Once again, it seems, Mrs Thatcher has been invited to Downing Street by Gordon Brown.In a photo opportunity that one must assume was arranged to please the voters of southern England rather than those of his own North Britain, Mr Brown once again stood on the doorstep of Number 10 with the Baroness: The Iron Lady and the Tin Man.
The occasion was the unveiling of the portrait that Mr Brown commissioned of his heroine for the stairway of the prime minister’s official London residence. The honour is immense considering that normally only photographs to 20th century prime ministers are hung in Downing Street, the exceptions being David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. She is also thought to be the first living prime minister to have a portrait hung there. Mr Brown was applauded warmly when he praised Thatcher’s determination and resolution, by an audience of her friends and colleagues from her period in office together with David Cameron. He continued, and this from a sometime Scotsman, and a Labour one at that: "You were a great leader and I want to thank you for the great service you gave to our country". Obviously Brown meant it when he said he was a North Britishman.
This is not Mrs Thatcher’s first visit to Downing Street since Mr Brown took over as prime minister in 2007. Shortly after his appointment he invited the baroness to take tea, and presented her with a tea service, a sensible use of money as doubtless it was just what she needed. She was later invited to Chequers, the prime ministers country estate to take luncheon. It is also rumoured that Brown has put in place plans to give her a state funeral, an honour normally reserved for monarchs.
Clearly Mr Brown and Mrs Thatcher enjoy a touching closeness. I hope that the SNP will use photographs of these two together in the election campaign which has already started, to remind the people of Scotland who Mr Brown’s friends are.
Notice it's well after Glasgow NE.
ReplyDeleteAs for Thatcher living...well I've got a stake and a sledgehammer handy...
You'll need some garlic too Conan!
ReplyDeleteIs that Mr Brown, Mrs Brown and Granny Brown?
ReplyDeleteHi Cynical Highlander. Nice to see you here.
ReplyDeleteThey do look like a "happy" family, don't they.
"Thank you for the great service you gave to our country"?
I mean, I know he's a liar, but ....phewwwww.
Suggest you have a look here before putting the myth before the facts.
ReplyDeleteI'll read that up later QM, but it too is an opinion.... One thing for certain, I've never met anyone in Scotland that liked Mrs Thatcher. Not one single person, including Conservatives.
ReplyDeleteNo. I tell a lie. I think Alex Salmond liked her, well, specially when she came to Scotland and patronised us. He always reckoned it did the SNP no harm.
So she may have liked Scotland but Scotland didn't care for her.
But I'll read the blog you sent QM. Thank you.
I've heard Gaga is making a granny flat in the basement of Number 10 just for her. Is this true?
ReplyDeleteI guess it's handy to have her around Scunnert. For Mandleson's nights off.... Someone has to run the country after all.
ReplyDelete" You were a great leader and I want to thank you for the great service you gave to our country".
ReplyDeleteOh dear Tris, did he Brown really say that now? Careful now coz you don't want a phone call lol
Yet if Alex Salmond was to say this then the rank Scottish media would have hounded him.
The SNP should use this quote in the run up to the election. What a dreadful thing for Brown to say, a man of the Labour socialist movement?? Aye right
Spot on Spook.
ReplyDeleteI'm waiting to be marched away. If I suddenly disappear you'll know why.
He apparently did say that, unbelievable though it may seem. It needs to be used against him, as Labour have used things against Salmond.
I'm trying to think of anything that Scots could thank Thatcher for.
ReplyDeleteNot the sinking of the Belgrano and the Falklands war. Not monetarism and the closing down of perfectly viable heavy industry. Not the sale of council housing stock, leading to underclass ghettos and inner city no go areas. Not using Scottish oil to bankroll England’s long recession of the 1980s. Not the M25 and the Channel Tunnel (with the high speed rail link from the latter to Scotland put on ice, for ever).
That only really leaves Mr Whippy ice cream, that she developed when she worked in the pies and soft puddings division of Lyons. Now I bet that is popular in Glasgow North East. She was a sad loss to the world of pies and soft puddings. It brings a tear to the eye of all lovers of soft puddings what she might have achieved if she had not wasted her life as Prime Minister.
I wonder if that portrait and statue depict her with her trusty handbag in one hand and large Mr Whippy with sprinkles and raspberry sauce in the other. What magnificent works of art they must be.
Munguin:
ReplyDeleteI've read the piece that Quiet Man sent and I have to agree that it's a myth that she used Scotland to test out the poll tax. Apart from that I see nothing there that changes my perception. I watched a documentary about her relationship with Scotland not too long ago, and it ws nearer the way I think things must have been.
Somehow I never saw her as a ice cream maker. Sprinkles and raspberry sauce makes her sound rather sweet!