S2.08 Charles Moore - Margaret Thatcher: Radical or Traditionalist?

In this full-legnth interview, Thatcher's Official Biographer reveals for the first time some remarkable facts from his new biography, including: * Sir John Major's role in Thatcher's overthrow, * Thatcher's early commitment to climate change * Thatcher's desire whilst in office for the British public to decide on Britain's place in EC through both a general election and a referendum * secret channels opened up between the British government and South Africa's ANC * remarkable exchanges between Nelson Mandela and the British Prime Minister The Three decades after Thatcher left office, why does Britain's most successful Prime Minister remain such a divisive figure? What will history deem her greatest achievement, failure and legacy? Ultimately, was she a radical or a traditionalist? This week's guest on "So What You're Saying Is..." is Charles Moore, Official Biographer of Margaret Thatcher and former editor of The Daily Telegraph, The Spectator and The Sunday Telegraph. Charles joins Peter Whittle to discuss the third and final volume of his bestselling and definitive biography of Britain's first female Prime Minister, 'One of the great biographical achievements of our times' (Sunday Times) This volume tells the story of her last period in office, her combative retirement and the controversy that surrounded her even in death. It includes the Fall of the Berlin Wall which she had fought for and the rise of the modern EU which she feared. It lays bare her growing quarrels with colleagues and reveals the truth about her political assassination by her own MPs. Moore's biography of Britain's most important peacetime prime minister paints an intimate political and personal portrait of the victories and defeats, the iron will but surprising vulnerability of the woman who dominated in an age of male power. Charles Moore notes that "Whenever I go on the BBC they always start: 'Margaret Thatcher was the most divisive P.M....' rather than stating 'Margaret Thatcher was the most successful P.M...." "Whatever one thinks of her as a leader, it is factually true that she was politically successful: * The longest-serving prime minister won every election.. * She won them all with big majorities * She brought in most of the measures she wanted to. * She has a set of doctrines are named after her. * She was the first female prime minister. * She was a hugely prestigious global figure by the late 1980s, having been the senior world leader by as early as 1982. * She helped end the Cold War and was celebrated as an heroic figure in central and Eastern Europe. She also correctly forecast that the European Community's plan to tie post-reunification Germany down and stop it being a threat by placing it at the heart of an increasingly centralised European Union, tied to other European states also through a common currency, would backfire & lead to Germany dominating the continent.