Why I made a stand against “Margaret Thatcher Day”

Peter Bone is one of the nicest MPs you’ll ever meet.  When he and I were waiting along with two of his co-conspirators to hand in our respective Alternative Queen’s Speeches, he was the first one to offer to get a round of coffees.  He’s also regarded on both sides of the House as one of the most diligent backbenchers, who believes that the power of the Executive should be curtailed and that the House of Commons needs to be more assertive in holding Ministers (of whatever Party) to account.

Unfortunately Peter has a very different view from me of what would make a good law.  Whilst my first Bill was to outlaw discrimination against our Armed Forces, his was to rename the August Bank Holiday “Margaret Thatcher Day”.  I don’t dispute Peter’s assertion that she was a strong leader who transformed both her Party and the country.  No matter how uncomfortable it is for some in the Labour Party to accept, she did win three General Elections not just because we were divided but because she genuinely appealed to working class voters.

However I have been troubled over the past three months by the way that the Tories have tried to rewrite history since her death.  Her period in Downing Street resulted in the destruction of hundreds of communities that had been built on heavy industries such as steel making and coal mining.  The impact of her policies was harshly felt in places like South Wales and Central Scotland, where not only did thousands of miners lose their jobs but whole communities were left without hope as a direct result of her Government’s actions.

That’s why on Friday afternoon, Huw Irranca-Davies and I decided to make a stand on behalf of our constituents and many of our Labour colleagues.  When Peter Bone began to tell the cheering Tory benchers how great Mrs Thatcher was, we both tried to intervene to point out that there weren’t many of our constituents who would agree with him.  Unfortunately Peter wasn’t prepared to let us intervene, so we had to resort to that age-old parliamentary tactic of procedural rules.  As Peter Bone – with dozens of rowdy Tories supporting him – declared she had given our country back its pride, Huw and I both stood up to make points of order.  You see, in the House of Commons if an MP is making a point of order the MP who was already speaking has to sit down.  The problem was the Deputy Speaker thought we were just being silly rather than trying to make sure the other side of the argument was heard.  So rather than pushing our luck by trying to shoe-horn our arguments into points of order, we sat back down again.  Unfortunately for the supporters of Mrs Thatcher Day, our stunt had nonetheless killed the Bill by ensuring that the debate was not concluded by 2.30.

Some might wonder why two Labour MPs might give up their Friday afternoon to do this but our view is that we should recognise that until Parliament has had a true debate on Thatcher’s legacy and impact on the country; silly stunts like Margaret Thatcher Day are not appropriate and actually do her a disservice. No matter how courteous some MPs are and no matter how many coffees they buy, a proper discussion of the record is required before we decide the most appropriate way to commemorate any former Prime Minister.

Thomas Docherty is the Labour MP for Dunfermline and West Fife