Um frase de ferro, de uma dama idem... (adivinharam!)

Acho que serve para certas nações que se estão tornando excessivamente dependentes de um Estado todo poderoso, e deformando uma mentalidade que se converteu na assistência pública:

I came to office with one deliberate intent. To change Britain from a dependent to a self-reliant society, from a give-it-to-me to a do-it-yourself nation.
(...)
Things will get worse before they get better.

Margareth Thatcher, 1979

Acho que é isso. Mas quando, quem, como, no Brasil???
Sinceramente, não sei.
Por enquanto está distante. Vamos ter de afundar tanto quanto a Grã-Bretanha, ou a Argentina, antes de começar a retomada?
Talvez...
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Notas de pesar do governo brasileiro - sempre respeitosas e adequadas.

Algumas notas recentes, com uma pequena particularidade, ao final.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Ministério das Relações Exteriores
Assessoria de Imprensa do Gabinete

Nota à Imprensa nº 107
9 de abril de 2013
Terremoto no Irã
O Governo brasileiro tomou conhecimento com grande pesar das mortes e perdas materiais provocadas pelo terremoto de 6,3 graus na escala Richter que atingiu no dia de hoje a província de Bushehr, no sudoeste do Irã.
O Brasil transmite suas condolências e solidariedade aos familiares das vítimas, ao povo e ao Governo do Irã.

Nota à Imprensa nº 103
3 de abril de 2013
Tempestades na Argentina

O Governo brasileiro tomou conhecimento, com grande pesar, dos efeitos das recentes tempestades na Argentina, que causaram, até o momento, a morte de mais de 40 pessoas e graves perdas materiais.O Governo brasileiro solidariza-se com as famílias das vítimas e manifesta suas mais sinceras condolências ao Governo e ao povo da Argentina.

Nota à Imprensa nº 73
6 de março de 2013
Falecimento do Presidente da Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, 5 de março de 2013
O Ministro das Relações Exteriores, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, se associa ao momento de dor do povo venezuelano e, muito especialmente, dos familiares do Presidente Hugo Chávez.
A Venezuela, sob a liderança do Presidente Chávez, viveu processo sem precedente histórico de aproximação com o Brasil.
O Presidente Chávez será lembrado como o líder venezuelano que maiores vínculos teve com o Brasil e que maior contribuição deu aos esforços de integração regional. Sob sua presidência, a Venezuela tornou-se parceiro estratégico do Brasil e sócio pleno do MERCOSUL.

Nota à Imprensa sem nº 

9 de abril de 2013
Falecimento da ex-primeira ministra britânica Margareth Thatcher

 O Governo brasileiro tomou conhecimento, com grande pesar, do falecimento da ex-primeira ministra Margareth Thatcher e se associa ao momento de dor do povo britânico, e muito especialmente dos familiares da Baronesa Thatcher, a quem expressa suas mais vivas condolências.
O Reino Unido, sob a liderança da primeira-ministra Margareth Thatcher, empreendeu a mais formidável correção de rumos econômicos de que se tem notícia na história do capitalismo moderno, assentando as bases de uma nação próspera, novamente respeitada, na Europa e no mundo, que conseguiu reverter a decadência provocada por décadas de governos estatizantes e socialistas, que só trouxeram ruina, ao país e à sua economia.
Sob a clarividente conduta da primeira-ministra Margareth Thatcher, o Reino Unido emergiu novamente, no decorrer dos anos 1980, com seu centro financeiro revitalizado, totalmente aberto aos fluxos de capitais e a liberdade de investimentos, aumentando sua taxa de crescimento e reduzindo o desemprego. Recebeu, sozinho, mais investimentos estrangeiros do que toda a Europa reunida, e conseguiu debelar o ciclo de desindustrialização e de perda de competitividade, provocados por décadas de governos equivocados.
O povo brasileiro também acredita que mercados livres e abertura econômica, privatização de estatais ineficientes, constituem os mais poderosos estímulos a uma vibrante economia de mercado, compatível com uma democracia plena, sem qualquer traço autoritário e ranço estatizante. O povo brasileiro espera poder contar, um dia, com personalidade tão corajosa quanto a ex-primeira ministra Thatcher, para empreender o esforço de soerguimento econômico nacional.

(Bem, seria mais ou menos isso...).

A dama da recusa do euro: Lady Thatcher paga para ver (e ganha) - Celso Ming

Um artigo, desta vez fraquinho, do excelente colunista de economia do Estadão, que não menciona a liberalização financeira promovida por Thatcher, que fez de Londres, novamente, um grande centro financeiro mundial, desmantelando as crenças de que Frankfurt poderia oferecer notável concorrência financeira à praça londrina.
Ela tinha razão, embora não soubesse à época, mas como Churchill, se apegava à ideia da soberania monetária com a libra. Churchill presidiu a um desastre, em 1925-26, quando foi Lord of Exchequers, reintroduzindo a libra no padrão ouro no mesmo patamar do pré-guerra. MThatcher, por sua vez, não teve de enfrentar a séria crise do sistema monetário europeu, de 1992, quando a libra saiu do sistema (derrubado pela Alemanha, na verdade, embora não intencionalmente) e desvalorizou.
Mas ela tinha certos conceitos econômicos muito bem arraigados, o que poderia ter sido lembrado por Celso Ming: não gastar acima do que você ganha, era um deles, típico de quitandeiro, o que ela era, mas sólido e válido, inclusive para o Brasil...
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

A dama do não

09 de abril de 2013 | 2h 04

Celso Ming - O Estado de S.Paulo

A ex-primeira ministra Margareth Thatcher, que ontem faleceu, não será lembrada somente por ter sido coerente com seus princípios liberais e nisso ter sido bem-sucedida. Também será louvada por ter impedido o Reino Unido de aderir à área do euro. Neste momento de profunda crise do bloco monetário, os ingleses repetirão que ela estava coberta de razão por decidir esperar para ver.
Os líderes da Europa no final dos anos 80, especialmente o então chanceler da Alemanha, Helmut Kohl, e o presidente da França à época, François Mitterrand, tinham perfeita noção de que, sem união fiscal (controle central dos orçamentos) e sem união política (controle central do poder e das principais decisões de governo), o euro seria lançado com graves defeitos de fabricação.
O prêmio Nobel de Economia (de 1999) Robert Mundell, já então reconhecido como grande autoridade em moeda, havia deixado claro que o euro nasceria sem um Estado que lhe desse consistência. Os países que a ele aderiam não constituíam uma área monetária ótima - para ficar com a principal expressão criada por Mundell.
Kohl, no entanto, teve a percepção de que o defeito mais grave não era a inconsistência do euro, mas a ausência de unidade da Europa. E entendeu que a crise que eventualmente proviesse da inconsistência da moeda única acabaria por disparar as forças em direção à unidade orçamentária e política. A motivação de Mitterrand parece ter sido outra: uma vez adotada a moeda única, a Europa acabaria por absorver a Alemanha e as ameaças históricas que tantas vezes nasceram dentro dela.
Thatcher não ignorou que, apesar dos seus vícios de origem, o euro poderia ser bem sucedido, como previa Kohl. Nessas condições, a economia do Reino Unido corria o risco de perder densidade e os demais ganhos de escala que proviessem da circulação da moeda única.
Ainda assim, Thatcher preferiu não aderir ao euro. Decidiu abrir mão do direito de influenciar no processo de constituição do Banco Central Europeu e das demais instituições criadas com o euro. O Reino Unido haveria de renunciar à libra esterlina apenas quando o euro estivesse consolidado.
A decisão foi fortemente criticada na Inglaterra, sobretudo dentro do Parlamento. Dizia-se que a política de Thatcher consolidava a tendência a um perigoso isolamento, à custa de crescimento econômico e da perda de empregos. Mas ela permaneceu firme. O Reino Unido ficou de fora.
Depois de tudo o que aconteceu a partir de 2008; depois que se viu que economias tão pequenas, como Irlanda, Portugal e Grécia, foram capazes de abalar o euro; depois da paralisação da atividade econômica e do desemprego recorde no bloco, mais e mais os ingleses passaram a dar razão a Thatcher: "Foi quem salvou o Reino Unido do desastre".
Apesar de tudo, os sonhos de Kohl e de Mitterrand ainda se mantêm válidos. Ninguém mais duvida de que só a união dos orçamentos e a união política serão capazes de dar consistência ao euro. Quando isso acontecer, e apenas se acontecer, a política de cautela adotada por Margareth Thatcher poderá ser superada.

