Margaret Thatcher: Ex-PM described euro as a 'rush of blood to the head'

As the end of the year approaches the "thirty-year rule" means we get to see the things that were secret in 1990 , interestingly at the time we prepare to leave the EU we get the musings of Margaret Thatcher on the EU at the end of her Premiership , I rarely agreed with Maggie but on this we are one.

An Irish Government note recorded that Mrs Thatcher said: "In talking of a single currency, Delors must have had a rush of blood to the head.

"We are not going to have a single currency."

Well said Mrs T , thankfully a mantra repeated by Gordon Brown.

Baroness Thatcher also said she was getting "completely fed up of the European community trying to tie us up with bureaucratic regulations".

At the time, Soviet Union control over eastern Europe was collapsing, leading Baroness Thatcher to say: "We are trying to get eastern Europe to accept democratic standards and here we are recreating our own politburo."

She said while the commission had been necessary "to start off" it was a "totally non-democratic power structure now".

Jacques Delors - who Baroness Thatcher also referred to as a "mere appointee" in the notes - was the president of the European Commission and played a key role in the design of the euro and creation of the single market.

Baroness Thatcher wanted to turn the commission into a professional civil service, without the power of initiative, whose job would be to service the Council of Ministers - which represents national governments in Europe.

"The days of appointed commissioners must be numbered," she said. "We must give power to the Council of Ministers.

"I am not handing over authority to a non-elected bureaucracy."
www.bbc.co.uk...

I already knew of Thatcher's Euro-skepticism but wasn't aware it ran so deep , as time passes and successive useless PMs fall by the wayside I wonder if perhaps Thatcher wasn't so bad after all..... Nah not really but she was on the money regarding the EU.

originally posted by: gortex
As the end of the year approaches the "thirty-year rule" means we get to see the things that were secret in 1990 , interestingly at the time we prepare to leave the EU we get the musings of Margaret Thatcher on the EU at the end of her Premiership , I rarely agreed with Maggie but on this we are one.

An Irish Government note recorded that Mrs Thatcher said: "In talking of a single currency, Delors must have had a rush of blood to the head.

"We are not going to have a single currency."

Well said Mrs T , thankfully a mantra repeated by Gordon Brown.

Baroness Thatcher also said she was getting "completely fed up of the European community trying to tie us up with bureaucratic regulations".

At the time, Soviet Union control over eastern Europe was collapsing, leading Baroness Thatcher to say: "We are trying to get eastern Europe to accept democratic standards and here we are recreating our own politburo."

She said while the commission had been necessary "to start off" it was a "totally non-democratic power structure now".

Jacques Delors - who Baroness Thatcher also referred to as a "mere appointee" in the notes - was the president of the European Commission and played a key role in the design of the euro and creation of the single market.

Baroness Thatcher wanted to turn the commission into a professional civil service, without the power of initiative, whose job would be to service the Council of Ministers - which represents national governments in Europe.

"The days of appointed commissioners must be numbered," she said. "We must give power to the Council of Ministers.

"I am not handing over authority to a non-elected bureaucracy."
www.bbc.co.uk...

I already knew of Thatcher's Euro-skepticism but wasn't aware it ran so deep , as time passes and successive useless PMs fall by the wayside I wonder if perhaps Thatcher wasn't so bad after all..... Nah not really but she was on the money regarding the EU.

Old Iron Lady from left back!

In some ways she administered government in a more innocent time, before goldfish overtook people on the pay attention rankings.

I think Maggie expresses some very legitimate concerns in the material you present, with the clarity of hindsight, does she offer any legacy of note to guide Britain in the future do you think?