The article goes on to explain what a clever woman she is despite the fashion of 'Thatcher Bashing'. It's not explicit but there's a very strong undercurrent of outright sexism in the piece and a certain distrust of her relatively humble roots. Despite the unpopularity of her right wing doctrines (even in 1971!) you can't help but feel that the main problem is that she's a woman from up north. How things have changed? Maybe. But then again there's a certain hysteria around the Republican VP candidate Palin (especially in the left leaning green blogs I tend to read). There's no doubt that her green credentials are appalling but we need to be careful of under-estimating her and be aware of why we might be so keen to.
In times of hardship - and even if people still aren't aware of the hardship climate change is causing they are definitely aware of the economic collapse we're on the brink of - people seek strength and determination above all else. In the 1980's you could hardly find anyone who had a good word to say about Thatcher, her obstinacy and destructive policies - but people voted for her time and time again. I see the same characteristics in Palin. In contrast Obama looks smiley, nice and weak - not what Americans are likely to want - but heaven help us - the world needs a green US president.
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