Denis Tuohy interviews the leader of the Conservative party - Margaret Thatcher on the eve of the 1979 General election. If you would like to license a clip from this video please e mail: archive@fremantle.com Quote: VT21189
This lady is a born politician, very focused on the issues and has answers. Never avoiding issues and almost incomparable in her demeanour. A formidable figure in british politics.
Exactly the haters can say what they want but at the end of the day the reason Thatcher was so disliked + controversial is cos she was a massive bellend.
This woman was truly a product of the very well-off group. She came from very wealthy circles and could really only understand the thinking of this group. She didn't find it difficult to judge the people who had almost nothing to eat. It was about time when the partying for the rich started...... oh boy were the rich (also with reagan) and wall street super happy. What a drama this woman was for the ordinary workers. She turned England into a kind of America 2....every man for himself and God for us all. With the unspoken phrase: FUCK YOU (common people) Right thinking is characterized by : give all the money to the small group and everything will be fine (trickle down doesn't work, that has been proven so many times) Buth for England the piont of correction is passed. The Brexit is a dramaand it is now very very mutch difficult to correct. I see only a downval. Richtwing: it is all the faulth of the left, problem solved. Wat a drama.
But she actually struggled as leader of the opposition. Even after the Winter of Discontent, Callaghan was significantly more popular than she was. It was only as PM that she really grew in stature
You watch this and you realise how bad the standards of political interviews, journalists, and politicians has become over the last 40 years. This sort of discussion simply would not be possible in Britain today.
I think it is a culture change on both sides, but both due to the same phenomena: the rise of rolling news channels and social media. Whereas this interview would have been event television at the time, the rise of rolling news channels and social media means that interviews like this would now be cut into segments and dispersed across rolling news and social media within minutes of it airing. For politicians, this meant the rise in the use of soundbytes and “messaging” - if you run the risk of having a deep answer to a question snipped and taken out of context on the Rolling news or social media. This lead to a shallower way of answering questions as you wanted to maximise the chance that the soundbyte used contained your key message and couldn’t be taken out of context. Journalists have responded by becoming more combative with politicians - trying to get them to actually answer a question or break party lines - both to make the audience aware the MP is giving stock answers but also to hopefully get that viral killer question on the news & social media. This has created something of a vicious circle. The more “soundbyte-y” the MP, the more aggressive journalists have become to actually get an answer out of them. The more aggressive the media has become, the more MPs are trained to avoid getting tripped up by aggressive reporters and instead ensure that their key messages are cutting through
100%, they are just not knowledgeable. Imagine Boris in this position. She knows the facts, figures and policies. Frightening how some of the people today are MP's
Absolutely disassembled this interviewer. She had all the numbers, all the facts, and straight answers to every question. Awesome interview! Thanks for sharing!
There's your problem. Interviews aren't and shouldn't be about "disassembling". It should be about thoughtfully answering equally well thought questions.
The gap between her and today's politicians is huge. I voted labour this year, but as a university educated individual I of course agree with so much of what she says. Her grasp of economics is something that would make Abbott and Corbyn blush. However there is a moral compass that our elected officials need, and she often did not have it. What I would say is our politics has devalued from this point. Look at how she can make her argument without interruption. She can discuss and build ideas without needing to make a quick political catch phrase. It's fantastic. Moreover, she was a cut above the rest then, and today she would be miles ahead if she were running. Divisive figure who ultimately saved our country.
@@shivapejman8155 because I'm intelligent enough to understand the contributions that individual politicians have made to our society whilst looking at the problems we have today and how we fix them
I'm curious why you say that "as a university educated individual I of course agree with her". I'm university educated and I disagree with quite a lot of the things she did. You need only look at what happened during her time. She wanted to make people self reliant and yet made unprecedented numbers of people dependent on the state because of unemployment. She wanted to cut government expenditure and yet under her it went higher than any previous labour, or conservative, government. She talked about sound money and yet she unleashed a credit boom and bust, and people in Britain got into unprescedented amounts of personal debt in her time. As someone once pointed out, she talked about the morality of her religious father, and yet her son was a convicted criminal who is barred from entering several countries. Perhaps the best description of her came from Enoch Powell, when asked about the forces she unleashed in British society, he said "Shame she never understood them".
