Just how did this ridiculous competition between right and left to pose as a victim become so tediously commonplace?
Take this pathetic drivel from Iain Martin, the Deputy Editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe, headlined Will the Left Be Generous on Passing of Thatcher?
Rightly it’s heartfelt tributes all round to Michael Foot. He was, as Michael Gove remarked on the Daily Politics, a great British patriot…
But it does make one wonder whether the left will be generous with its tributes to Margaret Thatcher when, as it must eventually, that sad day comes? You only need to ask the question to know the answer.
For a start – ‘passing’ is what you do with wind. People die. And who cares if some people are nasty about Maggie when she dies? She was the Iron Lady, not some porcelain idol. Her record – for good or ill – will speak for itself.
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David Steven is a senior fellow at the UN Foundation and at New York University, where he founded the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children and the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a multi-stakeholder partnership to deliver the SDG targets for preventing all forms of violence, strengthening governance, and promoting justice and inclusion. He was lead author for the ministerial Task Force on Justice for All and senior external adviser for the UN-World Bank flagship study on prevention, Pathways for Peace. He is a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of The Risk Pivot: Great Powers, International Security, and the Energy Revolution (Brookings Institution Press, 2014). In 2001, he helped develop and launch the UK’s network of climate diplomats. David lives in and works from Pisa, Italy.
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