Last night we watched the 2011 movie, "The Iron Lady," about British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The main attraction was actress Meryl Streep, in an Oscar winning performance.
Thatcher was PM during the 1980s. The movie made me realize how little I understood the events of those years - Britain's deep economic problems, riots, the Falklands war, and the IRA bombings. It also seems a long time ago now. I would have read about some of them in the paper or heard reports on the radio or TV news, but the availability of information was much different in those pre-internet days.
I was inspired to go to Wikipedia to read about the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton (which was a very serious assassination attempt on Thatcher and her cabinet), Thatcher herself, and the Falklands war. Losing the war seems to have led to the downfall of the Argentine military regime that carried out so many domestic atrocities in the 1970s. Perhaps that's a positive outcome of what otherwise was a pointless waste of several hundred lives.
I was also inspired to give Wikipedia a donation as I certainly use it a lot.
Many of the things at play in 1980s Britain are still issues today. These include terrorism, the role of nations in an ever connected world, Britain's relationship with the rest of Europe, and the role of government in society (conservatism versus progressivism). Some of these may be with us for a long time to come.
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