Margaret Thatcher

A first attempt to put together the significance of the US State Department's Visitor Program (the former Leader Program) in relation to the political career of a prominent Western leader. This was Margaret Thatcher's first experience of the United States, thanks to an invitation from the US Embassy in London. Her talent in House of Commons debates was already noticeable in 1967, and the US Embassy duly gave her the opportunity to acquaint herself with the great and the good in New York, Washington DC, and beyond.

The paper is part of the ‘Back Home’ research project carried out by a group of PhD students from the Polytechnic University of Milan within the framework of the Paquebot Laboratory. The goal of the present research is to reveal historical premises and sociocultural circumstances that provided the basis necessary for the development of the British post-war housing.
As one of the major sociocultural and architectural phenomena in the modern history of Great Britain, the new residential development has been taking shape under the impact of new realities of the post-war life. A descriptive research method has been applied in order to determine the most significant among these realities, such as the exigency of rebuilding and reforming the country immediately after the World War II, economic upheaval of the next two decades, introduction of new governmental policies, multiple cultural tendencies – form the Swinging Sixties to the Electric Eighties – and an intense critical debate of the period.
The study aims to answer the following research questions: what are the preconditions of the British post-war housing phenomenon, and what has determined the emergence of a new generation of architects ready to exploit new approaches to modernism and avant-garde in Great Britain in the 1950s-1980s. Special attention is paid to revealing innovative tendencies of art, fashion, music and cinema, which have transformed the country into the world’s cultural trendsetter for several decades and become a cardinal requirement for the residential development in post-war Great Britain.

Margaret Thatcher, İngiliz tarihinin en uzun süre görevde kalmış ve ilk kadın başbakanı olmasının yanı sıra ekonomik anlamda liberal, hatta liberteryen denilecek politikalar izlemiştir. Döneminin sol, sosyalist yönelimlerinin arasında Reagan’la birlikte sağ kanat politikanın güçlü bir temsilcisi, Demir Leydi’sidir. Bununla birlikte onun döneminden bahsederken göz önüne alınması gereken birkaç önemli rakam vardır. Bunlar başlıca enflasyon oranları (dolayısıyla faiz oranları), buna bağlı olarak İngiliz poundunun değeri, işsizlik, ithalat/ihracat ve iç-dış yatırım oranlarıdır.

On 23 January 2013 Prime Minister David Cameron gave a speech1 on the future of the United Kingdom (UK) in the European Union (EU), announcing that an in-out referendum will be held in 2017 if another Conservative government is elected in the next elections. The Prime Minister stated that this 4-year time lapse is to be used by British citizens in order to get better informed on the question: “What is  it exactly that we are choosing to be in or out of?”2. This question was not put in a value-free context, since his speech was not impartial in depicting the European Union. On the contrary, it framed the EU issue with a set of assumptions that automatically ruled out some options (such as the possibility that British citizens share with other Member States’ citizens an idealised view of the EU), while strengthening others (such as the essentialised,  irrevocable “island nature” of Britons).
Considering the importance of British political discourse on the EC in shaping  the public mental set and opinion3, and therefore voters’ position on the promised referendum, this essay focuses on the assumptions on “Englishness”4 and “Europeness” implicit in Cameron’s Speech, which is analysed in comparison with the political discourse of Margaret Thatcher (Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990) and Tony Blair (Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007). The argument is that British political discourse on the EU is characterised by both elements of change and of continuity that, although analytically separated, merge into each other. In order to recognise them, the British political discourse is analysed from two perspectives: its use and its content.

