With the upcoming film about Margaret Thatcher, “The Iron Lady,” about to debut, I thought it appropriate to catch up again with Claire Berlinski, author of “There is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters.”
Neither of us had seen the film when we spoke, but Berlinski said she was pleasantly surprised by the trailer. “There’s been a lot of expectation it will be a hit job … but I thought the trailer made it look like an interesting movie,” she said. (The fact that it stars liberal actress Meryl Streep has caused many to assume the portrayal would be unflattering.)
(Listen to a podcast of my full conversation with Claire Berlinski here.)
Berlinski and I covered a lot of substantive ground — from The Falklands War to economics — but much of our conversation dealt with the superficial side of Thatcher — the side that the above video focuses on. (The trailer, which focuses on the creation of the Thatcher image, actually rings true.)
As Charles Powell — Thatcher’s former foreign and defense adviser — tells Berlinski in the book, “… you’ve got to think in terms of Margaret Thatcher Productions, almost, I mean there were the policies and the rhetoric, but there was also the hair, the dress, the lighting, and everything.”
Image is important for all leaders, of course, but Thatcher had something else going for her, too. As Neil Kinnock, the leader of the Labour Party during much of Thatcher’s tenure, told Berlinski, Thatcher “was fully capable of flirting and flattering to get her way.”
Berlinski’s book dares to discuss the sex appeal of the former Prime Minister. Interestingly, many of the subjects she interviews confess to knowing people who found her attractive (though they all deny they were charmed by her.)
Chivalry might have helped her, too — though I suspect it’s a convenient excuse summoned retroactively by her rivals. “[T}here were punches I could throw against, say, John Major, who’s a man of my age,” explained Kinnock, “that I just couldn’t throw against a woman seventeen years older.”
Berlinki’s book is a fascinating look at one of the 20th centuries most important leaders. Let’s hope the new film does Thatcher as much justice.
You can listen to my full conversation with Berlinksi here.
(Or download the podcast on iTunes.)