DeMint on Lady Thatcher, Freedom’s Champion

Washington, D.C., April 8, 2013—Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint this morning released this statement on the death of Lady Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of Great Britain from 1979-1990:

The Heritage Foundation has lost one of our greatest friends, and the world has lost one of its greatest champions of freedom.

Margaret Thatcher led Great Britain courageously for more than a decade. During that time, she rolled back the suffocating blanket of Big Government, sparking an economic revival. And she implemented a foreign policy based on the principle that British sovereignty and the freedom of all those under the protection of Great Britain shall not be violated.

But it is her partnership with Ronald Reagan that we Americans think of first. It was characterized by loyalty, commitment and a jauntiness that proclaimed success was inevitable. As, indeed, it proved to be—both in domestic policy and in bringing down the Evil Empire of the Soviets without firing a shot.

Mrs. Thatcher spoke constantly of freedom, and the absolute need for America to exert international leadership in the cause of freedom. Her conviction that liberty could spread globally only with strong American leadership led her to become the official “patron” of Heritage and inspired the founding of our Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.

The Thatcher Center is just a small part of this remarkable woman's legacy. We are grateful for it, just as we are grateful for her leadership, her inspiration and her “special relationship” with Heritage.

Watch the Heritage video: The Real Legacy of Margaret Thatcher