This chapter examines the relatively distinct economic and political logics behind government attempts since 1979 to make the City more flexible. We will describe the neoliberal accumulation strategy intended to save Britain from economic decline and the ‘two nations’ popular capitalist political strategy which is meant to save us all from creeping socialism. Although we believe that there is a strong strategic element to Thatcherite politics and policies and that the best way to make sense of Thatcherism is to explore its strategic dimensions, we do not claim that there is one single, overriding strategy: the strategic line is emergent and tendential, subject to change or reversal in the light of new circumstances, and even includes important ad hoc elements as well as broader, long-term objects. Thus, we will argue that, although they have both been clearly discernible as key elements in the emerging strategic line of Thatcherism from 1979 onwards, the purpose, weight and vehicles of neoliberal and popular capitalist objectives have changed several times. We will also argue that, in certain crucial respects, these twin strategies are internally inconsistent, individually self-defeating and mutually contradictory. In particular we will suggest that the Thatcherite government’s neoliberal strategy was ill-suited to the needs of the intense international race for modernisation and that it was further deformed through their concern to secure political support through popular capitalism and social division.

In the past decade, urban regeneration policy makers and practitioners have faced a number of difficult challenges, such as sustainability, budgetary constraints, demands for community involvement and rapid urbanization in the Global South. Urban regeneration remains a high profile and important field of government-led intervention, and policy and practice continue to adapt to the fresh challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century, as well as confronting long-standing intractable urban problems and dilemmas. This Companion provides cutting-edge critical review and synthesis of recent conceptual, policy and practical developments within the field. With contributions from 72 international experts within the field, it explores the meaning of ‘urban regeneration’ in differing national contexts, asking questions and providing informed discussion and analyses to illuminate how an apparently disparate field of research, policy and practice can be rendered coherent, drawing out common themes and significant differences. The Companion is divided into six parts, exploring: globalization and neo-liberal perspectives on urban regeneration; emerging econceptualizations of regeneration; public infrastructure and public space;
housing and cosmopolitan communities; community centred regeneration; and culture-led regeneration. The concluding chapter considers the future of urban regeneration and proposes a nine-point research agenda. This Companion assembles a diversity of approaches and insights in one comprehensive volume to provide a state-of-the-art review of the field. It is a valuable resource for both advanced undergraduate
and postgraduate students in Urban Planning, Built Environment, Urban Studies and Urban Regeneration, as well as academics, practitioners and politicians.

The research addresses a central tension of modern society between materialism and retail expansion on the one hand and growing environmental awareness on the other, during the 1970s and 1980s. It does so through a study of the operations of Marks and Spencer, with comparative reference to other leading retailers, principally Sainsbury’s and the John Lewis Partnership.

Marks and Spencer experienced a complex renegotiation of its relationship with the environment and resource use as it underwent rapid expansion and changes in the period 1968-1992. This has yet to be addressed by academics, especially in relation to the notable growth in environmental concern at this time. It is this changing retail context, as experienced by Marks and Spencer, coupled with the evolving significance of the broader environmental agenda, which this thesis addresses. It makes extensive use of the Marks and Spencer Company Archive to address the importance of the company’s changing commercial operations, its relationship with consumers, the government and British society more broadly, in shaping its approach to the environment and resource use.

The thesis contributes to existing academic literature concerning retailing and the environment by illustrating the extent to which the environment was a highly constructed and negotiated retail concern, which invariably predated the environmental fervour of the late eighties and early nineties and the subsequent commercial clamour to be seen to be green. The research addresses Marks and Spencer’s response to environmental issues, its energy conservation efforts, its retail store development, as well as the internal and external environments of its stores. It shows how the relationship between retailers and the environment was shaped as much by the outlook and operations of individual retailers and the changing nature of modern retailing, as it was the wider environmental agenda and growing popular concern.

The present article takes on the subject of feminism in international relations.The objective of this article is to nuance, if not to combat the harsh feminist point of view by focusing on two key figures in the history of global politics, two female politicians who shaped the world they lived in. Through the case study, the aim is to prove that, although falling under the category of the female gender, a politician's primary focus should be the people they are leading.