Lady Thatcher, by Paul Johnson (WSJ)

• OPINION
• The Wall Street Journal, April 8, 2013, 7:33 p.m. ET

The World-Changing Margaret Thatcher

Not since Catherine the Great has there been a woman of such consequence.

By PAUL JOHNSON

Margaret Thatcher had more impact on the world than any woman ruler since Catherine the Great of Russia. Not only did she turn around—decisively—the British economy in the 1980s, she also saw her methods copied in more than 50 countries. "Thatcherism" was the most popular and successful way of running a country in the last quarter of the 20th century and into the 21st.

Enlarge Image

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher at the White House in June 1982.

Her origins were humble. Born Oct. 13, 1925, she was the daughter of a grocer in the Lincolnshire town of Grantham. Alfred Roberts was no ordinary shopkeeper. He was prominent in local government and a man of decided economic and political views. Thatcher later claimed her views had been shaped by gurus like Karl Popper and Friedrich Hayek, but these were clearly the icing on a cake baked in her childhood by Councillor Roberts. This was a blend of Adam Smith and the Ten Commandments, the three most important elements being hard work, telling the truth, and paying bills on time.
Hard work took Miss Roberts, via a series of scholarships, to Grantham Girls' School, Somerville College, Oxford, and two degrees, in chemistry and law. She practiced in both professions, first as a research chemist, then as a barrister from 1954. By temperament she was always a scholarship girl, always avid to learn, and even when prime minister still carried in her capacious handbag a notebook in which she wrote down anything you told her that she thought memorable.

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Editorial page editor Paul Gigot on Margaret Thatcher’s legacy. Photo: AP

• More Video on Margaret Thatcher

At the same time, she was intensely feminine, loved buying and wearing smart clothes, had the best head of hair in British politics and spent a fortune keeping it well dressed. At Oxford, punting on the Isis and Cherwell rivers, she could be frivolous and flirtatious, and all her life she tended to prefer handsome men to plain ones. Her husband, Denis Thatcher, whom she married in 1951 and by whom she had a son and daughter, was not exactly dashing but he was rich (oil industry), a capable businessman, a rock on which she could always lean in bad times, and a source of funny 19th-hole sayings.
Denis was amenable (or resigned) to her pursuing a political career, and in 1959 she was elected MP for Finchley, a London suburb. She was exceptionally lucky to secure this rock-solid Tory seat, so conveniently placed near Westminster and her home. She held the seat without trouble until her retirement 33 years later. Indeed, Thatcher was always accounted a lucky politician. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan soon (in 1961) gave her a junior office at Pensions, and when the Conservatives returned to power in 1970, she was fortunate to be allotted to the one seat in the cabinet reserved for a woman, secretary of state for education.
There she kept her nose clean and was lucky not to be involved in the financial and economic wreckage of the disastrous Ted Heath government. The 1970s marked the climax of Britain's postwar decline, in which "the English disease"—overweening trade-union power—was undermining the economy by strikes and inflationary wage settlements. The Boilermakers Union had already smashed the shipbuilding industry. The Amalgamated Engineers Union was crushing what was left of the car industry. The print unions were imposing growing censorship on the press. Not least, the miners union, under the Stalinist Arthur Scargill, had invented new picketing strategies that enabled them to paralyze the country wherever they chose.
Attempts at reform had led to the overthrow of the Harold Wilson Labour government in 1970, and an anti-union bill put through by Heath led to the destruction of his majority in 1974 and its replacement by another weak Wilson government that tipped the balance of power still further in the direction of the unions. The general view was that Britain was "ungovernable."
Among Tory backbenchers there was a growing feeling that Heath must go. Thatcher was one of his critics, and she encouraged the leader of her wing of the party, Keith Joseph, to stand against him. However, at the last moment Joseph's nerve failed him and he refused to run. It was in these circumstances that Thatcher, who had never seen herself as a leader, let alone prime minister, put herself forward. As a matter of courtesy, she went to Heath's office to tell him that she was putting up for his job. He did not even look up from his desk, where he was writing, merely saying: "You'll lose, you know"—a characteristic combination of bad manners and bad judgment. In fact she won handsomely, thereby beginning one of the great romantic adventures of modern British politics.
The date was 1975, and four more terrible years were to pass before Thatcher had the opportunity to achieve power and come to Britain's rescue. In the end, it was the unions themselves who put her into office by smashing up the James Callaghan Labour government in the winter of 1978-79—the so-called Winter of Discontent—enabling the Tories to win the election the following May with a comfortable majority.
Thatcher's long ministry of nearly a dozen years is often mistakenly described as ideological in tone. In fact Thatcherism was (and is) essentially pragmatic and empirical. She tackled the unions not by producing, like Heath, a single comprehensive statute but by a series of measures, each dealing with a particular abuse, such as aggressive picketing. At the same time she, and the police, prepared for trouble by a number of ingenious administrative changes allowing the country's different police forces to concentrate large and mobile columns wherever needed. Then she calmly waited, relying on the stupidity of the union leaders to fall into the trap, which they duly did.
She fought and won two pitched battles with the two strongest unions, the miners and the printers. In both cases, victory came at the cost of weeks of fighting and some loss of life. After the hard men had been vanquished, the other unions surrendered, and the new legislation was meekly accepted, no attempt being made to repeal or change it when Labour eventually returned to power. Britain was transformed from the most strike-ridden country in Europe to a place where industrial action is a rarity. The effect on the freedom of managers to run their businesses and introduce innovations was almost miraculous and has continued.
Thatcher reinforced this essential improvement by a revolutionary simplification of the tax system, reducing a score or more "bands" to two and lowering the top rates from 83% (earned income) and 98% (unearned) to the single band of 40%.
She also reduced Britain's huge and loss-making state-owned industries, nearly a third of the economy, to less than one-tenth, by her new policy of privatization—inviting the public to buy from the state industries, such as coal, steel, utilities and transport by bargain share offers. Hence loss-makers, funded from taxes, became themselves profit-making and so massive tax contributors.
This transformation was soon imitated all over the world. More important than all these specific changes, however, was the feeling Thatcher engendered that Britain was again a country where enterprise was welcomed and rewarded, where businesses small and large had the benign blessing of government, and where investors would make money.
As a result Britain was soon absorbing more than 50% of all inward investment in Europe, the British economy rose from the sixth to the fourth largest in the world, and its production per capita, having been half that of Germany's in the 1970s, became, by the early years of the 21st century, one-third higher.
The kind of services that Thatcher rendered Britain in peace were of a magnitude equal to Winston Churchill's in war. She also gave indications that she might make a notable wartime leader, too. When she first took over, her knowledge of foreign affairs was negligible. Equally, foreigners did not at first appreciate that a new and stronger hand was now in control in London. There were exceptions. Ronald Reagan, right from the start, liked what he heard of her. He indicated that he regarded her as a fellow spirit, even while still running for president, with rhetoric that was consonant with her activities.
Once Reagan was installed in the White House, the pair immediately reinvigorated the "special relationship." It was just as well. Some foreigners did not appreciate the force of what the Kremlin was beginning to call the Iron Lady. In 1982, the military dictatorship in Argentina, misled by the British Foreign Offices's apathetic responses to threats, took the hazardous step of invading and occupying the British Falkland Islands. This unprovoked act of aggression caught Thatcher unprepared, and for 36 hours she was nonplused and uncertain: The military and logistical objections to launching a combined-forces counterattack from 8,000 miles away were formidable.
But reassured by her service chiefs that, given resolution, the thing could be done, she made up her mind: It would be done, and thereafter her will to victory and her disregard of losses and risks never wavered. She was also assured by her friend Reagan that, short of sending forces, America would do all in its considerable power to help—a promise kept. Thus began one of the most notable campaigns in modern military and moral history, brought to a splendid conclusion by the unconditional surrender of all the Argentine forces on the islands, followed shortly by the collapse of the military dictatorship in Buenos Aires.
This spectacular success, combined with Thatcher's revival of the U.K. economy, enabled her to win a resounding electoral victory in 1983, followed by a third term in 1987. Thatcher never had any real difficulty in persuading the British electorate to back her, and it is likely that, given the chance, she would have won her fourth election in a row.
But it was a different matter with the Conservative Party, not for nothing once categorized by one of its leaders as the "stupid party." Some prominent Tories were never reconciled to her leadership. They included in particular the supporters of European federation, to which she was implacably opposed, their numbers swollen by grandees who had held high office under her but whom she had dumped without ceremony as ministerial failures. It was, too, a melancholy fact that she had become more imperious during her years of triumph and that power had corrupted her judgment.
This was made clear when she embarked on a fundamental reform of local-government finance. The reform itself was sensible, even noble, but its presentation was lamentable and its numerous opponents won the propaganda battle hands down. In the midst of this disaster, her Europhile opponents within her party devised a plot in 1990 to overthrow her by putting up one of their number (sacked from the cabinet for inefficiency) in the annual leadership election. Thatcher failed to win outright and was persuaded by friends to stand down. Thus ended one of the most remarkable careers in British political history.
Thatcher's strongest characteristic was her courage, both physical and moral. She displayed this again and again, notably when the IRA tried to murder her during the Tory Party Conference in 1984, and nearly succeeded, blowing up her hotel in the middle of the night. She insisted on opening the next morning's session right on time and in grand style. Immediately after courage came industry. She must have been the hardest-working prime minister in history, often working a 16-hour day and sitting up all night to write a speech. Her much-tried husband once complained, "You're not writing the Bible, you know."
She was not a feminist, despising the genre as "fashionable rot," though she once made a feminist remark. At a dreary public dinner of 500 male economists, having had to listen to nine speeches before being called herself, she began, with understandable irritation: "As the 10th speaker, and the only woman, I wish to say this: the cock may crow but it's the hen who lays the eggs."
Her political success once again demonstrates the importance of holding two or three simple ideas with fervor and tenacity, a virtue she shared with Ronald Reagan. One of these ideas was that the "evil empire" of communism could be and would be destroyed, and together with Reagan and Pope John Paul II she must be given the credit for doing it.
Among the British public she aroused fervent admiration and intense dislike in almost equal proportions, but in the world beyond she was recognized for what she was: a great, creative stateswoman who left the world a better and more prosperous place, and whose influence will reverberate well into the 21st century.

