So said Channel 4 News, which seems never to have heard of Gordon Brown. Or, in his way, even Tony Blair.
Thatcher's Euroscepticism is the opposite of the truth. She signed the Single European Act, campaigned in 1983 specifically against an Opposition with a manifesto commitment to withdraw, and took until a rally in the run-up to the 2001 Election, ten and a half years after the end of her ten and a half years as Prime Minister, to come out against a single currency. By then, it was far from obvious that she really knew what she was saying.
What is to be Channel 4 News's next gem? That Thatcher believed in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland? That Thatcher upheld traditional family values, and traditional teaching methods in schools? That Thatcher was an unbending defender of British sovereignty in the Falkland Islands, and of the capacity of the Royal Navy?
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Whatever we think of Thatcher, Channel 4 News' coverage has nothing to do with reality. Like some other media organisations even its supposedly factual reporting is really only a reflection of its own world-view.
ReplyDeleteIn the mind of Channel 4 News Thatcher is "non-progressive" and Euroscepticism is "non-progressive". So Thatcher must have been a Eurosceptic.
If the reference quoted is to David Cameron I would indeed bracket him with a (later) Thatcher: the word is encouraging but it is the deeds that will count in the end. We shall see.