Reagan, Thatcher, Mitterrand, Kohl, Clinton, Blair, Schröder, Berlusconi, Obama, Cameron, Sarkozy, Merkel, Renzi: nelle parabole di questi leader, accomunati dalla pretesa di rappresentare il nuovo e il cambiamento, si può cogliere il ruolo cruciale che gioca la narrazione nei sistemi politici. Attingendo alle scienze sociali, alla psicologia e alle neuroscienze, il libro illustra i meccanismi che rendono efficace lo storytelling per creare emozioni, identificazione e coinvolgimento con il leader narratore. Uno storytelling che è collocato all’interno dell’impetuoso sviluppo della comunicazione e del marketing politici degli ultimi decenni. Quei tredici casi ci aiutano a decifrare l’attualità: i profili e le narrazioni di Trump, Salvini e Macron appaiono come lo stadio avanzato dell’impoverimento del discorso politico, della spettacolarizzazione e della logica mediatica; nella Brexit vediamo l’impasse a cui tutto ciò può portare; nel cancellierato di Merkel il suggerimento di una via alternativa.

Through Margaret Thatcher’s private and public performances, the micro-politics of dress translated into the macro-politics of power.  Thatcher’s changing career can be traced through her dress (see Young 1991: 416-417); analysis of her dress leading up to and during her Premiership reveals both her aspirations and increasing power. Understanding of Thatcher’s agency in her embodied, dressed performances can be informed and developed through Butler’s (1999) conceptualization of performativity. Through adaptation, repetition and divergent dress, Thatcher constructed different identities, some of which became iconic symbols of her self and her politics. Examination of Thatcher’s dress refines the understanding of the relationship between constraints and agency experienced by actors in the public realm. Upon becoming party leader, Margaret Thatcher’s gender, class and ideological viewpoints were incongruent with her unprecedented political status and she faced many challenges in attempting to overcome this. Dress became a potentially destabilising focus for her critics and symbolic of her “outsider” status. Yet in the face of these challenges she recognized and learned from the expectations of others, adapting and changing her dress. However, this was not an instantaneous, complete or permanent transformation. What Thatcher achieved, as she crafted her dressed performances, was agency over a further aspect of her life and her politics. There was also an evolving alignment of her dress with her political ideology and domestic and international roles over time.

Reviews

"Filled with new detail after new detail gleaned from a host of archives and first-hand interviews, this book tells the fascinating story of an iconic party leader and prime minister forced by events into making more concessions than she and her colleagues ever imagined possible. Required reading for anyone interested in the Thatcher era, as well as in the Troubles and the tortuous route out of them." --Tim Bale, Professor of Politics, Queen Mary University of London, UK

"A major subject, examined through the interrogation of very rich source material. A fascinating study of painfully evolving relationships." --Richard English, author of Does Terrorism Work? A History

Abstract

The first woman elected to lead a major Western power and the longest serving British prime minister for 150 years, Margaret Thatcher is arguably one the most dominant and divisive forces in 20th-century British politics. Yet there has been no overarching exploration of the development of Thatcher’s views towards Northern Ireland from her appointment as Conservative Party leader in 1975 until her forced retirement in 1990. In this original and much-needed study, Stephen Kelly rectifies this.

From Thatcher’s ‘no surrender’ attitude to the Republican hunger strikes to her nurturing role in the early stages of the Northern Ireland peace process, Kelly traces the evolutionary and sometimes contradictory nature of Thatcher’s approach to Northern Ireland. In doing so, this book reflects afresh on the political relationship between Britain and Ireland in the late-20th century.

An engaging and nuanced analysis of previously neglected archival and reported sources, Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Party and the Northern Ireland Conflict, 1975-1990 is a vital resource for those interested in Thatcherism, Anglo-Irish relations, and 20th-century British political history more broadly.

At the heart of this proof of evidence is an evaluation of the regeneration benefits and disbenefits of the First Development Site (FDS) proposals for the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) Land. In my evidence I will describe, explain and analyse how the FDS proposals are likely to impact on the Aylesbury Estate and contribute to the well-being of Estate residents in Sites 1b and 1c, in the interests of the residents and in the wider public interest. In order to do this I will provide an explanation and discussion of four complex concepts: ‘gentrification’, ‘community’, ‘regeneration' and ‘mixed communities’.  Gentrification, due to its conceptual weaknesses, struggles to encompass the complexities of the FDS proposals.

