Why is Thatcher back in fashion?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2024
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Margaret Thatcher has been out of power for thirty years but this week it's started to feel like she's back in the room.
Rachel Reeves, shadow chancellor, gave the agenda-setting Mais lecture to the City of London last night, setting out her vision for Labour's first term in office and invoking the spirit, if not the policies, of Thatcher.
David Lammy, her colleague, was quick to endorse both women when asked about it on the Politico podcast. Is the mention of Thatcher a way of winning over the unconvinced? Or is it a message about the radical nature of what is to come?
Later, We discuss the Rwanda plan and the absence of effective diplomacy in Gaza with former foreign secretary David Miliband.
And why has Leo Varadkar decided to quit frontline Irish politics?
Editor: Tom Hughes
Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell
Producer: Alex Barnett
Video Production: Rory Symon and Shane Fennelly
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The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:08.2 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:11.7 | Mr Speaker, with his backbenchers looking for a unity candidate to replace him, |
| 0:16.9 | which of the now numerous, born against staturites on the the Labour front bench does he believe best fits the bill? |
| 0:26.6 | That is Stephen Flynn, the leader of the SMP, trying to cause mischief on the Labour front bench. |
| 0:33.6 | Not that he needs to, because it does seem, there are an awful lot of Labour front benches |
| 0:37.8 | talking about Margaret Thatcher in slightly admiring tones. |
| 0:42.1 | It is 34 years since she stopped being Prime Minister. |
| 0:47.1 | Lewis Goodall barely born at that stage in the universe, |
| 0:51.6 | but yet she's still casting this long shadow. |
| 0:54.0 | And another person who was a babe in arms when Thatcher was in power was Rachel Reeves, |
| 0:59.5 | who now seems to be almost trying to inhabit that former conservative dominatrix. |
| 1:07.6 | She's not the only one on the front bench. |
| 1:10.0 | David Lammy is doing it too for labour. So today we're |
| 1:13.3 | asking why her shadow is so great on what they're actually trying to tell us. Welcome to the newsagents. |
| 1:23.8 | The newsagents. It's John. It's Emily. It's Lewis. And it's the first time we've had Dominatrix discussed on the news agents, which I think is the first to be welcome. |
| 1:32.6 | I don't think it's the first, but I certainly think it's the earliest. |
| 1:35.9 | I don't even find that too much. |
| 1:40.0 | No? |
| 1:40.5 | No, you wouldn't. |
| 1:45.0 | But it is interesting, isn't it? |
| 1:47.0 | It is so long ago since Margaret Thatcher stopped being a force in British politics, |
... |
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