MEPs remember Baroness Thatcher
329 views · Published 9 April 2013 · 1:55 · Indexed 24 October 2026
Channel: European Parliament · 2013 · News & Politics
Comment on European Parliament Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/europeanparliament Baroness Margaret Thatcher, who served as Prime Minister of the UK from 1979 until 1990, has died at the age of 87. Britain's first woman Prime Minister, she won three general elections, but her sometimes sceptical position on Europe proved controversial for some. Members of the European Parliament have been sharing their memories of her. I had a lot of conversations with her in the 1980s when I was doing the 'Peace Through NATO' role and we were doing this defence stuff. She was, I think, actually very pragmatic about Europe. Although she said 'we must have this' or 'we must have that' from a UK perspective, by and large, despite some irritations -- particularly with the German Chancellor -- there was a general understanding that she did bat very strongly for our side but was not essentially hostile to Europe. Mrs Thatcher, coming in as an outsider determined to shake things up, doing some good in terms of some of the reforms that she brought about -- economic reforms and so on -- nonetheless did the country, I'm sorry to say, a lot of damage in its relations with its European partners. I fear that she may have set the country on a path out of the European Union. She was someone who won three general elections, who spanned from the 1970s into the 1990s and who was Britain's first woman Prime Minister. Whatever disagreements there were -- and Labour had many disagreements with her, she was a controversial figure -- nevertheless she was a historic figure for Britain. Many people in Britain who disagreed with her still respected her achievements. And Labour joins with everyone else in expressing sympathies and condolences on her passing. EuroparlTV video ID: f1d35aaa-f1f0-4692-ac83-a19a0127b382
