Leader Of The Opposition: 19751979
| CS1 maint: postscript |
The Heath government continued to experience difficulties with oil embargoes and union demands for wage increases in 1973, subsequently losing the . Labour formed a minority government and went on to win a narrow majority in the . Heaths leadership of the Conservative Party looked increasingly in doubt. Thatcher was not initially seen as the obvious replacement, but she eventually became the main challenger, promising a fresh start. Her main support came from the parliamentary 1922 Committee and The Spectator, but Thatchers time in office gave her the reputation of a pragmatist rather than that of an ideologue. She defeated Heath on the first ballot and he resigned the leadership. In the second ballot she defeated Whitelaw, Heaths preferred successor. Thatchers election had a polarising effect on the party her support was stronger among MPs on the right, and also among those from southern England, and those who had not attended public schools or Oxbridge.
Thatcher became Conservative Party leader and Leader of the Opposition on 11 February 1975 she appointed Whitelaw as her deputy. Heath was never reconciled to Thatchers leadership of the party.
The Iron Lady’
I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up and my fair hair gently waved, the Iron Lady of the Western world.
Thatcher embracing her Soviet nickname in 1976
Read Also: Can Nootropics Help With Dementia
Characteristics Of Included Papers
The search identified 37,022 articles, 95 full texts were obtained, 59 articles were determined as eligible, and an additional article was identified based on hand searching . The main reason for exclusion during the title and abstract screening was that papers were not about the representation of dementia. Reasons for exclusion from full-text results are depicted in Fig. .
The cultural material examined in included papers were television and movies , newspapers and television , literature , language , and a mixture . Two papers included material produced by people with dementia and care partners .
Analysis methods included quantitative coding of how dementia was depicted, used more commonly with news media , framing analysis , discourse analysis , and Foucauldian analysis . Quantitative studies were more likely to describe their methods, whereas papers from arts and media disciplines were less likely to explicitly describe methodology. Hence, some papers provided inclusion criteria or justification and context for the material which was chosen for analysis, however many papers did not explain how or why material was selected. The majority of articles were published in ageing or mental health journals with a few in sociological and humanities journals.
Feelings Elicited By Dementia Depictions
The way dementia was depicted and framed elicited negative emotions and a sense of social distance between people with dementia and the audience.
Negative emotions
The common frames for dementia were depicted in association with negative emotions. Fear was the most common emotion associated with dementia for instance in relation to the living dead frame . News reports described or implied that the public should be fearful of dementia the disease, sometimes with an undercurrent of hysteria . In books and film people with dementia and care partners were shown as frightened of the disease they fear of loss of abilities, independence, memories, themselves, relationships, and the unknown.
At night when it is total blackness, these absurd fears come. The comforting memories cant be reached Davies, 1989, cited in .
Shame was another emotion commonly shown in association with dementia. People with dementia were represented as ashamed of having dementia though the moral premises underpinning shame was not clear.
He is not dying of Alzheimers disease, hes dying of shame .
Guilty, pity and compassion were other feelings related to dementia. Care partners were sometimes depicted as feeling guilt in relation to the care they provided or were expected to provide . Pity and compassion were suggested as being elicited in relation to dementia .
Social distance
Don’t Miss: Dementia Ribbon Colors
Iron Lady: Dementia And Margaret Thatcher
If Carol and Sir Mark Thatcher want to exact revenge on their mother Margaret for being a cold or absentee mother, then condoning and endorsing the film The Iron Lady is a surefire way to do it.
I am no fan of Margaret Thatchers. My political views run counter to almost everything she stood for. But, after watching Meryl Streeps star turn this week, I could not help feeling pity for the woman whose dementia-ridden dotage is currently on display on at least two continents.
Both Streep and Phyllida Lloyd, the films director, deny The Iron Lady is a biopic. Theyre wasting their breath. Most audiences are either too ill informed or too apathetic to exert any energy on sorting out fact from fiction. It has been widely reported that Ms. Thatcher suffers from dementia. Whether the exact lines of dialogue came from Thatcher herself or from the screenwriters imagination is irrelevant.
One does not choose a life in the public eye without understanding that personal privacy will be compromised. But what happens when one can no longer choose for oneself? Ronald Reagan was blessed with a wife who fiercely guarded his privacy during an excruciatingly painful decade of mental decline. Unfortunately for Ms. Thatcher, she outlived her beloved husband, Denis, who might have done the same for her.
The poor woman probably doesnt have many years left. Would it have cost anyone their livelihood to wait until her death to reveal her pitiful hallucinations to the world?
Norman Tebbit Says Thatcher\’s Death A Merciful Release From Her \’empty Life\’
The death of Margaret Thatcher has highlighted the stigma attached to dementia and the way sufferers are treated, say medical experts.
Carol Thatcher, 59, announced in a 2008 article that her mother – Britain’s longest-serving premier of the 20th century – was suffering from dementia. She had been diagnosed eight years earlier at the age of 75.
Carol Thatcher said she first noticed the disease at lunch one day when her mother became confused about references to Bosnia, the Falklands and Yugoslavia.
