decisions in the smallest details of childhood.

So far what's far more interesting is where it notes how Thatcher herself (and others) have attempted to portray her childhood rather than her lifestory itself. Or in short, the most interesting parts of this biography are the bits that didn't happen.