Mr. Johnson is a historian.

A version of this article appeared April 9, 2013, on page A15 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The World-Changing Margaret Thatcher.

La Dame de Fer, Margareth Thatcher (1925-2013), 9 - Le Monde

Resumo da imprensa pelo Le Monde, que reproduz tanto os elogios quanto os ataques (o que eu tenho visto nos blogs brasileiros, mesmo de universitários, protestando contra o fantasma do neoliberalismo, e essas acusações ridículas de que ela beneficiou os ricos e ferrou os pobres).
Fico supreendido em constatar como as pessoas não se dão conta da imensa transformação que ela imprimiu ao Reino Unido e seu papel na própria transformação do mundo, da era da Guerra Fria para o pós-Guerra Fria?
Seu papel foi importante: sem ela Gorbatchev nunca teria sido o que foi: o homem que desmantelou o comunismo.
Essa sim foi uma transformação cataclísmica, a mais importante ruptura das relações internacionais desde as guerras napoleônicas e a própria Primeira Guerra Mundial (que na verdade criou o problema, ao colocar os bolcheviques no poder). Esse desmantelamento da velha geopolítico se deve à implosão da União Soviética, mas isso só foi possível porque Margareth Thatcher (primeiro, depois Regan) aceitou dialogar e negociar com Gorbatchev. Sem isso, a URSS talvez tivesse continuado existindo, assim como os comunistas chineses preservaram a estrutura imperial da velha China, o Império despótico centralizado. Eles ainda não tiveram o seu Gorbatchev e provavelmente não precisam, pois estão crescendo. Quando entrarem em crise, talvez não tenham um, mas pelo menos não dispõem de centenas de mísseis apontados para a Europa e EUA.
As pessoas simplesmente não se dão conta do papel de Thatcher no fim da Guerra Fria, a mais importante transformação da geopolítica mundial em dois séculos.
Ela também foi importante no plano da economia política, ao desmantelar o antigo fabianismo praticado tanto pelo Labour quanto pelos Tories, mas sobre isso falarei outro dia.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Thatcher : "Adorez-la ou haïssez-la"

Le Monde.fr | 09.04.2013 à 08h03 • Mis à jour le 09.04.2013 à 10h58

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La une du "Guardian", mardi 9 avril. | The Guardian

Révérée, détestée, admirée, conspuée : peu de personnalités auront provoqué des sentiments aussi intenses et contrastés que l'ancienne première ministre britannique, Margaret Thatcher. Mardi 9 avril, au lendemain de l'annonce de sa mort, la presse du monde entier revient sur le parcours, le profil, l'image et l'héritage de la "Dame de fer", figure à jamais contestée de l'histoire du Royaume-Uni.

• En Grande-Bretagne, "une politicienne d'envergure mondiale"

Le visage de l'ancienne première ministre – en noir et blanc ou en couleur, mais jamais sans son légendaire brushing – est évidemment à la une de tous les journaux britanniques. Dans son éditorial consacré à cette "guerrière de la politique", le Guardian rend hommage à celle qui a "influencé comme personne la Grande-Bretagne ces trente dernières années et continuera sûrement de le faire les trente prochaines années". Mais l'ancienne première ministre était de ceux qui "sont nés pour diviser", note le quotidien. Si le journal revient sur "les qualités exceptionnelles et indubitables" de Margaret Thatcher – "preuve rassurante qu'en matière de politique, la personnalité compte plus que tout" – le Guardian n'hésite pas à rappeler que "son héritage est celui de la désunion, de l'individualisme poussé à son paroxysme, du culte de l'avidité, un patrimoine qui a entravé l'esprit humain bien plus qu'il ne l'a libéré". Et l'éditorialiste résume en une formule le clivage créé à tout jamais par Margaret Thatcher dans la société britannique : "personne ne devrait danser sur sa tombe, mais elle ne mérite pas plus de funérailles nationales".
Pourtant, la presse britannique a littéralement appliqué l'assertion. A l'extrême gauche, les journaux n'hésitent pas à rappeler que Margaret Thatcher était "la première ministre la plus honnie de l'histoire du Royaume-Uni". Sur son site, le Morning Star souligne ainsi qu'elle "n'a jamais failli dans sa détermination à traiter comme des moins que rien les travailleurs, et de mettre à mal les organisations et les services publics dont ils dépendaient, tout cela pour permettre aux riches d'être simplement plus riches". Sur le plan international, le quotidien ne manque pas de rappeler qu'elle était "l'amie des tyrans qui s'en sont pris à Nelson Mandela, celle qui a remercié le dictateur Augusto Pinochet pour 'avoir apporté la démocratie au Chili', ou encore celle qui laissa mourir tant de républicains irlandais en lutte". Plus violent, Socialist Worker n'a pas hésité à consacrer un numéro spécial à l'événement, titré "Réjouissons-nous", dans une mise en scène assez macabre d'une tombe en gros plan.