@@zeddeka because university taught me to be reasoned and logical. To accept multiple views in my analysis, not just the passions and prejudices that would otherwise take hold of my discourse. I find so much of labours ideas are not based in the reality of economics. They are fudges of the highest regard. I find too often the disagreement with her is in the worst of what she did without any regard for the good she did. We were the sick man of Europe, declining in an age of free markets and greater globalisation. She turned our country around and embraced an economic policy that has created wealth rather than continual redistribution. With our education, we have to look at all sides of the debate, as such I can't ignore the enrichment of our lives that happened because of the economic policies she pursued. I am from a working class family, my parents managed to buy their house, raise a family, give us everything we wanted because of her policies. Those policies were so successful that they characterise British politics through new labour and through modern conservativism. The other point I would make here, is that there is a horrific decline in universities today for just accepting leftist ideas verbatim. I find a lot of academics live far away from the realities of economics and the reasonable scope of the state. It's unrealistic to expect some of the ideas they purport. To give an example, I know of an academic at the university I attended who was calling for the complete abolition of the police. Not a nuanced version of saying yes we need the police but we are going to spend more money on community outreach, not they were talking about anarchical reform. These extreme ideas make sense when you have absolutely no idea of the real world. We should be challenging this stuff as university educated people.
She made fools of many many men... The Iron Lady was a force only comes around every once and a great while in civilization.. Conviction, principal and she never wavered .. Not many of any at all politicians can claim that past present or future . Agree or disagree with her she earned respect. PERIOD
Brian, I have seen old footage of her. The more I think of it, the more I think she was amazing! She stood up hard against communism and she had no problem sternly letting people know that socialism does not work. She inherited a fiscal mess in 1979 and she turned it around! She made a lot of enemies, but she had principles and convictions. That's something you do not see in most politicians!
Thatcher was a conviction politician who came to power with a complete, fully worked-out, fully costed political strategy based on monetarist philosophy . No UK Prime Minster has ever had such a clear plan for the country. She was a one-off. A great leader and a great woman.
But as Enoch Powell famously said about her implementation of monetarism "Shame she didn't understand it". That's a charge that sticks against much of Mrs Thatcher's government. She didn't understand a lot of the effects that her policies brought with them - many of which were contradictory and the opposite of what she wanted. One very small example of that is how she wrote to apologise to her personal friend who ran TV AM after they lost the franchise. She said she hadn't understood the franchise system she had introduced (in the name of free market competition) would have damaged a personal friend so badly. Unfortunately, she was often deeply simplistic in her analysis.
British Government & Politics is my main academic background. I've been teaching it at A level and pre-university foundation level for over 20 years. I will not launch into a divisive ideologically motivated rant in this comments section. However, as people in my field agree unanimously, the quality of discourse, serious informative journalism, political debate and integrity among political elites on all sides has despairingly gone down the toilet. This reduces, undermines and diminishes what ought to be serious discussions about public policies which have a profound effect on our lives to the level of a crass reality TV spectacle. It has enabled the current crop of corrupt political elites to hide behind a smokescreen saturated with spurious disinformation to evade accountability and scrutiny. It opens the door for shameless, unprincipled opportunism and dangerous demagogues. Archived political interviews featuring Heath, Wilson, Thatcher, Callaghan, Foot, Powell, Benn etc. with flagship BBC & ITV political reporters asking the right questions offers far superior educational value than the spin-infested, propagandist Foxified rubbish of the last decade or so where things have gone from bad to worse. :(
The wealthiest made bank and the poor became second class citizens in spending power and quality of life. But that is just justified social darwinism in your warped little mind I bet
She had a brilliant mind and she saved the UK, the world need more politicians like her to defend freedom and individual rights, to create the wealth of the nations.
@@boomerz2478 Pre 1980 full employment was the policy aim of all UK governments house building and reconstruction was in full swing and owning your own home was possible for many. University was free and grants where available for students from lower income families. If you were not academically inclined you could easily get an apprenticeship, even unskilled work was easily available. There where proper government retraining schemes for older adults which were scrapped by Thatcher. Pensions were linked to average wages not inflation. This link was broken by Thatcher in 1980 and as a result by the mid 2000’s it’s value had fallen to 15% of average wages, in 1979 it was 26%.
