| Hypothetical question- would Margaret Thatcher have campaigned to quit the EU? 17:41 - Jun 9 with 1176 views | MattinLondon |
Just an hypothetical question so just a bit of fun. If Thatcher was still around for the 2016 referendum - and was fit and able to campaign- which side do you think she would have endorsed or campaigned for?
Think the obvious answer is ‘leave’ but I don’t think she ever expressed a serious desire to leave.
Just wondered what the views are of the politically savvy posters amongst us.
Thanks. [Post edited 9 Jun 2021 18:07]
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| Hypothetical question- would Margaret Thatcher have campaigned to quite the EU? on 17:47 - Jun 9 with 1151 views | ArnoldMoorhen |
She was consistently a "reform the EU from within" campaigner.
I don't think that she'd have wanted the UK to lose its voice in so many key areas.
And I think she would have been against the way that a referendum on whether to leave the political union of the EU was extrapolated into leaving the EEC/Common Market. At heart she was massively in favour of Free Trade, and Britain took itself out of the world's biggest Free Trade bloc. Which the Referendum gave no mandate for. |  | | |
| Hypothetical question- would Margaret Thatcher have campaigned to quite the EU? on 17:50 - Jun 9 with 1132 views | bluelagos |
| Hypothetical question- would Margaret Thatcher have campaigned to quite the EU? on 17:47 - Jun 9 by ArnoldMoorhen |
She was consistently a "reform the EU from within" campaigner.
I don't think that she'd have wanted the UK to lose its voice in so many key areas.
And I think she would have been against the way that a referendum on whether to leave the political union of the EU was extrapolated into leaving the EEC/Common Market. At heart she was massively in favour of Free Trade, and Britain took itself out of the world's biggest Free Trade bloc. Which the Referendum gave no mandate for. |
Indeed. She was instrumental in setting up the single market. She favoured free trade and saw the benefits the single market offered. |  |
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| Hypothetical question- would Margaret Thatcher have campaigned to quite the EU? on 17:55 - Jun 9 with 1104 views | tractordownsouth |
Interesting one. She was a driving force behind the implementation of the Single Market but by the time she left office she was regarded as a big Eurosceptic. I think I'm right in saying that the reason she supported William Hague over Ken Clarke in 1997 was due to his views on Europe. Although Hague himself of course eventually campaigned to stay in.
On balance, I think she'd have been in the same boat as Cameron - reluctantly in favour of staying in, but using the EU as a scapegoat for domestic policy and to fend off threats from her right. |  |
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| Hypothetical question- would Margaret Thatcher have campaigned to quite the EU? on 17:56 - Jun 9 with 1102 views | WeWereZombies |
The politician most likely to 'quite' was Clement Attlee...
There were many concessions, whether we were entitled to them or not is another matter, that Thatcher obtained in Common Market negotiations. All gone now thanks to Brexit and an enlarged European Union is unlikely to grant much of them back, so I guess she would be seething about all that work down the drain.
On a broader note I think we have to consider whether she would have become older and wiser had the dementia and strokes not affected her, less trusting of sometime ally the United States (she had a lot of privileged information and may have developed a conscience about the dodgy routes that Reagan tried to lead her down), perhaps appreciative of the Good Friday Agreement and also seething about that risk to peace in Northern Ireland that Brexit poses. Then again, there were many suspect influences around her in the neck of the Conservative Party she inhabited so she may have gone full on fruitcake. |  |
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| Hypothetical question- would Margaret Thatcher have campaigned to quite the EU? on 18:45 - Jun 9 with 985 views | Keno |
| Hypothetical question- would Margaret Thatcher have campaigned to quite the EU? on 17:56 - Jun 9 by WeWereZombies |
The politician most likely to 'quite' was Clement Attlee...
There were many concessions, whether we were entitled to them or not is another matter, that Thatcher obtained in Common Market negotiations. All gone now thanks to Brexit and an enlarged European Union is unlikely to grant much of them back, so I guess she would be seething about all that work down the drain.
On a broader note I think we have to consider whether she would have become older and wiser had the dementia and strokes not affected her, less trusting of sometime ally the United States (she had a lot of privileged information and may have developed a conscience about the dodgy routes that Reagan tried to lead her down), perhaps appreciative of the Good Friday Agreement and also seething about that risk to peace in Northern Ireland that Brexit poses. Then again, there were many suspect influences around her in the neck of the Conservative Party she inhabited so she may have gone full on fruitcake. |
euphemism of the day right there "the dodgy routes that Reagan tried to lead her down" |  |
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| Hypothetical question- would Margaret Thatcher have campaigned to quit the EU? on 19:02 - Jun 9 with 960 views | Freddies_Ears |
Thatcher was proud of her role in the creation / expansion / success of the single market. She saw herself as inheriting Churchill's enthusiasm for Europe, and also some of his natural cynicism. I suspect that she would have played an absolute blinder, keeping all the benefits we wanted, and establishing UK as the leader of the non-core EU countries (those not in the Euro / Schengen). This would have delivered big political clout for UK, and seen us very closely aligned with countries such as Denmark and Sweden. She would also have made sure that UK controlled its borders exactly as the EU permits, but we never did. | | | |
| Hypothetical question- would Margaret Thatcher have campaigned to quit the EU? on 19:10 - Jun 9 with 946 views | BlueNomad |
It’s all been well answered by the above esteemed posters but the short answer is, in her prime, she would never have contemplated leaving. One of the few things I agreed with her. |  | | |
| Hypothetical question- would Margaret Thatcher have campaigned to quit the EU? on 19:50 - Jun 9 with 872 views | vilanovablue |
Looking back through the prism of today she probably had the right level of scepticism about the EU much the same as Churchill. The benefit of being together outweighs the challenges along the way. The past however is a different country they did things differently there. |  | | |
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| Hypothetical question- would Margaret Thatcher have campaigned to quite the EU? on 20:09 - Jun 9 with 838 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| Hypothetical question- would Margaret Thatcher have campaigned to quite the EU? on 17:50 - Jun 9 by bluelagos |
Indeed. She was instrumental in setting up the single market. She favoured free trade and saw the benefits the single market offered. |
For all her faults, I didn't see her as pandering to xenophobia and racism either. Of course, she didn't preside over a party haemorrhaging support to the BNP or whatever reincarnation of it the Brexit Party represented, so it was very different times. That was the sole reason Cameron did it, that and the misguided idea that he wouldn't lose. Don't forget, he was pro-EU. |  |
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| Hypothetical question- would Margaret Thatcher have campaigned to quit the EU? on 11:36 - Jun 10 with 661 views | MattinLondon |
Thank you for all of the answers. I have enjoyed reading them. | | | |
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