“It is a sadness that such an immense figure of the late 20th century should have gone – but perhaps a merciful release for her from a life which must have been increasingly empty in recent years,” he said.
But his reference to “a welcome relief” could be seen to perpetuate the stigma associated with dementia.
A report by the Alzheimer’s Society in 2008 said that half of adults in the UK stigmatise the mental illness.
It argued that media representation of the disease was unhelpful, as was often the reaction of people close to the person diagnosed with the condition.
It said: “Deep and profound stigma associated with a dementia both causes and partly reflects the reality of people’s experiences – loss of status and family and friends, social exclusion, mistreatment and dwindling mental and physical abilities.
The way Thatcher’s disease was portrayed in the media was highlighted in the 2011 film Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep.
READ:
Read Also: Does Diet Coke Cause Memory Loss
Death And Funeral: 2013
Baroness Thatcher died on 8 April 2013, at the age of 87, after suffering a stroke. She had been staying at a suite in the Ritz Hotel in London since December 2012 after having difficulty with stairs at her Chester Square home in Belgravia. Her death certificate listed the primary causes of death as a cerebrovascular accident and repeated transient ischaemic attack secondary causes were listed as a carcinoma of the bladder and dementia.
Reactions to the news of Thatchers death were mixed across the UK, ranging from tributes lauding her as Britains greatest-ever peacetime prime minister to public celebrations of her death and expressions of hatred and personalised vitriol.
Details of Thatchers funeral had been agreed with her in advance. She received a ceremonial funeral, including full military honours, with a church service at St Pauls Cathedral on 17 April.
Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh attended her funeral, marking only the second time in the Queens reign that she attended the funeral of any of her former prime ministers, after that of Winston Churchill, who received a state funeral in 1965.
Research Advancements Are Vital To Help Prevent Slow And End Progressive Cognitive Disorders
The Reagan Institute is credited with an expansion in the biological portion of Alzheimers research and has raised millions of dollars to back biomedical scientists in developing and testing treatments. Thatchers backing continues the Alzheimers Research UKs pursuit of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical therapies and a vision for a world where people are free from the fear, harm and heartbreak of dementia a world in which those affected by dementia and Alzheimers reflect the inscription on Reagans headstone, there is purpose and worth to each and every life.
How does Reagans and Thatchers personal stories inspire you to help fight dementia?
An award-winning journalist who has documented stories in nearly 20 countries, Beth Lueders is an author, writer and speaker who frequently reports on diverse topics, including aging and health issues for both U.S. and international corporations.
Also Check: Alzheimer’s Awareness Color
Prime Minister Of The United Kingdom: 19791990
Thatcher became prime minister on 4 May 1979. Arriving at Downing Street she said, paraphrasing the Prayer of Saint Francis:
Where there is discord, may we bring harmony Where there is error, may we bring truth Where there is doubt, may we bring faith And where there is despair, may we bring hope.
In office throughout the 1980s, Thatcher was frequently described as the most powerful woman in the world.
Ongoing Support And Improved Dementia
The Reagans open disclosure of the former presidents anticipated mental decline brought relief to Alzheimers families across the world. Today, organizations like the Alzheimers Association offer a caregiver center stocked with reliable information, programs and resources and a 24-hour hotline, 1-800-272-3900, to help with support at any stage of dementia. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at 800-352-9424 also lists an online resource page of dementia organizations .
Don’t Miss: Alzheimer’s Purple Ribbon
Alone Deceived By Her Husband And With Dementia The Last Years Of Margaret Thatcher
2019-10-17T14:46:25.866Z
The war of the children of Margaret Thatcher: fought by the inheritance
After leaving Downing Street, she found herself alone and lost to the point of not being able to carry out the most basic household chores.
Margaret Thatcher was, in many aspects of her life, a woman trapped inside a dichotomy that baffled everyone around her. Able to win the support of the popular classes while defending economic power, the Iron Lady lived a life of continuous contrasts that led her from being the most powerful woman in the world to consume herself in the solitude of dementia that eaten her until his death in 2013. Now, with the publication of the third part of his mammoth biography , new details emerge about one of the most fascinating characters of the late twentieth century.
, of Charles Moore, former director of the British newspaper The Telegraph , presents the leader since 1987, when she won her third consecutive general elections , until her last days, where stories about the ravages they had made in it the degenerative diseases he suffered. Thatcher, who a year before leaving Downing Street already showed signs of being “very, very tired” according to the words of her own husband, Denis – who escaped to South Africa for two months and rumored that divorce was raised after have several extramarital affairs – supposedly left the Government for his increasingly tired mind, which began to play tricks on him.
According to the criteria of
Know more
The Iron Lady And Margaret Thatchers Dementia: Why This Despicable Film Makes Voyeurs Of Us All
The Iron Lady reflects societys insensitive attitude towards dementia sufferers.
The film ended and I sat motionless while the credits rolled. Slowly I got up and walked out into the cold January air, sickened by what Id been party to, so acutely aware that the scenes presented as entertainment and edification scenes Id paid to see were, at that very moment, possibly taking place in a grand house somewhere in central London. I had partaken of cruel, thoughtless voyeurism, the subject of which was powerless to protest at her exploitation.
