Those of you who read the print version of National Review might have encountered a slightly edited version of the following letter in the latest edition. John O’Sullivan inspired the letter by making a not-quite-accurate statement in an article about former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. O’Sullivan wrote of Thatcher’s “loss” to Michael Heseltine in the British Conservative Party’s 1990 leadership contest.
On Thatcher’s ‘Defeat’
Nearing the end of John O’Sullivan’s review of the new Margaret Thatcher biopic (“The Lioness In Winter,” January 23), I was struck by the reference to “her defeat by Michael Heseltine, which triggered her downfall.”
As a college student spending the semester at the London School of Economics during that fall of 1990, I remembered some details of that “defeat” and thought they merited a bit more attention.
While O’Sullivan is undoubtedly correct that the Conservative Party leadership contest between Thatcher and Heseltine ended Thatcher’s 11-year run as British prime minister, it’s important to note that Thatcher never lost to Heseltine. In a straightforward, head-to-head contest, she whipped him. The margin was roughly 55 percent to 40 percent. I say “roughly” because the margin was actually just shy of 15 percentage points, the margin Thatcher needed to win the race on the first ballot.
Advised that she was unlikely to win on the second ballot, Thatcher withdrew from the leadership battle and paved the way for the eventual election of John Major.
Why bring this up? It’s hard to picture any present-day American politician giving up a powerful post because “only” 55 percent of his colleagues endorsed his leadership. He would be much more likely to complain about voting rules that ignored the majority’s will.
As that thought sifted through my mind, I couldn’t help but recall the previous article in the Jan. 23 issue, Daniel Foster’s chronicle of the death of shame in America.
Mitch Kokai
Raleigh, N.C.
