Sir, – Dermot Hardy misquotes Margaret Thatcher’s famous “there is no such thing as society” comments in an interview in 1987 (Letters, May 15th).
Mr Hardy misquotes her as saying that “no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first”. In fact, Thatcher said that “people must look to themselves first” – a subtle but important distinction, encouraging resilience and independence, rather than selfishness.
Mr Hardy omits the final sentence of the famous quotation: “It’s our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbour, and life is a reciprocal business.”
Rather than a war cry for selfish individualism, Thatcher was expressing what is essentially the classic centre-right or Christian democratic view of how social improvement can take place, with citizens having a responsibility to help themselves and their fellow man before they should expect the state to do so.
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This is hardly an inappropriate moral outlook, then or now.
In the Ireland of 2023, where every single problem appears to be thrust onto the government to solve with some kind of taxpayer-funded bailout, our political class could learn a thing or two from this philosophy. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Dublin 3.