Greedy people

Yesterday the Australian (Murdoch’s broadsheet) was full of articles praising Margaret Thatcher. Each of these took a different approach in praising her.  In this process they each used opinion to de-construct the arguments against her legacy.

This was fascinating to me.

First why do they care so much? Why are these people so attached to such an unimportant subject? Don’t they know the subject is so ugly that only its mother loves it?

Secondly, the journalists over did it. Anybody who could be bothered to trawl through their dribble clearly would have half an education and would spot that the protestations were over done.

However there was a purpose. And the purpose was here and now, and that was to bash the current Australian Labor party ahead of the looming election. One article compared Julia Gillard very unfavourably to Margaret Thatcher on the basis that Julia is ‘hiding behind her petticoats’ in discussing the subject of misogyny in politics, whereas Margaret never would have done so.

They even went to the efforts to praise Bob Hawke in a series of articles celebrating the 30 years of the original economic summit in Australia. The point of these articles was to praise Bob for his focus on consensus when introducing major new policy. Again the point was to bash Gillard for not having any sense of consensus.

However these articles did make me realise what Madam Thatcher lacked, and why she is so reviled by some, and that was a total lack of interest in consensus. It was her way or the highway.