SIR - In his letter (We must support all our local businesses, Craven Herald letters, April 2), Cllr John Dawson objects to Cllr Andy Brown using in an earlier letter to the Editor “….. the regularly misquoted comment from Mrs Thatcher about there being no such thing as society”. As a cursory glance at several reasonable internet sources demonstrates (e.g. the Margaret Thatcher Foundation), the quotation by Cllr. Brown is perfectly correct.
Perhaps Mr Dawson was trying to say the quotation has been taken out of context. To try to help clarify the matter, may I respectfully refer the gentleman to the second volume of Mrs Thatcher’s autobiography in which the lady said, “My meaning ….. was that society was ….. a living structure of individuals, families, neighbours and voluntary associations.” So there we are. One day, society doesn’t exist, and the next its a living structure of people. Such nonsense, and that from the very top.
I suggest the lady’s problem with the word ‘society’ is that it sounds too much like socialism, and must therefore be denigrated. In fact neither of Mrs Thatcher’s attempts to address the question ‘what is society’ mentions the salient characteristic, shared customs and organization for mutual benefit. Just such and no less is required in a crisis, just such is required to defeat the current pandemic.
Richard Sykes
Park View
Skipton
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