La une du "Socialist Worker", mardi 9 avril. | Socialist Worker

C'est que, plus de vingt ans après les larmes de Margaret Thatcher quittant le 10, Downing Street, The Independent résume par un épitaphe lapidaire l'héritage de l'ancienne première ministre : "Adorez-la ou haïssez-là". Celle qui, "parce qu'elle était femme et fille d'un petit commerçant, ne pouvait pas se permettre d'être tendre", continue de déterminer la politique britannique actuelle, note le journal. "Sans héritier philosophique ou politique", affirme The Independent, elle a pourtant été "une présence continue auprès de chaque premier ministre". "A son apogée, Margaret Thatcher nous a offert une leçon en matière d'exercice du pouvoir. Mais les Britanniques, comme souvent, ont prouvé obstinément, admirablement même, à quel point ils étaient réticents à l'idée d'être gouvernés", conclut l'éditorial.

Mais toute la presse ne rejette évidemment pas autant l'héritage de Margaret Thatcher. En "brisant le plafond de verre" de sa classe sociale et en devenant la première femme première ministre d'une nation développée, Margaret Thatcher est devenue "une politicienne d'envergure mondiale", note The Financial Times (lien abonnés), et demeure "la figure par rapport à laquelle on juge désormais tous les politiciens britanniques qui l'ont succédée". Si "ses qualités l'emportaient sur ses défauts", selon le quotidien économique, "elle pouvait sembler imperméable à la détresse des plus faibles". Mais pour le journal au ton résolument très libéral, "l'héritage de Thatcher sur les aspirations individuelles et l'élévation personnelle vaut la peine d'être préservé, tout comme sa manière ferme d'exercer le pouvoir". "La génération actuelle de politiciens focalisés sur la ligne de leur parti devraient prendre exemple sur elle", souligne le FT.
Pour décrire l'ancienne première ministre, The Economist rappelle pour sa part l'anecdote savoureuse à l'origine de son surnom. Radicalement opposés à la politique de Margaret Thatcher, les Russes avaient pris pour habitude de se moquer d'elle en l'appelant "la Dame de fer". "Comme à son habitude, Thatcher avait aussitôt riposté, avait adoré le surnom, et se l'était aussitôt approprié pour en tirer tous les avantages de cette réputation", rappelle le magazine. Cette fulgurance et ces "coups de génie" qui ont marqué les années de pouvoir de Margaret Thatcher ont "fait basculer pour la première fois la scène politique britannique résolument vers la droite", souligne The Economist. Si "la Dame" continue de hanter le 10, Downing Street, "ce n'est pas seulement parce qu'elle a été une figure polémique, mais surtout parce que les débats qu'elle a provoqués continuent de diviser", analyse l'éditorialiste. "Le thatchérisme est aussi pertinent aujourd'hui qu'il ne l'était dans les années 1980", affirme-t-il encore.
Le Telegraph va plus loin encore dans son hommage rendu à l'ancienne première ministre. S'il s'avère difficile d'établir le bilan des mandats de Thatcher, même vingt ans après qu'ils aient pris fin, écrit l'éditorialiste, c'est surtout parce qu'il est "difficile d'évaluer notre dette envers elle, tant ses idées ont profondément influencé les Britanniques et leur pays". "Elle fut un chef qui remit en selle toute une nation perdue sur le chemin de la démoralisation, de l'autodétestation et du déclin, d'une manière telle qu'avec le recul, sa victoire est quasiment indubitable", note le journal. "Le fruit des efforts de la Dame n'est pas seulement que la Grande-Bretagne est incommensurablement plus riche aujourd'hui, mais surtout plus démocratique, parce qu'elle nous a montré qu'on avait le droit de voter en réflechissant à l'épaisseur de notre porte-feuille, quand les autres ne faisaient qu'essayer de le vider", conclut l'éditorial. Et le Daily Mail de réclamer en écho des "funérailles nationales" pour "la femme qui a sauvé notre pays, et s'est battue pour lui sans faiblir."

La une du "Daily Telegraph", mardi 9 avril. | Daily Telegraph

• En France, une "chirurgie sans anesthésie"

De l'autre côté de la Manche, la presse française est assurément moins tendre avec l'héritage de Margaret Thatcher. Les éditorialistes mettent pour leur part l'accent sur l'échec de l'ultralibéralisme défendu par l'ancienne première ministre britannique, dont les échecs sont "avérés", notamment à la lumière de la crise actuelle en Europe.
"C'est bien la Dame de fer qui, la première dans un des grands pays occidentaux, aura mis en œuvre des politiques telles que les privatisations, la déréglementation sociale ou la libéralisation financière", rappelle Guillaume Goubert, dans La Croix. L'éditorialiste du quotidien catholique souligne que la mort de "Maggie" intervient "à un moment où la mondialisation financière suscite une hostilité de plus en plus répandue".
"La crise des années 2000 est aussi la crise du thatchérisme que ses suppôts portèrent aux extrêmes", renchérit François Sergent dans Libération, rappelant que "les gueules noires, les Argentins, les grévistes de la faim irlandais furent les victimes" d'une femme politique qui "porta le nationalisme aux limites du chauvinisme et de la xénophobie antieuropéenne".

La une de "Libération", mardi 9 avril. | Libération

Pour Jean Levallois, dans La Presse de la Manche, la méthode Thatcher peut se résumer à une "chirurgie sans anesthésie, immédiate et totale". M^me Thatcher "aura conduit la politique la plus outrageusement avantageuse pour les plus fortunés de son pays, la plus favorable à ce capitalisme financier qui a gangrené l'économie mondiale", accuse à l'unisson Jean-Michel Helvig, dans La République des Pyrénées.
Mais ses "héritiers et les avatars restent pourtant légion, qui empruntent à l'alphabet libéral de la 'Dame de fer' devenu la marque d'une gouvernance mondiale laissée aux marchés financiers", déplore Dominique Garraud, dans La Charente Libre, citant notamment Nicolas Sarkozy et ses "diatribes thatchériennes contre un 'assistanat' détruisant la valeur travail". "Et face à la crise, le FMI, la BCE et l'Union européenne", poursuit l'éditorialiste, imposent des "cures d'austérité aussi brutales et socialement dévastatrices que la thérapie de choc imposée par Margaret Thatcher aux Britanniques dans les années 1980."
Seul l'éditorialiste du Figaro, Pierre Rousselin, se livre à une véritable apologie du thatchérisme. "Elle laisse un héritage valable bien au-delà des îles Britanniques et des frontières idéologiques : conduite par des idées claires et une détermination sans faille, une démocratie occidentale peut réussir son redressement", écrit-il, n'hésitant pas à affirmer que "la France et l'Europe d'aujourd'hui auraient bien besoin de dirigeants de sa trempe."

