Margaret Thatcher Quotes
david hughes
dth10 at HOTMAIL.COM
Sat Jun 12 11:26:02 UTC 2010
When Norman Fowler returned to government in 1992, as Tory Party chairman, it was said that his family were sick of him and ordered him to return to politics.
> Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2010 11:53:08 +0100
> From: djh514 at YORK.AC.UK
> Subject: Margaret Thatcher Quotes
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
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> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Damien Hall <djh514 at YORK.AC.UK>
> Subject: Margaret Thatcher Quotes
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>
> > 2. British politician Norman Fowler wrote in his resignation letter to
> > Thatcher, Jan. 4, 1990, that "I have a young family and for the next few
> > years I should like to devote more time to them." Thatcher responded, "I
> > am naturally very sorry to see you go, but understand ... your wish to be
> > able to spend more time with your family." Was this really the first
> > instance of a resigning politician referring to spending more time with
> > his or her family as an excuse for resigning?
>
> That was certainly about when it became a cliché in UK politics. Granted, I
> was only 15 at the time, so Thatcher's resignation and the events leading
> up to it are my first major 'where were you when' time - I wouldn't
> necessarily remember any previous occurrences. Since then, however, that
> phrase has certainly been one of the choice ways of referring to a
> recently-former Government official being out of office, or of hinting that
> such a person might soon have to consider resigning: commentators say
> things like 'She might find herself spending more time with her family'.
>
> Damien
>
> --
> Damien Hall
>
> University of York
> Department of Language and Linguistic Science
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