“If it is once again one against forty-eight, then I am very sorry for the forty-eight”. Margaret Thatcher 1925-2013
Alter the numbers a little bit and the quote would work well in the council chamber in Southend!
She was an inspiration to me. Lots of people enter politics to try and change things for the better, many fail, some succeed in a small way, few manage it like Margaret Thatcher did.
I entered politics not to be liked (having been a football referee and a policeman before I entered politics I think I must be allergic to being liked!), but to try and change things for the better.
I was searching through the many quotes to use Thatcher’s words, and whilst I think there may be a slight over emphasis here (as I think bringing people with you on a journey is important where it can be done without compromising your beliefs) I think the following gives food for thought:
“Consensus: “The process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values, and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects; the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead.” What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner: ‘I stand for consensus?’”
If it all goes wrong, you take the blame. So if it does go wrong, you might as well have done it the way you think was right!
R.I.P. The greatest peacetime prime minister the UK ever had.
Trust you to pick a quote which highlighted why the Baroness was so reviled in many quarters. Maybe that is why you do not like my politics – I think politics is all about compromise and consensus.
Consensus is good when you do not have to compromise your beliefs and it doesn’t get in the way of progress. As I said if you can bring people along with you, and establish a consensus as to the best way to do things (as I think you will find I try to do – you might not like what it is we have to establish a consensus on, but once we have overcome that, it is important to attempt to agree a mutually agreeable way forward).
Hence I said the quote may have a slight over emphasis.
However Mrs T was right: “I stand for consensus” is no good. Trying to get agreement on things over and above actually doing things is not what politicians are elected to do. We are elected to make decisions and solve the issues put before us. Sometimes that means getting on with it, and answering to the people if you get it wrong.