THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
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NEWS Reflections on The Iron Lady After attending Baroness Thatcher's funeral, Sir Robert Worcester puts her premiership into perspective
The funeral is over. We were there and will never forget it. It is time not so much for reminiscences, but reflections. Monarchs unite countries when they do well, and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth's long reign has enjoyed the longest and most stable measure of public opinion since objective and systematic polling has available. Her Majesty's latest satisfaction rating is over 80%. Certainly any British Prime Minister would die for these ratings. The UK's Gallup Poll found in 1969 that the Monarchy was supported by a massive majority of the British people. Then only one person in five,19%, of the adult population was in favour of a republic over a monarchy. For now over 40 years 19% has, with only very few measures as the exceptions, been within a margin of plus or minus 3%. The principal exception was in the first fortnight of September 1997, when the Royal Family was on holiday at Balmoral and learned of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. They were slow to realise that the outpouring of grief made it imperative that they join in the mourning, support for a Republic rose to 25% breaking then a near 30 year stable record. The public responded to their appearance on the Friday at the Palace. Support for a Republic fell to just 12%, and then rebounded to the norm a month or so later, 19%. Prime Ministers on the other hand divide public opinion. On media appearances I made at and following the funeral, I was on each occasion asked about the protesters and made this point, pointing out that when Ipsos MORI asked for the Evening Standard 'On balance, do you think the eleven years of Margaret Thatcher's Government were good or bad for the country?' the 47% good/42% bad net score of +5% for Lady Thatcher compared to Tony Blair's evens 45%/45% net zero, and David Cameron's net -15, 37% good and 52% bad. YouGov for the Sun, asking 'great/good' against 'poor/terrible' found: Thatcher +11, Blair -6, Heath -19, Major -23 and Brown a dismal -52. We walked through the crowd on the way into the security queue before entering the Cathedral for the service, and saw only one likely protester (making rude remarks about my morning dress) while hundreds were clearly there to pay their respects. On BBC News Channel after the service, the interviewer mentioned to me that there were more visible protesters after the service when the cameras were on, and the entire time previous to and during the service. There were many moving moments during the service, none more so than the roar of applause and cheering from the crowd when the West doors were opened for the pall bearers to take Lady Thatcher's casket away from the service. |
