St Francis & Margaret Thatcher

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Fortunately Mrs Thatcher will not achieve eternal life or sainthood. I doubt that St Francis would have felt much in common with her & her use of his prayer shows her arrogant & messianic, misguided, self belief. In time History will judge, but personally I find it impossible to equate the words peace, love, hope, joy & understanding with the woman I remember. 

I found it extremely difficult to hear that strident voice which brooked no opposition or alternative perspective. I also couldn't bear the way she strode along, trampling on lives. Ultimately she revealed her overweening self - absorbtion by her use of the Royal "we", seeming to think she was the alternative Queen. It wasn't enough that she meddled in & changed almost every aspect of British life, unpardonably she seemed to gloat while doing it.

I do blame her & her Consevative colleagues for the financial mess that we have been in since 2008. Without her de-regulation of finance based capitalism & the move into the credit boom we would not be where we are now. She is unique, her legacy is world wide financial bankruptcy.

At the same time she sold off the "family silver" by selling council houses & state assets to bribe gullible voters who had no concept of the long term harm that was being done. Today there is precious little social housing & young people can't afford to buy. She is unique, her legacy is generations of amoral, lets have it now at any cost, yuppies.

She presided over the destruction of traditional industry without giving any support to the people & communities whose lives were destroyed. We are now a nation of charity shops & banks. We manufacture very little. She is unique, her legacy  is jobless communities & whole families who have no hope of employment.

I think it is a great pity that out first & only female Prime Minister showed none of the female qualities that could have made her great. I do not mourn her passing. I just hope that some day the society, which she said did not exist, can recover and become fairer, kinder & more balanced.