There was never any doubt that The Iron Lady would be a controversial film. The mere mention of , despite her leaving office over two decades ago, still divides the nation as it did when she was Prime Minister. Since its release last Friday, the movie has played to packed audiences, taking £2.2million in its opening weekend and reaching number 1 at the UK box office.
Yet it has also attracted protests and pickets, as well as accusations from those who remain hostile to her premiership that it portrays Lady Thatcher in a forgiving light.
My anger at the film has nothing to do with politics. I dont object to the artistic licence exercised over certain events or the way Lady Thatchers political life is portrayed. My issue is with the portrayal of how she is now. And I suspect that those who have seen the film will feel the same.
Read Also: What’s The Difference Between Parkinson’s And Alzheimer’s
What We Learned From Reagans Alzheimers And Thatchers Dementia
What we learned from Reagans Alzheimers and Thatchers Dementia
U.S. President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sharing a conversation at the White House in 1988.
Though they were two of the most powerful global leaders of our time, neither U.S. President Ronald Reagan nor British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had the power to overcome dementia. Ronald Reagan died of dementia-related pneumonia in 2004, and Baroness Thatcher passed away in 2013 from the effects of a series of strokes.
What can other families learn from the experiences of the Reagan and Thatcher families, both of whom became advocates for dementia awareness?
Dementia and Alzheimers affect people of every demographic. Dementia patients and their families often suffer in silence. Family caregivers need care, too. Support and improved dementia-care training are lifelines. More research efforts are vital to slow and someday end progressive cognitive disorders.
To learn more, read the Home Health Solutions Groups Blog, where you will always find the latest information about senior living, dementia care and home care.
Read Also: How Do You Treat Someone With Dementia
Thatcher Dementia Fight Revealed
The daughter of former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher has spoken for the first time about her mother’s struggle with dementia.
In her new book, serialised in the Mail on Sunday, Carol Thatcher says she first noticed her mother’s memory was failing over lunch in 2000.
She says she “almost fell off her chair” seeing her mother, 82, struggle.
Ms Thatcher also says Baroness Thatcher had to be reminded several times her husband, Sir Denis, had died.
In her book, A Swim-On Part in the Goldfish Bowl: A Memoir, she tells of how her mother’s “blotting-paper brain”, which had always absorbed information, began to fail eight years ago – a decade after leaving power.
| Mum started asking the same questions over and over again, unaware she was doing soCarol Thatcher |
The former Conservative prime minister got confused between Bosnia and the Falklands during a conversation about the war in the former Yugoslavia, Ms Thatcher writes.
“I almost fell off my chair. Watching her struggle with her words and her memory, I couldn’t believe it,” she says.
“She was in her 75th year but I had always thought of her as ageless, timeless and 100% cast-iron damage-proof.”
The contrast was all the more striking because she had always had a memory “like a website”, she writes.
‘Repeated questions’
Ms Thatcher goes on to describe how telltale signs of dementia then began to emerge.
Series of strokes
Don’t Miss: Does Alzheimer’s Cause Dementia
Famous People With Dementia
President Ronald Reagan designated November as National Alzheimers Awareness Month. Reagan himself would later succumb to the disease, but Alzheimers Awareness Month continues.
Other celebrities like Glen Campbell and Rita Hayworth have heightened understanding of the illness and reduce the stigma of Alzheimers patients by publicly announcing their own illnesses.
Alzheimers disease doesnt just target one group of people. Rich or poor, famous or unknowndementia can strike. Heres a list of just a few of the more well-known people with Alzheimers or another kind of dementia.
Carol Has Spoken Candidly About Her Complicated Relationship With Her Mother And Mark Being The Favored Twin
Once she reached adulthood and became more of an independent figure, Carol has been willing to voice her issues with her mom including specifics about how she was raised. After an older Margaret reportedly expressed dismay that her grown children were not around her much, Carol rebuffed her.
A mother cannot reasonably expect her grown-up children to boomerang back, gushing coziness and make up for lost time, Carol said according to The Scotsman. Absentee mum, then Gran in overdrive is not an equation that balances.
In 2006, Carol was asked by the Independent whether she would ever consider going into politics like her mother, and responded, Noone is enough in the family. I dont want to do it.
It is also believed by many that Mark and Carols complex relationship stems from her assertion that Mark was the preferred child. According to the Independent, she once said, I always felt I came second of the two. Unloved is not the right word but I never felt that I made the grade.
Per The Guardian, it seemed that Carol and Denis actually had a closer relationship. In another excerpt of her writing from The Daily Mail, Carol wrote that the death of Denis was quite challenging for Margaret to grapple with.
Losing Dad was truly awful for Mum, not least because her dementia meant she kept forgetting he was dead, she wrote. I had to keep giving her the bad news over and over again.
Recommended Reading: Which Neurotransmitter Is Associated With Alzheimers
Recommended Reading: What Color Ribbon Is For Dementia