tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29373297.post1447672102058677813..comments2024-03-23T18:50:32.902-04:00Comments on Telling Secrets: Meanwhile, back in the political arena. . .Elizabeth Kaetonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06787552280232329081noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29373297.post-9701896399976450362008-10-05T04:06:00.000-04:002008-10-05T04:06:00.000-04:00Aha! This is what we brits call the Thatcher parad...Aha! This is what we brits call the Thatcher paradox. Mrs T was intelligent, articulate, and a superb infighting tactical politician. What she did was largely, it turns out, made up as she went along. Although not a feminist, she couldn't help moving the goalposts somewhat. However<BR/>(1) she made it by being the best man in the room (in an unreconstructed way), and this in itself emphatically underscored some of the old stereotypical attitudes<BR/>(2) She made her party unelectable for a generation (John Sargent's book "Maggie" explains how ad why this was so, and cast a long shadow over women in UK politics who actually wanted to be women.<BR/>(3) Perhaps in a country that has countenanced female heads of state (what John Knox called the monstrous regiment of women) since 1553, including three of the greatest, Thatcher wasn't such a big deal after all.Bishop Alan Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13879516755776951638noreply@blogger.com