La une du "Figaro", mardi 9 avril. | Le Figaro

Par Charlotte Chabas

The Iron Lady, Margareth Thatcher (1925-2013), 8 - 10 Downing Street (Primeiro Ministro)

The official email of the British Prime Minister

Lady Thatcher 1925 – 2013 David Cameron: “We’ve lost a great leader, a great Prime Minister and a great Briton.” Following her death on 8 April 2013, the Prime Minister paid tribute to Lady Thatcher. Speaking outside 10 Downing Street, he said: "Today we lost a great leader, a great Prime Minister, and a great Briton. Margaret Thatcher didn't just lead our country; she saved our country. And we should never forget that the odds were stacked against her. She was the shopkeeper’s daughter from Grantham who made it all the way to the highest office in the land." He also paid tribute to her patriotism:  "Margaret Thatcher loved this country and she served it with all she had. For that, she has her well-earned place in history and the enduring respect and gratitude of the British people." Watch the video of the Prime Minister's tribute to Lady Thatcher. Ceremonial funeral Lady Thatcher will receive a ceremonial funeral with military honours at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The service will take place on Wednesday 17 April. A wide and diverse range of people and groups with connections to Lady Thatcher will be invited. The service will be followed by a private cremation. All the arrangements being put in place are in line with the wishes of Lady Thatcher's family. The public will be unable to attend the funeral service itself but can line the route of the funeral procession from the Church of St Clement Danes in the Strand to St Paul’s Cathedral. Lady Thatcher’s family have asked that, if people wish to pay their respects, they consider making a donation to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, rather than laying flowers. You can find details on how to donate on the Royal Hospital Chelsea website. Online book of condolence The Number 10 website has a condolence page on which you can write a private message for the Thatcher family. Sign the online book of condolence. Further information Funeral arrangements for Lady Thatcher's funeral Margaret Thatcher biography – Number 10 website

The Iron Lady, Margareth Thatcher (1925-2013), 7 - Alistair MacDonald (WSJ)

• REMEMBRANCES
• The Wall Street Journal, April 8, 2013, 8:15 p.m. ET

1925-2013

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Dies

'Iron Lady' Was Among Most Influential Global Leaders of Postwar Period

By ALISTAIR MACDONALD

Highlights from the former British prime minister’s political career, including her entry into Number 10 Downing Street, quoting St. Francis of Assisi, and her exit after 11 years at the helm when she was ousted by her own party.

LONDON— Margaret Thatcher, the uncompromising British prime minister who became one of the most influential global leaders of the postwar period, died on Monday, three decades after her championing of free-market economics and individual choice transformed Britain's economy and her vigorous foreign policy played a key role in the end of the Cold War.
"We've lost a great prime minister, a great leader, a great Briton," said U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, who cut short a Europe trip to return to the U.K. on Monday afternoon. "She saved our country and I believe she will go down as the greatest British peacetime prime minister."
Mrs. Thatcher, who was 87, grew up in an apartment above her father's grocery store in Grantham, eastern England. She went on to become Britain's first female prime minister and arguably the country's most dominant political figure since Winston Churchill.

Margaret Thatcher: Iron Lady

Highlights in Margaret Thatcher's life.

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Remembering Thatcher

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John Glanvill/Associated Press

Mrs. Thatcher addressed her party's annual conference on Oct. 8, 1976, at Brighton, England.

Thatcher's Impact

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Associated Press

Margaret Thatcher served as the U.K.'s prime minister from 1979 to 1990. During this time her policies—some popular, some not—transformed Britain. A look at Mrs. Thatcher's impact on the U.K.

She was a key ally and close friend of President Ronald Reagan, sharing with him a view on free-market, monetarist solutions to the economic problems of the day, as well as an implacable stance toward the former Soviet Union, earning her the nickname the Iron Lady. The two led a rightward shift in Western politics that extolled the virtues of economies with little government intervention that has largely endured, though aspects, such as the deregulation of financial services, have been questioned since the credit crisis.
In moves that were widely copied, Mrs. Thatcher took on Britain's powerful trade unions and privatized state-run industries, governing with a take-no-prisoners style that earned her both admiration and dislike.
"She showed everyone what a political leader with a powerful agenda could accomplish," said George Shultz,

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger says Margaret Thatcher courageously addressed issues from missile deployment in Europe to the Falkland Islands changing British foreign policy and geo-politics. Photo: Kevin Hagen for The Wall Street Journal

who was secretary of state to Mr. Reagan.

More

• Henry Kissinger on Margaret Thatcher's Legacy
• Thatcher Would Not Compromise on Falklands

"She was the last outlier from the ideological wars against Marxism, an epoch-making politician, but an incredibly polarizing force," said Patrick Dunleavy, professor of political science at the London School of Economics.
Downing Street said funeral services for Mrs. Thatcher will be held next week at St. Paul's Cathedral in London and will be followed by a private cremation. It will be a ceremonial funeral with military honors.
Mrs. Thatcher is remembered within Britain mostly for her role in revolutionizing the fading economy, in a process that caused huge social change and division, and for the successful retaking of the Falkland Islands, the British South Atlantic territory invaded by Argentina in 1982—after which she declared "We have ceased to be a nation in retreat."
In Europe, she is remembered as a prickly leader who thrived on confrontation, but who ultimately agreed to foster some of the European Union's most significant developments, such as the creation of a single EU market.
Mrs. Thatcher was forced from office in 1990 following a rebellion within the Conservative Party after more than 11½ years in power, making her the longest-serving 20th-century British prime minister. By the time the opposition Labour Party took power in 1997, its leader, Tony Blair, had forced his party to accept much of her legacy, dropping its commitment to nationalized industries and embracing free markets.
Even many of her ideological enemies admired Mrs. Thatcher as a person of conviction who eschewed the focus-group politics that characterizes many in her line of work.

More Coverage

• Thatcher's Best Quotes
• Global Leaders Pay Tribute
• Economic Overhauls Still Felt, Debated
• A Skeptic on Centralized Europe
• Heard on the Street: Thatcher's European Vision
• Gerald F. Seib: The Thatcher/Reagan Mutual Admiration Society, Remembered
• City of London: Thatcher's Lasting Legacy
• Commentary: The Britain Thatcher Inherited
• Opinion: The Woman Who Saved Britain
• Earlier Essay: What Would Iron Lady Do?
• Margaret Thatcher: World Leaders React
• Margaret Thatcher Dies at 87
• Thatcher Makes a Comeback in Asia

Opinion

• Opinion: The Woman Who Saved Britain
• Peggy Noonan: Thatcher Refuses to Jump

On Social Media

• Social Remembrances: Key Quotes, Tweets
• Thatcher Divides Twitter: Tributes, Criticism
• Thatcher Hashtag Spurs Confusion

"She said what she meant and meant what she said and did what she said she would do," said Tony Benn, a radical left-wing minister in the Labour governments that preceded Mrs. Thatcher.
Mrs. Thatcher herself described consensus as the process of "abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies…something in which no one believes and to which no one objects."
Born Margaret Roberts on Oct. 13, 1925, in the Lincolnshire market town of Grantham to Alfred and Beatrice Roberts, Mrs. Thatcher was schooled from an early age in an ethic of hard work and self-reliance. She grew up in a house with no hot water and an outdoor toilet. Her father, a Methodist lay preacher, was active in local politics and a major early influence.
"He taught her, don't go with the herd if you think that the herd is wrong," said Sir Bernard Ingham, who served as Mrs. Thatcher's press secretary for 11 years.
Her father's interest in politics provided the books and newspapers that would stimulate her own. The brutalities of World War II and the accounts of a young Austrian Jew for whom her father had arranged shelter in Grantham filled her with a hate of all totalitarianism. She later recalled in her autobiography that as a 13-year-old she took on a group of adults, to their astonishment, in a prewar fish-and-chip shop line after one said that at least Adolf Hitler had given Germany back its self-respect.

Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s prime minister from 1979 to 1990, died of a stroke Monday morning. She will be remembered for her free-market economics, her close friendship with President Reagan and her role in bringing an end to the Cold War. Photo: AP

Mrs. Thatcher attended local state schools at a time when Conservative politicians were still mainly drafted from Britain's elite private schools. She studied chemistry at Oxford University and spent her early career in research laboratories.
Mrs. Thatcher took power following Britain's "winter of discontent" of 1978-1979, in which nationwide strikes over pay by public-sector workers from gravediggers to garbage collectors brought an economy that had for years been growing at half the rate of its peers close to a standstill. In her first full two years as prime minister, the nation's economy shrank around 3.5% and unemployment rose by a million, hovering at three million until the mid-1980s. There was widespread rioting in inner cities as both these conditions and racial tensions fomented dissent.
Mrs. Thatcher responded with radical reforms, shaped by the ideas of free-market economists Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman on minimizing government control and allowing markets free rein in deciding the shape of the economy. "Without economic liberty, there could be no true political liberty," she told European leaders in 1979.

She took on Britain's labor unions and whittled the size of the state through sweeping privatizations and the closure of unprofitable state-owned enterprises from coal mines to steel plants. The resulting long showdown between striking coal miners and Mrs. Thatcher split the country.
Mrs. Thatcher said those who stood in the middle of the road risked getting hit by traffic coming both ways. "I'm not here to be liked," she often said.
"It was obvious by the late '70s and early '80s that change was absolutely essential but there was no effort to try and manage the change with an expansion of vocational education or training for people whose whole economic life was being shattered," said Neil Kinnock, who was leader of the opposition Labour Party for most of Mrs. Thatcher's reign.
Ian Lavery, who worked in coal pits in Ashington, a town in northeast England, watched his father, two brothers and several uncles all lose their jobs as miners. Mrs. Thatcher "ripped the heart out of the place in a short few years," said Mr. Lavery, now a Labour Party lawmaker. "There was never anything put in place to replace what was lost."
Mrs. Thatcher relished an argument, and got so bored on vacations that young Conservative politicians were dispatched to join her family so she could argue politics, colleagues remember.
"I watched some people in her presence who were intimidated and [would] not say much and I don't think she liked that. She enjoyed a good argument," said Mr. Shultz, a key figure in the Reagan administration.
Britain's economy recovered, in part as a result of the more flexible, U.S.-style labor markets she ushered in, helped by revenue from oil discoveries in the North Sea. In addition, the widespread privatization program she drove through—amid often-fierce public opposition—put inefficient, unprofitable state giants into private hands and provided a template for many other countries in Europe. By the end of 2009, state-run industry accounted for only 2% of the U.K. economy, compared with 10% in 1979.

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Her deregulation of the financial industry helped turn London from an increasingly obsolete financial center into a rival to Wall Street. Known as the "Big Bang," for the many changes made at once, the 1987 deregulation moved trading from the floor to electronic screens and blew away barriers to entry, bringing in bankers and businesses from around the world. Critics said it also kicked off the process of scaling back regulation that contributed to the credit crisis.
Mrs. Thatcher's term was punctuated by several recessions. The worst, in the early 1980s, saw a peak-to-trough decline in output of 6%. While her government reduced annual inflation from the double-digit figures of the 1970s, it was only in the 1990s that inflation came under control.
During Mrs. Thatcher's decade in power, the economy grew at an average annual rate of 2.46%, above the 2.1% average in the troubled 1970s but lower than some European peers, including Germany and France. Unemployment was 7.5% when she left, in 1990, up from 5.3% in the quarter she took office in 1979.
"On macroeconomic policy, the record was patchy, but the theme throughout had been pro-business, pro-market," which laid the foundation for later successes, said Ken Clarke, a minister in the current government, who was in Mrs. Thatcher's cabinet throughout her time in power and became Treasury chief under her Conservative successor, John Major.
The close and candid relationships Mrs. Thatcher formed with both Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Mr. Reagan, and her vocal support of the uncompromising U.S. position toward the Soviet Union, proved an important element in the end of the Cold War.
At her first meeting with Mr. Gorbachev, she leaned over the table to tell her Soviet counterpart over lunch: "Welcome to the United Kingdom. I want our relationship to get off to a good start, and to make sure there is no misunderstanding between us—I hate Communism," said Sir Bernard, her press secretary at the time.
"Thatcher was a politician whose words carried big weight," Mr. Gorbachev said Monday in a statement on the Gorbachev Foundation's website.
"In the end we managed to achieve mutual understanding, and this was a contribution to the changing atmosphere between our country and the West, and to the end of the Cold War," he said.
In her later years in power, the woman who famously said "the lady's not for turning" was criticized for her inflexibility while the introduction of a new and widely disliked local tax system further sapped her popularity. In November 1990, the longest-serving member of her cabinet, Geoffrey Howe, resigned over her hostile position on a process of European integration, under which more national powers, on issues from banking regulation to working practices, were moving to Brussels.
In a resignation speech that kicked off a Conservative Party leadership contest—which Mrs. Thatcher lost—Mr. Howe told Parliament she seemed to "look out on a continent that is positively teeming with ill-intentioned people."
Her former Defense Minister Michael Heseltine challenged her for the party leadership. He failed to win, but garnered enough votes from Conservative members of Parliament to show they wanted a change. Mrs. Thatcher, who had won three national elections, was persuaded by her party and advisers to resign before a second ballot. Mr. Major, her Treasury chief, became prime minister.
An emotional Mrs. Thatcher left No. 10 Downing Street on Nov. 28, 1990, and went to sit in the House of Lords, the upper house of the U.K. Parliament. As Baroness Thatcher, she continued to attack old enemies for a while, such as the European Union, and to exert a sometimes divisive influence within the Conservative Party.
After a series of small strokes in March 2002 and the death of her husband, retired oil executive Denis Thatcher, Mrs. Thatcher largely withdrew from public life in 2003. In a rare public appearance in 2007, she unveiled a bronze statue of herself in the House of Commons. "I might have preferred iron," she said, "but bronze will do."

—Cassell Bryan-Low contributed to this article. Write to Alistair MacDonald at alistair.macdonald@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared April 9, 2013, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Margaret Thatcher 1925-2013.

A Dama de Ferro, Margareth Thatcher (1925-2013), 6 - Paulo Roberto de Almeida, Reinaldo Azevedo

Antes de transcrever o que vai abaixo, o que subscrevo quase inteiramente (mas daria uma coloração ainda mais histórica e econômica, digamos assim), quero apresentar a minha visão, não da Margareth Thatcher, como pessoa, mas da Inglaterra que eu conheci, antes e depois dela.
Não tenho porque elogiar Margareth Thatcher: nunca fui seu admirador incondicional, inclusive porque considero que estadistas devem fazer seu papel de estadistas, quando o são, e a maioria não é.
A maioria dos homens (e mulheres) políticos são oportunistas, demagogos, mentirosos, distributivistas, irresponsáveis, especialistas em gastar o dinheiro dos outros em projetos eleitoreiros, para si, e sempre para si. Ela conduziu a mais importante reforma econômica e social que a Inglaterra conheceu desde a Revolução Gloriosa (1688), e isso não é pouco, mas não precisava, em minha visão, ser complacente com um ditador como Pinochet (ainda que defendendo o direito internacional e os princípios pelos quais se organiza um país democrático como o Reino Unido).
Ou seja, não confio em políticos, quase nunca e minha opinião sobre ela é crítica.
Alguns, mas muito poucos, são estadistas: Churchill, Roosevelt, De Gaulle, Gorbatchev, Thatcher, justamente, ou seja, homens (e uma única mulher, ao que saiba) que souberam se elevar acima do seu tempo, acima de seus interesses eleitoreiros e deixar uma obra que representou, sim, uma mudança histórica, qualquer que seja o motivo, a circunstância ou o contexto em que tenham atuado. Eles fizeram a diferença, porque foram líderes, e líderes para o bem (e aqui entram os valores). Isso exclui, obviamente, outros "grandes homens" que só causaram destruição e miséria (e alguns podem estar ainda entre nós), mas a maioria é de uma mediocridade exemplar, infelizmente.

Pois bem, não vou elogiar a MThatcher, apenas dizer algo que eu observei, pessoalmente.
Estava começando o meu doutoramento, ainda cheio de ideias marxistas, socialistas, modelos típicos da academia para examiar as "revoluções burguesas" e seu papel na transição ao capitalismo e à democracia, bem ao estilo florestânico que ainda era o meu no final dos anos 1970.
Fui à Inglaterra, berço de duas revoluções burguesas e do primeiro capitalismo e da única democracia contínua nos últimos quatro ou cinco séculos, basicamente para comprar livros, para me abastecer dessa rica bibliografia marxista de que os historiadores ingleses são os mais dignos representantes (a começar por Thompson, Hobsbawm, Dobb e outros).
Bem, comprei livros é verdade, mas reparei que a maior parte da literatura sociológica estava contaminada pela atmofesra do declinismo, da decadência, de uma sensação de "fim de época".
E a Inglaterra que eu vi, com estes olhos que a terra..., era uma Inglaterra de terceira classe, suja, proletarizada, paralizada por greves, enfim, um país do Terceiro Mundo quase, o que me surpreendeu bastante. Então, o glorioso império estava reduzido a um país decadente, cuja renda per capita seria logo mais superada pela de sua colônia "chinesa", Hong Kong?
A Inglaterra de fato estava sendo superada pela Itália no G7, e ficando para trás, sem qualquer esperança de recuperação.
Fui embora da Europa dois anos antes da emergência do fenômeno Thatcher, e só voltei lá, como um observador crítico, depois que ela tinha sido traída pelos seus colegas de partido e largado o poder. Estive lá, sim, no meio do seu governo, no início dos anos 1980, mas para uma estada rápida, como turista, e sem tempo para refletir sobre realidades que ainda não se tinham modificado plenamente. A  MThatcher ainda brigava com os sindicatos e a situação ainda não tinha mudado dramaticamente, como ocorreu a partir de meados dessa década.
Fui novamente lá no final de 1994, depois, portanto, que ela tinha saído do poder. A Inglaterra era outra: tinha metade do desemprego do continente, e o dobro da taxa de crescimento da UE, com investimentos asiáticos e tudo mais. A sujeira que eu tinha visto espalhada por todos os cantos em 1977 tinha desaparecido, e o país estava limpo e próspero.
Bem, nessa altura eu já não era mais socialista, apenas um reformista liberal, pois tinha aprendido pela experiência como funcionam as democracias de mercado e como não funcionam os regimes socialistas e os diversos regimes capitalistas estatizados, dirigistas, distributivistas, exatamente os que provocaram a crise de 2008.
Ainda vou elaborar mais a esse respeito por que é importante.
Políticos "normais", ordinários, fazem distributivismo demagógico até quando sobrevier a crise. Estadistas preparam o país para o médio e longo prazo, atuando para consolidar o crescimento. Quem faz apenas distributivismo caolho, e oportunismo, acaba precipitando o país nas crises. Mas isso não depende apenas de estadistas e sim de uma organização social e política compatível com o crescimento e a produtividade. É por isso que os EUA, com toda a sua desigualdade (e na ausência completa de estadistas, com políticos medíocres), consegue criar riquezas e crescer mais do que a Europa: porque mira produtividade, não distributivismo barato. Por isso também que os escandinavos, com todo o seu "distributivismo", assistencialismo e enorme carga tributária, ainda assim têm um desempenho melhor que a Europa continental (mas a Alemanha poderia ser integrada ao bloco dos escandinavos): porque miram na produtividade, na educação, no desempenho, não apenas na demagogia barata, à la francesa, ou mediterrânea.
Vou elaborar a respeito.
Por enquanto fiquem com o texto desse jornalista.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

A principal obra de Thatcher foi ter enterrado o “socialismo” do Partido Trabalhista. Ou: Grã-Bretanha está sob seu governo há 34 anos!
Reinaldo Azevedo, 8/04/2013

Sem Margaret Thatcher, a Inglaterra estaria no buraco. Como eu sei? Era o mais estatista e estatizado dos países europeus, decorrência das “conquistas” do Partido Trabalhista, uma agremiação surgida em 1900, criada por socialistas dos mais diversos matizes, por sindicalistas e por intelectuais marxistas. Era socialista, mas não revolucionário. O PT, 80 anos depois, apareceu em terras brasileiras com discurso semelhante — já explico por que isso tem lá a sua ironia. Em 1918, os trabalhistas incorporaram a seu programa a chamada Cláusula IV, que estabelece como norte a propriedade coletiva dos meios de produção. Atenção! O texto só foi mudado na convenção nacional de 1992, 74 anos depois! Se você clicar aqui, terá acesso às duas versões da cláusula, a anterior e a que está em curso, que defende a colaboração entre o capital privado e o estado.

A maior obra da conservadora Thatcher foi mudar o Partido Trabalhista, pondo um ponto final à ilusão, ao menos nas democracias europeias, de que o estado-empresário é o melhor indutor do desenvolvimento. Ela chegou ao poder em 1979 e deu início a um processo de desestatização da economia que tirou a Grã-Bretanha do impasse, refém que era do sindicalismo barra-pesada e da ineficiência. É vista como a precursora do que pode ser considerado mais uma invenção da esquerda do que da direita: o tal “neoliberalismo”, que encontraria em Ronald Reagan, que assumiu a Presidência dos EUA em 1981, o outro protagonista.

Não havia nada de “novo” no liberalismo de Thatcher e de Reagan, sempre lembrando que atuaram em ambientes bastante distintos no que respeita à presença do Estado na economia; ela teve muito mais trabalho. A novidade ficou por conta, talvez, da revalorização das forças de mercado, tidas, então, pelas esquerdas intelectuais como uma fase superada da civilização.

Thatcher comprou todas as brigas contra o sindicalismo brucutu e não cedeu. Foi primeira-ministra por mais de 11 anos (de maio de 1979 a novembro de 1990; seu sucessor, o também conservador John Major, ficou no poder até maio de 1997. As mudanças que ela operou na economia garantiram aos conservadores 18 anos de poder.

E agora voltamos aos trabalhistas. Em 1992, o partido decidiu mudar o conteúdo da Cláusula IV. A ideia de uma Grã-Bretanha socialista, organizada segundo a propriedade coletiva dos meios de produção, se parecia, vá lá, utópica no papel, havia se tornado ridícula quando confrontada com a realidade. Em 1997, um Partido Trabalhista, se me permitem a brincadeira, “thatcherista” vence a eleição e conduz Tony Blair ao poder por 10 anos — mais três de seu correligionário Gordon Brown. Nos 13 anos de trabalhismo pós-Thatcher, os marcos da economia continuaram rigorosamente os mesmos. Houve uma inflexão ou outra mais “social” na saúde e na educação e só.

Não é nenhum exagero afirmar que a Grã-Bretanha está há 34 anos sob os fundamentos que Thatcher reintroduziu na economia. E não há recuo possível. A sua última grande — enorme contribuição! — ao país foi dizer um sonoro “não” à Zona do Euro, que antevia como uma usina de crises, que teria de ficar sob a permanente regência da Alemanha. Como um único Banco Central haveria de arbitrar demandas de economias tão distintas? O presente, é evidente, lhe dá razão.

Fora do tempo
Thatcher se torna primeira-ministra em 1979, quando se ensaiava por aqui a formação do PT, fundado um ano depois. Em 1981, Reagan se elege nos EUA. Em 1982, Lula disputa o governo de São Paulo com uma plataforma socialista, discurso repetido em 1989, na eleição presidencial. Estávamos, obviamente, na contramão da história. A Constituição de 1988 vem à luz pautada, em muitos aspectos, por um estatismo xucro, com aversão clara ao capital. A Grã-Bretanha estava no 10º ano de suas reformas.

O Plano Real nos salvou do abismo, e não só pela virtude em si de ter posto a inflação sob controle. É que esse bem teve um desdobramento político importante: a eleição de FHC em 1994, com a reeleição em 1998.  Atenção! Dezesseis anos depois da chegada de Thacher ao poder e 14 depois da chegada de Reagan, o Brasil optou por umas poucas privatizações — enfrentando a tropa de choque sindical e o lulo-petismo — que fizeram do Brasil, apesar de tudo, um país contemporâneo, ainda que sempre na rabeira, como hoje.

As reformas que o Brasil empreendeu na década de 1990 só foram possíveis porque Thatcher e Reagan haviam recuperado, muito antes, o prestígio das leis de mercado e demonstrado, na prática, que o Estado, quando refém de corporações de ofício, produz mesmo é atraso orgulhoso.

Aqui e ali vocês lerão que a crise de 2008 ainda é desdobramento da desregulação da economia promovida pela dupla e coisa e tal. Bobagem! Isso é só ideologia chinfrim. Aos respectivos governos de ambos se sucederam gestões ditas “progressistas”, com inflexões à esquerda — a possível em cada país. Por que não se operaram, então, mudanças de rumo? De resto, a bolha imobiliária americana não se formou porque se seguiram as leis de mercado; ela só se tornou gigantesca porque essas leis não foram seguidas.

Começo a encerrar com mais umas considerações sobre o Brasil,. Também o PT, no poder, abandonou o seu credo socialista de antes, a exemplo do Partido Trabalhista inglês. Só que aquele teve a decência de mudar seus estatutos, não é? O PT continua com a sua cantilena dita socialista, o que é mera propaganda. Socialista não é, mas autoritário sim! O país opera segundo as leis de mercado, mas o sindical-estatismo tem peso crescente não exatamente na economia, mas no custo Brasil.

As esquerdas, especialmente em nosso país, foram hábeis na campanha de demonização do chamado “neoliberalismo”, especialmente depois da crise de 2008. Querem o Estado como patrão da sociedade. É claro que o modelo não vai dar certo. Já não está dando, diga-se. País que cresce menos de 1% com inflação renitente e baixo investimento está encalacrado. Mas, por enquanto, fica ancorado no consumo e na criação de empregos de baixa qualidade. Popular, o governo dá Bolsa Família de um lado e Bolsa Empresário de outro. Aloizio Mercadante, candidato a pensador desse novo momento brasileiro, filosofou em entrevista ao Estadão que, para o povo, PIB se traduz por emprego e consumo. O crescimento não tem tanta importância. Se o país cresce 1% e se o que importa, como quer o mestre, é emprego e consumo, esse desajuste se alimenta de alguma seiva. No caso, alimenta-se do nosso futuro.

Uma Margaret Thatcher no Brasil parece coisa impossível. Há alguns dias, Dilma anunciou a criação de uma estatal das águas, “Hidrobras” ou coisa assim. O Estado gerenciando a sociedade, em vez de a sociedade gerenciando o estado, está se tornando nossa segunda natureza.

Morreu uma grande mulher. Foi uma das principais personagens de uma mudança na economia de efeitos planetários.

Margaret Thacher morreu pobre.

The Iron Lady, Margareth Thatcher (1925-2013), 4: Peter Whittle

Britain’s Conviction Politician 

Peter Whittle

The City Journal,  8 April 2013

 

Even her adversaries knew that Margaret Thatcher meant what she said.

Within hours of Margaret Thatcher’s death, some concerned voices on the Left expressed hope that their comrades would have the self-possession to remain reasonably dignified in reacting to the news, bearing in mind that this was not just the passing of an obviously towering political figure, but also of a frail 87-year-old lady. You’d think such an appeal to decency would be unnecessary, but that is to be unfamiliar with the more unhinged elements of the British Left, which, in the former prime minister’s declining years, have boasted of the parties they would throw when the day finally came. As I write, the ugliness is already evident: the hard-left Member of Parliament George Galloway has taken to Twitter with the message “Tramp the dirt down,” and the Durham Miners Association has declared Thatcher’s death “a great day” for coal miners. Not far from where I sit, the long-running stage musical of the film Billy Elliott—set during the 1984 miners’ strike—features a song celebrating the future death of the hated lady. I wonder what will happen when it gets performed tonight. Will it be left out of the show from a sense of decorum, if nothing else? Or will it be sung with even greater gusto? Perhaps the latter, given the cultural and artistic establishment’s abiding hatred for a woman whose greatness often seemed better appreciated outside Britain.
That Margaret Thatcher inspired loathing as well as adoration—that she was what the media habitually call “a divisive figure”—is beyond doubt. But the nature of that loathing is revealing. Its intensity derives not just from opposition to her policies, or even to the fact that she trounced her opponents in three straight elections. It stems from bitterness among the formerly entrenched Left about something more fundamental: a realization that it has lost the argument.
Some of the criticisms of Thatcher by the great and good of the cultural elite went beyond pure political antipathy. They were marked by naked, unashamed snobbery and sexism. They hated her not just for what she believed, but also for what she was, a grammar-school-educated meritocrat from lower-middle-class origins. This is partly a characteristic of British society. Whereas few, if any, Americans knew what Ronald Reagan’s father did for a living, everybody in Britain knew Thatcher was a grocer’s daughter.
Her name is still spat out in London’s bien-pensant circles. While still in office, she was famously denied an honor by her own university, Oxford. Being knee-jerk liberals of the typical European sort, establishment movers and shakers had an instinctive antipathy for her. But the obsessiveness of their hatred had also to do with their own fragile egos—for Thatcher not only didn’t agree with them, she also didn’t care what they thought. Since she was politically terminated by her own party in 1990, those who have always wielded cultural influence in Britain have done their best to strike back. Their narrative of the Thatcher years as a time of shocking social and economic degradation has made some headway.
But it will not take. The public has longer memories than it’s often given credit for. You do not have to be especially old to remember Britain before Thatcher: the accepted, managed decline, the sense that we were living among the ruins, the sordidness of our national landscape. You do not have to be old to recall the sudden, renewed sense of national purpose, the almost palpable sense of coming back from the dead, the dawning realization that Britain was, within the span of a decade, no longer regarded as a tatty afterthought on the world stage, but was once again a serious country.
And there is this: a genuine admiration, and possibly an increasing nostalgia, for a leader who said what she believed and believed what she said. Even her most implacable enemies have never criticized Thatcher for her political insincerity, for she had none. She was a conviction politician before the term was coined, a leader motivated by a love for Britain and its people and a desire that they should once again achieve the heights she knew them capable of. As leaders across the British political spectrum prepare to line up at her funeral in Saint Paul’s Cathedral, they might ponder this: hardly a British voter would believe such a claim if made of them.

Peter Whittle is founder and director of the New Culture Forum, a columnist for Standpoint, and author of several books, including Look at Me: Celebrating the Self in Modern Britain and Monarchy Matters.