During Margaret Thatcher’s tenure as British Prime Minister (May 1979 to Nov. 1990) – roughly the same period as Ronald Reagan’s term in office – I’ll admit I wasn’t paying much attention to politics. So it’s only now, decades later, that I’ve come to appreciate what a staunchly loyal conservative she was.
 

 
This weekend I had a chance to listen to the audio clip below of Hugh Hewitt interviewing Larry Arnn, president of (my favorite college in the world ) Hillsdale, who knew Thatcher personally. Truly a worthwhile way to spend a ½ hour, it contains several cuts from a 1995 speech the former prime minister delivered at the college ~

 
Wouldn’t it be nice if our ruling class believed these truths? Even nicer if they were able to articulate them with such conviction ~

“A good education, founded on religious belief, and on importance of family, is our most valuable asset.
 
Without law, without the institutions of civil society, without religion, without values that promote rather than discourage self-restraint or mutual consideration, that darker side will prevail.
 
… democracy as merely a rule of majority isn’t enough. A majority cannot turn what is wrong into right, or the other way around.”

~ Margaret Thatcher, at Hillsdale 1995 ~

 
Related:
Mrs. Thatcher’s Losing Victory; She saved her country—but can it save itself? ~ Mark Steyn at National Review Online ~

A generation on, the Thatcher era seems more and more like a magnificent but temporary interlude in a great nation’s bizarre, remorseless self-dissolution. She was right and they were wrong, and because of that they will never forgive her.

 
Margaret Thatcher funeral: in the end, the protesters faded away ~ Janet Daley at the UK Telegraph