Mixed communities-led regeneration is supported by independent academic research for the benefits it can bring. Despite this, it is regarded by some objectors and academics as de facto gentrification. That position is not tenable and objectors have to explain how the disbenefits of the FDS scheme outweigh the obvious and substantial benefits in the short, medium and long term. The policy and practice of mixed communities are not perfect and do not offer utopian solutions in the case of the Estate. It is evident though, that this approach in the present socio-economic climate, has the capacity to deliver genuine improvements to troubled estates, the Aylesbury included.

I conclude that the FDS proposals will bring genuine aspirational regeneration to the Estate. The FDS proposals are likely to bring significant sustainable improvements in the conditions of Aylesbury residents suffering from aspects of deprivation, often multiple in nature. Others to benefit will be incoming residents who find a home in the FDS, especially an affordable one, and those who find employment during the long construction phase and after completion. Nevertheless, a long term view must be taken regarding: safeguarding, delivery and resourcing of this estate regeneration programme.

Finally, I conclude that under section 226, the Council must show that the FDS proposal for the CPO Land promotes or improves one or more of the: social, economic or environmental well-being of the area. This is right and proper because the FDS scheme impinges on tenants’ and leaseholders’ property rights. There are undoubtedly and unfortunately some disbenefits associated with the CPO proposals. However, drawing on the evidence presented in this proof, I am convinced that the regeneration benefits of the FDS scheme for the CPO Land are substantial, guaranteed to be delivered and far outweigh the disbenefits. I look forward to the CPO being confirmed so that the benefits can be achieved, to improve the lives, livelihoods and life chances of Aylesbury Estate residents.

A través de siete apartados se analiza la cronología de Star Wars, el contexto histórico-social que la determina y cómo se evidencia en la saga. También por qué se puede considerar Star Wars como un mito moderno y cómo refleja el viaje del héroe. Son estudiados aspectos religiosos que gira alrededor del concepto de la Fuerza, los aprendizajes biopedagógicos, la interculturalidad manifiesta en la saga y los elementos que ésta posee para que se desarrolle un nuevo camino espiritual llamado jedismo.
Abstract Through seven sections the chronology of Star Wars, the historical and social context that determines it and how is evident in the saga are analyzed. Also in which way Star Wars is a modern myth and how the hero's journey is reflected. Eeligious aspects that revolves around the concept of the Force, the biopedagogy learning, interculturalism manifested in the saga and the elements that this series of films has to develop a new spiritual path called jedism are studied.

Margaret Theçer zgjodhi një periudhë dhe një metodë mjaft të vështirë për të qeverisur dhe për ta nxjerrë nga kriza e thellë në të cilën ishte zhytur Britaninë e Madhe në fund të viteve `70 dhe gjatë fillimit të viteve `80 të shekulli të kaluar! Ajo qeverisi me dorë të fortë. Ishte përfaqësuese e demokracisë liberale dhe konservatorizmit në Britani. Qeverisi për 11 vite, dhe ndërmori reforma rrënjësore, të cilat jo vetëm e nxorën vendin nga kriza, por e riktheu sërish si një superfuqi ekonomike dhe politike në Europë dhe Botë. Roli i saj në Britani do të ndihej që në kohën kur u zgjodh kryetare e Partisë Konservatore. Ajo do të ishte një opozitë e fortë për vendet e bllokut komunist dhe sidomos për Bashkimin Sovjetik. Ajo do ta shikonte këtë të fundit si kërcënim për gjithë globin. Në aspektin e ekonomisë Theçer ishte një mbështetëse e flaktë e Fridman-it dhe Hayek-ut, të cilët do të ishin shumë present gjatë gjithë qeverisjes së saj. Politikat dhe zgjedhjet e saj i kanë rrënjët në vlerat viktoriane të punës, përpjekjeve për self-help, ideve liberale të Karl Popper-it, në mënyrë të veçantë tek teoritë ekonomike të “Shkollës së Çikagos” dhe Fridman-it, tek “Shkolla e Ofertës” së Arthur Lafferit, për t`u mbyllur me “Shkollën  Austriake të Ekonomisë”, dhe babain e liberalizmit modern Friedrich Hayek. Theçeri i sintetizoi të gjitha këto teori dhe doktrina në veprime të guximshme politike. Reduktoi në mënyrë drastike shpenzimet publike dhe defiçitin buxhetor, uli ndjeshëm taksat dhe presionin fiskal, luftoi inflacionin e lartë nëpërmjet rritjes së normës bazë të interesit për sterlinën britanike, (politika monetare e bankës së Anglisë i krijoi mundësi sterlinës që të bëhej shpejt monedhë ndërkombëtare nga më të rëndësishmet), favorizoi gjithashtu hapjen e ekonomisë britanike për kapitalet e huaja, u dha fund subvencioneve që mbanin në këmbë në mënyrë artificiale degë të tëra të ekonomisë.

