Word: thatcherism
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This paraphrase of Margaret Thatcher's comment after meeting Mikhail Gorbachev pretty much tips Theroux's hand in Kowloon Tong. He is aiming at broad political satire, and nearly any target will do. Both the Mullards are contemptible. She is a snob about all things British who calls the Chinese "Chinky-Chonks" and tells her host at a Chinese restaurant, "Nothing personal, but we don't touch Chinese food. Never did. All the grease, all the glue. And it's always so wet. Makes me want to spew." Bunt, for his part, is a pathetic mama...
...Imperial Stitching building. Bunt?s mother wants to sell -- Hung?s offer will bring them roughly ?1 million, or $1.6 million -- and when her son objects to Hung?s strong-arm negotiations, she says, ?Oh, pack it in! I could do business with that man.? This paraphrase of Margaret Thatcher?s comment after meeting Mikhail Gorbachev pretty much tips Theroux?s hand in ?Kowloon Tong.? He is aiming at broad political satire, and nearly any target will do. Both the Mullards are contemptible. Hung, the avatar of the new Hong Kong order, is a brute . . . and may be guilty...
...hereditary peers out of the House of Lords. It is the biggest Tory defeat in 165 years: half the government have lost their seats, the party is virtually leaderless, the succession is wide open, and the only Tory politician who is looking calm, secure and confident is Margaret Thatcher, who campaigned loyally for John Major but privately forecast his catastrophic defeat. She will again be the Tory queen, and the kingmaker in the succession struggle...
Blair's historic achievement was to exorcise the voters' fear of Labour. They could put him in power confident in his pledges that taxes will not go up, spending will be kept in strict control, Thatcher's antiunion laws will remain in place, the privatization of Britain's state assets will continue, and socialism is dead, buried and forgotten. This was, in essence, a constitutional vote by the people to keep the two-party system alive, to insist that the other fellow be given a chance. It was a vote for fair play, balance, honesty, high seriousness and better ethical...
...difference lies in leadership. Blair has been given a personal mandate of the kind Thatcher got in 1979. His mission is to make Britain a morally more acceptable place. He is a young man with impeccable ethical credentials, of great charm, terrific energy and optimism, and enormous will. He is going to take this old but still resourceful country on a new, romantic adventure that will be fascinating to watch. And even if it all ends in tears, the experience will be worth...