In an interview for Women’s Own in 1987 then Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher declared:
“I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand ‘I have a problem, it is the Government’s job to cope with it!’ or ‘I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!’ ‘I am homeless, the Government must house me!’ and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour and life is a reciprocal business and people have got the entitlements too much in mind without the obligations, because there is no such thing as an entitlement unless someone has first met an obligation.”
Unfortunately, this interview is rarely seen in full, and instead the phrase “there is no such thing as society” is all that is quoted. Sadly this has been hijacked as an example of greed and selfishness. But reading the whole interview, especially within the context of the current riots, there is a poignant message.
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