Sunday, July 17, 2005

Scotsman.com News - Sir Edward Heath, Europhile Prime Minister, dies at home

Sir Edward Heath was British Prime Minister in 1970-74. He has died a week after celebrating his 89th birthday. Margaret Thatcher, whom he openly berated for years, is showing her class upon his passing:
Baroness Thatcher, whose relationship with Sir Edward was famously bitter after she succeeded him as Tory leader, said in a statement: "Ted Heath was a political giant. He was also, in every sense, the first modern Conservative leader - by his humble background, grammar school education and by the fact of his democratic election.

"As prime minister, he was confronted by the enormous problems of post-war Britain. If those problems eventually defeated him, he had shown in the 1970 manifesto how they, in turn, would eventually be defeated. For that, and much else, we are all in his debt."
For more on Heath and other "PMs," see the 10 Downing Street website.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maggie was much more gracious than Ted would have been in the reverse situation. The acrimony was more Ted's that hers. This is understandable, because he valued loyalty above all things and in the end she was disloyal to him.

Kathryn Judson said...

I hadn't thought of it that way. That could explain a lot, if that's really how he saw things.

Of course, I'm glad she shifted her loyalty to larger things and didn't just become his reliable flunky, but, well, if I'm going to try the 'walk in mile in somebody else's shoes' business with Heath, I can see where he'd be upset, now that you mention it.

Thanks for writing.