The aim of this research is to unravel and interrogate critically the recent histories of the production and reproduction of Castlefield, Manchester. This unravelling is accomplished theoretically through the historicised application of Lefebvre‘s spatial triad. Production of space histories and Castlefield‘s ‗regeneration‘ are revisited principally through archival and interview evacuations of the neglected years of the 1970s. Urban public space is seen as the key city synecdoche. The thesis argues against what is called the ‗dominant academic narrative‘: challenging the narrative where it ignores or downplays the role of counter-representations and counter-projects in the production of urban public space. The empirical research is based mainly on archival data and complimentary interview and visual data; the analyses are qualitative. Visual representations of space largely neglected in the literature are foregrounded throughout the empirical research. Spaces of representation and spatial practice are interrogated from the perspective of public space analysis which emphasises the importance of the contested nature of representations of space within the public sector and the vulnerable and unstable character of some official representations of space. The thesis therefore does not seek to reproduce what might be called a ‗traditional‘ Lefebvrian analysis which counter-poses repressive official representations of space against quotidian heroic, poetic spaces of representation. The research challenges oversimplified characterisations of Castlefield as a space simply of heritage, leisure and exclusive residential enclaves. A dynamic, complex spatial portrait is revealed whereby ludic, ‗natural‘ and abstract space rise and fall though intricate spatial layering as time unfolds. Urban differential space and ludic space are found to emerge through the interstices of abstract space as key outcomes of the contestation of space. The thesis concludes that the potential for differential urban public space exists through the production of new spaces and their diverse politicised appropriation.

Arjantin ile İngiltere arasında patlak veren bu kısa savaş; politik, coğrafi, diplomatik, tarihsel ve askeri açıdan büyük derslerle doludur. “Malvinas Savaşı dersi”ni çalışmamış bir diplomat “Ege Sorunu”nu, bir asker “Kıbrıs Barış Harekâtı”nı, bir politikacı “sömürgeciliğin süreğenliğini”, bir stratejist “açık denizlerde adaların önemini” anlayamaz.

SZALÁNCZI József Krisztián: Los aspectos internacionales y las relaciones históricas más amplias del conflicto de las Malvinas de 1982. Una disputa transformada en guerra. In: Fischer Ferenc – Domingo Lilón – Deák Máté (szerk.): Iberoamericana Quinqueecclesiensis 13. El final de la Belle Époque: antecedentes y consecuencias de la I Guerra Mundial en los países iberoamericanos. Universidad de Pécs, Centro Iberoamericano, 2015. 217–232.

