Lord Heseltine gives his views on Baroness Thatcher

so preparations continue this week for Margaret Thatcher's funeral which will be held at supports Cathedral on Wednesday among the in invited mourners listening to the eulogies will be a man who once helped to bring about her downfall Michael heseltine resigned from her government criticized her from outside and then challenged her for the leadership does he concede what her supporters insist that only Margaret Thatcher could have transformed the nation our political editor Gary Gibbon has this report she saved our country she saved our country one of the finest leaders in the history of the country Margaret Thatcher made the world a better place the whole nation will be forever in her debt a ceremonial funeral the Queen the armed forces in attendance it all underlines a message you heard from tribute after tribute Margaret satcher was unique no one could have done what she did in office but not everyone sees it that way the Trade union reforms the change in state private sector balance privatizations could that all have been achieved without Margaret Thatcher oh yes there was no doubt the man who walked out of Margaret Thatcher's cabinet leaves the bulk of his colleagues had already committed themselves to the central policies that would come to be known as thatcherism Trade union reform would have happened without her after 1978 the win of discontent the Tory party were absolutely determined to grip this issue they felt it had run through their fingers in 74 with the minor situation and they weren't going to lose out the second time I think we complete agreement about that don't you think this is lovely and the trou Mrs Michael htin says privatization would have been picked up by another Tory leader and that it followed on naturally from the sell-off of council houses that was announced in October of 74 when Ted Heath was the leader of the conservative party we didn't win that election but that's when it became party policy and there was complete agreement that that's what we were going to do Margaret s's allies praise Michael heslin's attacks on unilateralist in the 80s here he's watching his missile bases are secured against anti-nuclear protesters but Margaret Thatcher said his interventionist ideas for industry were socialist he believes they would have tempered the excesses of her Reign and still delivered the central achievements was it necessary to have Margaret Thatcher with her strident sometimes abrasive style to get all those changes in those years well I have no doubt that that would have happened under any conservative leader I don't know which leader Michael had in mind um but Michael was a great operator on a single front um he I always described him as the great one ball juggler given one ball he would juggle impressively never drop it two that's difficult three down would go one and we saw that time and time again Michael hestin told us we could actually have had all these big structural reforms without Margaret Thatcher with a different leader well it is possible maybe uh when Michael Hine says that he's thinking of himself uh but his policies were some of them his ideas were some of them the same but some of them totally different do you think there's grown up a bit of a a myth around Margaret satra some sort of great heroin without whom great changes would not have happened well I I wouldn't myself um believe you can avoid uh the polarization of political leaders uh that particularly um where you have a national press which has its own agenda um and without any doubt that there there are newspapers in this country which felt that that Margaret represented their type of politics um and so she did get a very considerable um degree of support um particularly from the Murdoch press and Telegraph and um the daily mail um so she she undoubtedly did did achieve that and of course it was hugely bolstered by the Faulkland War his opponents make all that sour grapes from the man who failed to win the Tory leadership for himself Michael heseltine thinks adulation for Margaret Thatcher has been a newspaper fed myth if he's right it looks like being one fed still more by the full-blown ceremonial farewell that lies ahead

Channel: Channel 4 News

Views: 55,558

Keywords: Margaret Thatcher, Funeral, Lord Heseltine, Thatcherism

Id: GBfv0xDCTGM

Length: 4min 59sec (299 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 13 2013