I think that Thatcher's attitude to Mandela - as expressed by him - was rather better than is made out.
But it's also true that there was a part of the Tory party in times past which showed a lack of appreciation of how disgusting and inhumane apartheid was.
I was also particularly repelled by Thatcher's arse-licking of Pinochet, after he was arrested. Sure he helped us in the Falklands war and good for him for giving that help. But there was no need to turn a blind eye to the fact that he was a revolting dictator who murdered and brutally tortured many of his own citizens and one of ours, a nun (as I recall).
If we were proud of having played a part in the overthrow of Galtieri's fascist junta we should not have been so quick to fawn over another South American junta leader.
I think that Thatcher's attitude to Mandela - as expressed by him - was rather better than is made out.
The left refuse to acknowledge Thatcher's role in the end of apartheid, those who worked with her, know better:
Robin Renwick was ambassador to South Africa during a critical period when Nelson Mandela was released and apartheid’s edifice began to crumble. By opposing sanctions, Margaret Thatcher preserved British influence over the white regime. That made Mr Renwick one of the most important ambassadors in the country: the South African press would sometimes call him the “deputy president”.
I was briefed off-the-record by her foreign affairs adviser on several occasions, but when he told me that she had called on the then president, PW Botha, to release Nelson Mandela, I found it difficult to believe. I did not report it as I could not source it. But it was true. In a letter to Botha in October 1985 she wrote: "I continue to believe, as I have said to you before, that the release of Nelson Mandela would have more impact than almost any single action you could undertake."
When Botha stepped down after a stroke in 1989, he was replaced by FW de Klerk, who met Thatcher at Downing Street in June. I was among a group of journalists waiting outside No 10 with the promise that he would give a press conference straight after. We watched him leave then ran up Whitehall to the South African embassy where he had promised to speak. He did not turn up. We were told later that he had been too shocked by Thatcher's vehemence.
But it's also true that there was a part of the Tory party in times past which showed a lack of appreciation of how disgusting and inhumane apartheid was.
Indeed.
Its the nature of party politics that it attracts people who see the world in a very dualist right or wrong mentality. Add in the 'team mentality' and its very easy for them to make fools of themselves.
We see instances of it here regularly.
Back in the late 1980s you had the obnxoious Toryboy 'Hang Nelson Mandela' mentality (I remember one such droning on to me at great length about some bomb Mandela had planted) while the lefty equivalents included someone who cheered the Tiananmen Square massacre (apparantly the Chinese communist government had been too generous with the rice rations), another who was outraged at Eastern European protests against a 'Workers State' (she was ironically a posh girl from Surrey) and a good friend who drank Nicaraguan coffee, until that is the Sandanistas lost the election causing him to switch to Cuban coffee.
@faisalislam: Fun Manaus fact4: Apparently there are no roads to Manaus. Either a flight. Or a two week boat up the amazon. Rooney should take the boat.
My late Dad spent three years on the Amazon in the 1950s, shifting timber from Manaus to Belem...
I am proud our PM led a delegation to China to help improve our exports to their country,you seem to have a fixation against Cameron that everything he does is wrong,bit like Tim,and Osborne. Do you not want GB to succeed in the global race,and improve exports,they really like our high end quality products. Or would you prefer we were Little England,and ignore the rest of the world.
Before you ask,yes I have travelled extensively in that part of the world,China,Tibet,and Nepal,and yes I have run a business with 100's of employees and understand the way we get exports,and being rude to your host is way down the list of top tips.
How soon people forget 'Pik' Botha. With the crash of Moscow-funding the moronity of out-dated socialism the guy went out to the West and said: 'Hey, we need a solution'.
Still the colour-focused 'progressives' have never been right: The Saffah FM did more than that dead bloke and FW. Need brain-cells to understand why (so most poster are excused)....
Comments
Someone just asked me what was more likely, a Labour election win, or an England World Cup win. I said Labour. Yes, it's that bad.
But it's also true that there was a part of the Tory party in times past which showed a lack of appreciation of how disgusting and inhumane apartheid was.
I was also particularly repelled by Thatcher's arse-licking of Pinochet, after he was arrested. Sure he helped us in the Falklands war and good for him for giving that help. But there was no need to turn a blind eye to the fact that he was a revolting dictator who murdered and brutally tortured many of his own citizens and one of ours, a nun (as I recall).
If we were proud of having played a part in the overthrow of Galtieri's fascist junta we should not have been so quick to fawn over another South American junta leader.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/12/06/american-politics-as-a-diseased-brain/
Robin Renwick was ambassador to South Africa during a critical period when Nelson Mandela was released and apartheid’s edifice began to crumble.
By opposing sanctions, Margaret Thatcher preserved British influence over the white regime.
That made Mr Renwick one of the most important ambassadors in the country: the South African press would sometimes call him the “deputy president”.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/nelson-mandela/10501193/When-Nelson-Mandela-met-Margaret-Thatcher.html
I was briefed off-the-record by her foreign affairs adviser on several occasions, but when he told me that she had called on the then president, PW Botha, to release Nelson Mandela, I found it difficult to believe. I did not report it as I could not source it. But it was true. In a letter to Botha in October 1985 she wrote: "I continue to believe, as I have said to you before, that the release of Nelson Mandela would have more impact than almost any single action you could undertake."
When Botha stepped down after a stroke in 1989, he was replaced by FW de Klerk, who met Thatcher at Downing Street in June. I was among a group of journalists waiting outside No 10 with the promise that he would give a press conference straight after. We watched him leave then ran up Whitehall to the South African embassy where he had promised to speak. He did not turn up. We were told later that he had been too shocked by Thatcher's vehemence.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/10/margaret-thatcher-apartheid-mandela
@citizen_sane: I see that chap who compared Alex Salmond to Mandela has deleted his account. Probably for the best.
There had to be a couple of threads there at least.
Its the nature of party politics that it attracts people who see the world in a very dualist right or wrong mentality. Add in the 'team mentality' and its very easy for them to make fools of themselves.
We see instances of it here regularly.
Back in the late 1980s you had the obnxoious Toryboy 'Hang Nelson Mandela' mentality (I remember one such droning on to me at great length about some bomb Mandela had planted) while the lefty equivalents included someone who cheered the Tiananmen Square massacre (apparantly the Chinese communist government had been too generous with the rice rations), another who was outraged at Eastern European protests against a 'Workers State' (she was ironically a posh girl from Surrey) and a good friend who drank Nicaraguan coffee, until that is the Sandanistas lost the election causing him to switch to Cuban coffee.
Or would you prefer we were Little England,and ignore the rest of the world.
Before you ask,yes I have travelled extensively in that part of the world,China,Tibet,and Nepal,and yes I have run a business with 100's of employees and understand the way we get exports,and being rude to your host is way down the list of top tips.
Still the colour-focused 'progressives' have never been right: The Saffah FM did more than that dead bloke and FW. Need brain-cells to understand why (so most poster are excused)....
:twunt-watch: