The Monarchist 1.0
Defending the British Crown Commonwealth and the English-Speaking Peoples
[+] HONOURING OUR PATRON, SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL, VICTOR OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES
[+] HONOURING OUR QUEEN, ELIZABETH THE SECOND, ON THE 80TH YEAR OF HER BIRTH (1926 - 2006)
[+] HONOURING OUR KING, SAINT EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, ON THE 1000TH YEAR OF HIS BIRTH (1005 - 2005)
[+] HONOURING OUR HERO, LORD NELSON, ON THE BICENTENNIAL OF THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR (1805 - 2005)
[+] HONOURING OUR SONS, THE QUEEN'S COMMONWEALTH SOLDIERS KILLED IN THE 'WAR ON TERROR'
Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard, 46, Royal Canadian Regiment, Nov 27, 2006 (Afstan)
Staff Sergeant Sharron Elliott, 34, Intelligence Corps, Nov 12, 2006 (Iraq)
Private Jacob B. Kovco, 25, Royal Australian Regiment, April 21, 2006
[+] HONOURING OUR VETS ON THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE VICTORIA CROSS (1856 - 2006)
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Iron Ladies
Margaret Thatcher isn’t the only “Iron Lady” around today, only the most synonymously celebrated one.
A less celebrated but more popular Iron Lady would have be Her Majesty the Queen, if inner steel, steadfastness and a stiff upper lip have anything to do with it. The late Queen Mother too had this in spades, said attributes most famously on display in the walkarounds of East London during the Blitz, showing a level of spine that worried Hitler into pronouncing her “the most dangerous woman in Europe”. Empress Victoria exhibited a strength of longevity unmatched by any of her predecessors and followers. Elizabeth I stood up to the Spanish Armada. History, in actual fact, is replete with Iron Majesties.
But quiet resolve and tenacity aren’t usually enough when we talk of “strong willed” women. It isn’t intemperate enough or uncontroversial enough for the modern media to report, so such strength of character typically goes unnoticed. The media prefers the “Red queen” to the real Queen, referring to the fiery Baroness Barbara Castle, who was famous for her fiercely held all-red left-wing views as leader of the Labour Party, who dominated British politics for 50 years as an uncompromising campaigner for women’s rights, who single-handedly became the first woman Labour MP in 1945 and later the first woman Minister.
Uncompromisers don’t normally become prime minister though, and all the will in the world won’t help a Labour leader who (ironically) clashes with trade unions. Before she passed away in 2002 at the age of 91, her attacks right up until the end on the ideological drift of “New Labour” led Chancellor Gordon Brown to call her “my mentor and tormentor”. Today it is not widely known that it was Baroness Castle who was first labeled Britain's Iron Lady, almost 30 years before the Tories got their own Iron Lady in Margaret Thatcher. Lady Castle is proof of the obvious: that Iron Ladies don’t have to be right-wing to be strong willed.
It helps to be right though. Barbara Castle may have willed the woman’s “Equal Pay for Equal Work” Act into legislative reality in the 1960s, but all the stubbornness in the world couldn’t make people observe it. Like all socialist dogma, it was unworkable, and was soon relegated to the trash heap of history. The downside to iron-ladyness is that you are despised by as many as you are liked, none are indifferent. So if you are going to be despised by half the population, if you are going to quickly burn your political capital as a polarizing figure, you better do it on something changeworthy for the betterment of generations. It’s okay to be despised - that’s leadership. It’s not okay to be dismissed or not respected. Few dismiss Thatcher and few still do not respect her.
Other ironclad ladies: Leaders who have earned the unofficial title (some of them postfactum) include: (Source: Wikipedia)
POSTED BY: The Monarchist AT 3:35 p.m. | LINKS |
Margaret Thatcher isn’t the only “Iron Lady” around today, only the most synonymously celebrated one.A less celebrated but more popular Iron Lady would have be Her Majesty the Queen, if inner steel, steadfastness and a stiff upper lip have anything to do with it. The late Queen Mother too had this in spades, said attributes most famously on display in the walkarounds of East London during the Blitz, showing a level of spine that worried Hitler into pronouncing her “the most dangerous woman in Europe”. Empress Victoria exhibited a strength of longevity unmatched by any of her predecessors and followers. Elizabeth I stood up to the Spanish Armada. History, in actual fact, is replete with Iron Majesties.
But quiet resolve and tenacity aren’t usually enough when we talk of “strong willed” women. It isn’t intemperate enough or uncontroversial enough for the modern media to report, so such strength of character typically goes unnoticed. The media prefers the “Red queen” to the real Queen, referring to the fiery Baroness Barbara Castle, who was famous for her fiercely held all-red left-wing views as leader of the Labour Party, who dominated British politics for 50 years as an uncompromising campaigner for women’s rights, who single-handedly became the first woman Labour MP in 1945 and later the first woman Minister.
Uncompromisers don’t normally become prime minister though, and all the will in the world won’t help a Labour leader who (ironically) clashes with trade unions. Before she passed away in 2002 at the age of 91, her attacks right up until the end on the ideological drift of “New Labour” led Chancellor Gordon Brown to call her “my mentor and tormentor”. Today it is not widely known that it was Baroness Castle who was first labeled Britain's Iron Lady, almost 30 years before the Tories got their own Iron Lady in Margaret Thatcher. Lady Castle is proof of the obvious: that Iron Ladies don’t have to be right-wing to be strong willed.
It helps to be right though. Barbara Castle may have willed the woman’s “Equal Pay for Equal Work” Act into legislative reality in the 1960s, but all the stubbornness in the world couldn’t make people observe it. Like all socialist dogma, it was unworkable, and was soon relegated to the trash heap of history. The downside to iron-ladyness is that you are despised by as many as you are liked, none are indifferent. So if you are going to be despised by half the population, if you are going to quickly burn your political capital as a polarizing figure, you better do it on something changeworthy for the betterment of generations. It’s okay to be despised - that’s leadership. It’s not okay to be dismissed or not respected. Few dismiss Thatcher and few still do not respect her.
Other ironclad ladies: Leaders who have earned the unofficial title (some of them postfactum) include: (Source: Wikipedia)
- Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and 1980 to 1984
- Golda Meir, the Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974
- Baroness Barbara Castle, a British left-wing politician (1910-2002).[1]
- Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990
- Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany since 2005
- Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the President of Liberia since 2006
- Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 to 1948
- Biljana Plavšić, served in the Bosnian Serb government from 1992 to 1998.
- The Iron Butterfly is a nickname of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos.
- Iron Rita is a nickname of Dutch minister Rita Verdonk
POSTED BY: The Monarchist AT 3:35 p.m. | LINKS |
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