As a performance it was magnificent, greatly cheering the left

Because the last two weeks have been so frenetic I have not been able to pay much attention to the very considerable media coverage of Margaret Thatcher and her place in history. Consequently I have a back-log of articles to read and programmes to watch. I realise that few people are going to be interested in yesterday’s opinions of professional commentators, so please disregard any Thatcher-themed analysis you see on this blog – I am really trying to organise my thoughts.

One item I did see on the news was the anti-eulogy by Glenda Jackson MP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDtClJYJBj8

This might have been more impressive had Glenda Jackson been speaking from a solid base of achievement over the twenty years she has sat in the House of Commons. However her parliamentary career resembles that of the 19th century MP who sat in the Commons for over fifty years and spoke only twice – once to ask the Speaker if a window could be opened and once to ask why the clock had stopped. Therefore it is tempting to disregard the Jackson diatribe as a political swansong, a last attempt to intrude herself into the national record before oblivion (which inevitably must come to us all) descends.

Looked at as a text, one cannot take the actual words seriously. By no means do they do form a coherent argument. Hissy-fit histrionics, RADA radicalism, thespian showing-off.

Rather than a rational argument, I think it is as a theatrical performance that we should assess the Glenda Jackson contribution. And as a performance it was magnificent, greatly cheering the left in what must have been an awful two weeks for them. And was it not also a textbook demonstration of how to steal the limelight – a relatively minor member of the cast (perhaps not even that, perhaps just one of the “extras”) elbowing aside the leading lady for a few minutes giggle in a scene everyone knows will end up on the cutting room floor.