British Lawmakers to Debate Thatcher Legacy (No, it's not satire)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/world/europe/british-lawmakers-margaret-thatcher-legacy.html?_r=0
British Lawmakers to Debate Thatcher Legacy
LONDON — British lawmakers gathered on Wednesday for a remarkable and potentially lengthy session of Parliament to commemorate Margaret Thatcher after her death two days ago, with members of the dominant Conservatives set to laud her while others were expected offer more qualified testimony to an era seen as among the most divisive of modern British history.
The parliamentary session was unusual in two senses — both the upper House of Lords and the lower House of Commons had been recalled from recess and the time set aside for tributes was more than seven hours, compared to the 63 minutes devoted to the last former prime minister after his death, Edward Heath, in 2005.
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The Thatcher era is generally recalled as a time when Mrs. Thatcher, who died of a stroke at the age of 87 on Monday, unleashed a capitalist revolution that crushed labor unions, decimated staid industries that had once formed the nation’s economic base and inaugurated a period depicted as one of thrusting economic growth that sanctified a generation’s acquisitiveness.
The parliamentary debate on Wednesday — a week before her ceremonial funeral under tight security precautions in central London — presents a challenge to Ed Miliband, the opposition Labour Party leader, who must balance showing respect for Britain’s only female prime minister and the longest-serving of the 20th century, against acknowledging the passionate and enduring belief of many of his supporters that, more than any other postwar leader, she caused distress and hardship for hundreds of thousands of blue-collar Britons as she broke the power of once-mighty mining, print and other unions.
Love the phrase "more qualified testimony".
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