It has now been five years since Margaret Thatcher resigned as Britain’s Prime Minister. In her heyday she strode the international headlines with such bravura that she seemed inevitable, a natural force. The world stage seemed just the right size for her, as she chaffed her conservative soul mate Ronald Reagan or flattered the “new man,” Mikhail Gorbachev.
Now the political world has begun to focus on the immensity of her achievement. How on earth did she manage to get there? She was elected to Parliament at 32 in 1958(five years before the Feminine Mystique was published.)She parried her way through the complacent, male-dominated councils of power—no woman had ever roiled those waters. Couldn’t the old boys see her coming? After all, there was nothing subtle about her personality or her approach.
As The Path to Power (Harper-Collins; 656 pages;4$30),the second volume of her autobiography, makes clear, Thatcher was probably too simple and direct for the Tories, with their heavy baggage of class and compromise. She traveled light, proud of her roots as a grocer’s daughter from the small town of Grantham but never tethered by working-class resentments or delusions of inferiority. Her parents taught her the verities they believed in: Methodism, hard work, thrift and the importance of the individual. She has never wavered from them, and they run through the book.
“Nothing in our house was wasted.” Or, “I had less leisure time than other children.” These are boasts of a childhood recalled in tranquility. Later they became a philosophy:” Being conservative is never merely a matter of income, but a whole way of life, a will to take responsibility for oneself.”
From the start, she notes almost with bemusement, there was a contrast between her own “executive style” and her colleagues’ “more consultive style.” Thatcher laid down the law. In her 11-year leadership, she broke the crippling power of British unions, made many thousands of her countrymen homeowners, strengthened British ties with the U.S. and the Soviet Union and gave voice to Britain’s reluctance about joining Europe, a reluctance that still plagues her successor, John Major.
The Downing Street Years, the first volume of her memoirs, covered her time in power. This one is more interesting and better fun, a formidable leader looking back on her early winning battles. She is known now as the Iron Lady, but as a pretty, naïve young pol who cut through cant, prevarication and some very real problems, she must have been exhilarating. Her rise, as she once described the star-is-born press coverage that greeted her maiden speech in Commons, was “roses, roses all the way.”
In a final section on the ‘90s political scene, she calls for renewed dedication to her principles. The imperiled John Major cannot take comfort in the timing of The Path to Power. Thatcher has relentlessly flogged the book in Britain and the U.S., giving TV interviews that scourge what she sees as the collapse of her country’s leadership. The one thing she doesn’t say is that as this old century draws to a close, there simply aren’t that many leaders. Thatcher was one.
译文:
铿锵玫瑰一路行——撒切尔
英国前首相玛格丽特·撒切尔夫人退位至今已有五个年头了。在她当政期间，她以其强势的个人作风席卷世界各个头条，她似乎是一股不可抗拒的自然力。她在世界舞台上如鱼得水，揶揄她的保守派盟友罗纳德·里根，或称赞
米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫为“具有新思想的人”。 现在，国际政坛开始将目光聚集到她的巨大成就上来了。她是如何胜任至此？1958年，32岁的她就当选为英国下议院议员（那时距《女性的迷思》一书出版还有五年）。她在那些自信满满，男性掌权着的议会里取得了自己的一席之位——要知道之前从未有女性来搅过这趟浑水。难道，那些老一派的人士没能察觉到她的到来吗？要知道，她的个性如此刚强，她的进发如此鲜明。
在她的第二部自传《通往权利之路》（哈朴·科林斯，656页，30美圆）一书中，明确的表示了，她对于保守党人士，有可能太过简单而直接了。他们身上都背着很重的阶级包伏，善于妥协。她行路轻松，出生在格兰瑟姆一个小镇上，并以杂货店老板女儿的出身为豪，也从来不会为工人阶级所遭受的低人一等而忿忿不平或是有所欺瞒。她的父母以身作则，教导有方：严守规定，努力工作，勤俭节约，独立自强。她这一生都从未动摇过这些原则，它们在整本书里都得以体现。
“我们的家从来不浪费东西”，或是“我比其他的孩子要少很多玩耍的时间。”这些都是她在静下来时回忆孩童时光的一些豪言壮语。接着，就变成一些颇具哲学意味的语句了：“成为一个保守主义者，从来不是为了增加什么收入，这是一种生活的方式，一种为自己负责的意愿。”
一开始，她还有诸多疑虑，她自己奉行的“管理风格”与其保守党成员的“更多协商风格”存在着些异议。不过，撒切尔还是以自己的准绳贯彻实施了法律。在其从政为相的11年期间，她瓦解了英联盟的局部不稳定力量，让千千万万的国人当家作主，还加强了英国与美国苏联的关系纽带，英国对加入欧盟的迟疑发表了自己的看法。而英国的这一迟疑至今还困扰着她的继任者约翰·梅杰。
她的第一本回忆录《唐宁街的岁月》，描述了她当政的那段时光。比之与后一本，这一部显得更为生动有趣，这是一个强悍的领导人回过头来看她早时赢得得每场战争。如今的她，被大家公认为铁娘子。不过，作为一个年轻貌美，生性淳朴的政坛骨干，她拒绝一切伪善之言，搪塞之言，还有一些非常真实的问题，她必然是令人愉悦的。她的升起，就像新闻报道“明星的诞生”描述她在国会下院的首次演说那样：“铿锵玫瑰，一路行。”
在90年代的政治舞台上演的最后一幕上，撒切尔夫人呼吁应再次按照她的原则行事。而受其书影响，约翰·梅杰的权利之路走得也算艰难。撒切尔夫人在书中，无情得鞭笞，在美国和英国接受电视访问时，还指责她所看到的自己国家的领导集团，他们正分崩离析。不过，还有一件事，她没说出口：当这个陈旧的世纪即将闭幕，已经很少再能有杰出的领导人的出现了。不过她，撒切尔确是其中的一个。