Lady Thatcher

A few weeks ago - just after the Budget -I came across this quote

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be re-filled , public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance."


The author was one Cicero, a famous orator and politician of the time of Julius Caesar. Like Margaret Thatcher he fell from power - but - it has to be said -the penalty for political failure then was rather greater than it is now as he suffered execution with his body parts being prominently displayed in the Forum.

At the time it struck me as exactly the sort of speech Lady Thatcher could have made and just the sort of speech that none of the political pygmies currently running the government could ever make - simply because they are too frightened of being hated ever to be loved. It was Lady Thatcher's great strength that she didn't care who hated her as long as she believed she was acting in the best interest of the people of this country- which she always was.  

Looking Cicero up on the Encyclopedia Britannica  web site I came across this:

...as a 'new man' a man without noble ancestry, he was never accepted by the dominant circle of Optimates  (Conservative Senatorial aristocracy) , and he attributed his own political misfortunes after 63BC partly to the jealousy, partly to the spineless unconcern of the complacent Optimates

How history repeats itself though no one, surely, would go so far as to to ascribe 'noble ancestry' to that mountebank Heseltine    
  

church attendance this Easter

Memo to the Archbishop of Canterbury - next time Easter Sunday and putting the clocks forward looks like coinciding get the date for putting the clocks forward changed. Getting teenage children out of bed and into church by 10 o'clock is a bugger at any time - but when the 'real' time is only 9 o'clock it is a real challenge!