She fixed some problems, created others, and did very little to tackle others. The problems that have bedevilled Britain since the 1800s - chronic underinvestment and very poor levels of education and training, were not addressed at all in her time. They still bedevil us now.
T H hello, she actually addressed those issues you talk about. You will see with interviews. You may disagree with her stance but she certainly took action. You aren’t addressing that the demand increases every year, she took a lot of action e.g. increased budgets time after time, dealt with the recession in a way which worked.
@@ohcrikey-bd6dr No it hasn't. It's about 26 minutes long, which would equate to a 30 minute slot on ITV with adverts. Why would anyone just randomly edit out a small chunk of intro and keep everything else?
MORE small business and new small businesses . And STILL the lesson has not been learned. Lady Thatcher was superb and supreme in her understanding of what this Country needed , wanted to do and achieve.
Margaret Thatcher is one of a prominent British politicians. Besides, her speech is perfect. Every word is comprehensible without shouting, other politicians can learn how to express their thought in this marvellous way.
I like watching these interviews from the 70s and early 80s and one thing that I notice is that the argument is always dominated by discussion of the trade unions. The interviewers always say, "You can't do this or that because the unions won't accept it." The interviewers have a sort of blindness: they cannot see how the country could be other than it was. They accepted the militancy of the trade unions as a fact of life. Mrs Thatcher was the only person to understand that the government didn't have to be held to ransom by the far left (usually Communist) trade union leaders. She stood up to them and beat them. Since the 80s, the unions have no longer had the power to dictate to the elected government of the day. The success of Mrs Thatcher's trade union reforms is reflected in the fact that the Labour government, when it came to power, didn't reverse any of them.
So true ABC any i admired her so much especially for sorting the vile commie sgargill out.Most people now realise how bad the unions were and how they destroyed this country.
9:56 was by far his best point. And it turned out to be the biggest issue looking back. They needed to build far more housing... but New Labour flooded the country with immigrants which is what created the housing crisis
No the Tories selling of all the council housing stock led to the housing crisis (with the councils not seeing any of that money). They also built less houses during their 18 years in power under Thatcher and Major.
24th April 1979. The events at Southall the night before the show, as mentioned during it, are described by Wikipedia thusly: "On 23 April 1979, Blair Peach, a teacher and anti-racist activist, was killed after police knocked him unconscious during a protest against the National Front (NF). Another demonstrator, Clarence Baker - a singer of the reggae band Misty in Roots, remained in a coma for five months. More than 40 others - including 21 police - were injured, and 300 were arrested"
We din't have this type of politicians today in the UK at least not from the Labour or Conservative but perhaps leaders like Nigel Farage could reposition the UK for the challenging years ahead. She was right in saying that jot all members of the trade unions supports the strikes and protests. The problem lies with their leaders. Looking back 4 decades the UK is in a much better and stronger position today than most of European nations, which would have been possible if her policies were not right. I have never seen many leaders with such strong convictions to what they believe and do. Mrs. Thatcher is one of those rare leaders. She's not just a politician, she's a true leader, a type of leader the UK will miss for the next 10-15 years.
we can look back at the votes... actually almost every single trade union member voted for strikes. you're just denying basic facts
4 года назад
She was right about more boarded up houses than homeless, of course there are. Councils would rather let them go to rot than do them up and rent them out for an income.
Without judging her platform, the reasoning that, like a company when taking over another can't determine exactly what changes can be made, she can't be explicit about what changes would be made on the budget, is specious. The most relevant and useful information in making such judgments is public, and if they don't announce their policies clearly before a certain point, it's because they don't focus on specific policies as much as gaining power, or, more likely, it's because they know such policies would decrease their popularity and decrease the likelihood they would the next election.
@@oiooi6460 This is the same tired divisive lines conservatives have used for years. Discriminate the poor "as not hard working enough" it may have worked 40 years ago but decades of failed policies and rising inequality have made them as relevant as "the white mans burden"
As someone else said,the gap between today’s politicians and she is ASTRONOMICAL. Even greater if we compare her with politicians in South America nowadays…
The idea of enabling people to buy their council flats/houses is a really good one (I think in many cases the discount was ~70%). I'd be curious to know how many people took up this offer and what impact it had.