The latest batch of papers released by the Margaret Thatcher Foundation includes two letters from her then Japanese counterpart, PM  Zenko Suzuki, dated 12 and 24 April 2013. They make interesting reading, illustrating the Japanese position in the Falklands conflict. While hoping that diplomacy would succeed, Tokyo was firm in rejecting the invasion. At that time Tokyo held a seat at the UN Security Council.  This short paper discusses the first of these letters and the wider Japanese posture in the war.

This is a book about what people imagine it means to live in a world where private property is dominant, and their fears - and sometimes hopes - about living in a future world where private property has disappeared. In the propertied imagination, private property is a fragile thing, an institution beset by terrifying enemies and racialised and gendered mobs: Levellers and Diggers, socialists and anarchists, fervent religious radicals, abolitionists, feminists, and haughty welfare-state bureaucrats. The history of private property is the history of a recurring nightmare that one or another of these groups would storm the castle and take control. That threatened social chaos is the central unifying story of this book.

Private property and the fear of social chaos starts by charting the thinkers who laid the foundations for how we understand private property, including Locke, Burke, Marx and Engels. The book looks at how their ideas have been put into practice in ways that continue to shape the modern world, from Harry Truman's housing policies and the anti-abolitionist George Fitzhugh to Margaret Thatcher and Elon Musk. Arguing that the spectre of 'the mob' has been intimately interconnected with the idea of private property throughout capitalist modernity, the book ambitiously narrates this history from the early colonisation of the Americas to Silicon Valley, and the future of human colonisation in space.

In 1982 Argentina – a country allied with the United States through the Rio Pact – invaded the Falkland Islands, a long-time Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom, disputed by Buenos Aires since the XIXth century. Margaret Thatcher, the then British Prime Minister, vigorously responded and finally Britain – a US NATO ally – retook the Islands. The conflict has to be contextualized in the ‘second Cold War’ framework. The struggle between the US and USSR was particularly tough in the first years of the 1980s and the bipolar logic strongly influenced the diplomatic course of the 1982 war. On the one hand, the Western hemisphere was at the core of the renewed anti-communist US strategy and Argentina was the main pillar in the Southern Cone. On the other hand, the strengthening of the Anglo-American ‘special relationship’ was the European cornerstone of the US grand strategy. Against this background, the role that the US chose to play determined the outcome of the Falklands war.

The drug addicted characters in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting novels and Danny Boyle's film adaptations desperately seek to escape their Edinburgh environment through their use of heroin. Some may view their drug-taking as a display of inherent deviance or an attempt at self-destruction; instead, I view their consumption of opioids as a method for self-preservation in response to their societal alienation. In my thesis, I argue that this alienation stems from the predicaments plaguing Scotland’s population during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher’s administration prioritized the material desires of neoliberalism over the frequently suppressed principles of the welfare state. In this way, Thatcherism further oppressed Trainspotting’s underclass by pushing policies that often inspired adverse emotions in those who could not adapt, which I propose encouraged subsequent substance abuse as a method of self-preservation. Specifically, these policies contributed to deindustrialization, mass unemployment, uninhabitable housing conditions and an overall sense of deprivation and disenfranchisement among the Trainspotters. Largely devoid of the immediate option to improve their circumstances due to a lack of economic means and limitations related to their social statuses, the Trainspotters instead search for a superficial way out of these constricting circumstances. Already alienated from society, the characters in Welsh’s novels and Boyle’s films see in heroin an opportunity to reinforce their withdrawal as they live like ghosts in a state of ‘junkie limbo,’ a space that exists between full participation in Thatcherite society and total disengagement via death. Initially meant as a temporary anesthetic, opioids become a lifelong companion of the Trainspotters due to the painful nature of physical withdrawal and poor drug policies. Methadone, for instance, sustains the Trainspotters’ drug dependency while increasing the prevalence of an overdose, and continues to claim the lives of Scottish addicts left over from the ‘Trainspotting Generation.’ Utilizing the complete Trainspotting series as a key case study, with an added focus on the most recent text, Dead Men’s Trousers, and film, T2 Trainspotting, my thesis will contribute to the prior research done on the ‘Trainspotting Generation.’