Look at the Susanna Reid interview with Rishi Sunak Conservative conference this year. Screaming at him with tit bits from social (parasite) media.. MT was unbelievably wise and really cared about the decisions she made.
Mrs T was talking about higher taxes when basic rate of tax was 33% and the top rate was 83%. Liz Truss talks the same way at a time when the top rate is 45% and the basic rate 20%. Truss also talks about deregulating and privatising at a time when virtually nothing is state-owned and most industries are de-regulated.
Thatcher in 1979 wanted to reduce the higher rate of income tax which was 83% to 60% and bring the basic rate down from 33% to 30%. I had no problems with that. It is the rest of Thatcher's policies from the 1980s I had problems with.
When did NI come into affect? Because when you add NI we basically get tax 33% after 12.5k take home. I find it mental that instead of fixing the economy and wages the government coalition just increased the tax free amount. Now they go look, the majority of the Rich pay the tax, it's all a con so they can eventually say the NHS is no longer financially feasible.
Every time Thatcher reduced the top level of tax, the tax receipts increased. Mental how the rates of tax were so high in the 70s. Back then the rich paid hardly any tax compared to what they do now with much lower top rates. So she was right.
She's only been in hell ten years and has already shut down five furnaces and privatised the ninth circle. Not to mention how many demons have been sacked and rehired at half pay.
Cruella the human rights abusing, prison ship building, illegal tent erecting, truth avoiding sycophant. I'm just surprised she hasn't started goose stepping yet. To any genuine witches reading, sorry for the insult to your character. Might even be more evil then Maggie herself.
Those damn unions with their "extreme policies" like a minimum wage, safe work conditions, equality at the work place, paid vacation etc DAMN THOSE UNIONS!!!
I don’t think Thatcher had a problem with any of those things. The trouble is that trade unions became more concerned with flexing their muscles than helping the workers they were supposed to represent.
The monarchy is necessary. The monarch is an impartial head of state, apolitical, and a protector of the British constitution - the prime minister should not be the head of state. Monetarily, they bring in more with tourism and philanthropy than they cost to maintain. The system works as it is, no need to change what works perfectly well.
She talks about that no one would have ambition because too much of their earnings are being taxed. Yet Cuba has one of the highest qualified Doctors per capita than most countries and even exports their training and skills to other countries for trade.
@@Mimi-cc3vk You don't like people buying things for themselves. I think parents are well capable of buying milk for their kids. Thatcher had a budget, she had to make cuts and instead of cutting education she cut the milk instead and slightly raised the FSM allowance
@@MrDanielfff777 1. Thanks for elaborating much appreciated! :D 2. I have no problem with people buying things for themselves! 3. Many families cannot aford basic things for themselves due to poverty. 4. Thatchercut budgets on things that weren't necessary because she was very ambitious and was very glory-oriented she was a strong and decent leader but I don't agree with every thing she did especially article 28, and the housing crisis.
@@Mimi-cc3vk Trust me, poor people can afford milk! Milk is and was very cheap. Margaret had to cut the budget, this was when she was education secretary so it was not actually her fault. There was also high inflation during the 70s so public expenditure had to he reduced. It was one of the conditions of the IMF later that decade Margaret thatcher voting in 1967 to decriminalise homosexuality What do you mean by housing crisis?
The sheer arrogance of that disgusting woman . She is the master at talking down to people . What a joke her saying she cared about the poor !! Beyond belief .
A woman who won three general elections, including a huge landslide in 1983, and a close 2nd landslide in 1987. So, ordinary people out there did like her and voted her party in three times under her leadership. What does that say?
Yet many of those who influence policy are ‘technocrats’ or specialists in their fields. The outcomes of a majority of government policies are generally studied first before they are implemented. The issue is that even the most skilled tend to reach different conclusions.
Thames made the Original Spitting image. Thatcher hated it. The BBC bought Thames. Cameroon was the the person that cut the deal. The BBC then cancelled that program. 😅