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That is why he wants another few years in the job

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That is why he wants another few years in the job.Some advisers argue that the parallels with 1986 can be overdone. They do not want Mr Blair to be seen to be copying the Thatcher handbook, especially at a time when Labour is portraying Michael Howard, the Tory leader, as the "son of Thatcher" in its campaign for the 10 June local and European elections. One Labour strategist said: "His presence shows that he has missed his opportunity to modernise the Tories. With Michael Howard as leader, they are still stuck in their failed Thatcherite past."The Labour Party regards the "Thatcherite" label as a good line of attack, confident voters have moved on. But when it has suited him, Mr Blair has been happy to praise Lady Thatcher. She was "a radical, not a Tory," he told a conference of the media magnate Rupert Murdoch's executives in 1995 "It isn't that Thatcherism was all wrong. It wasn't," Mr Blair said in 1999.Liam Fox, the Tories' co-chairman, criticised Mr Blair for not congratulating Lady Thatcher yesterday on the 25th anniversary of her first election victory: "Perhaps at this time with his own leadership under question, the memory of 1979, when a rejuvenated Conservative Party trounced a discredited Labour government that had let people down, is a bit too near the knuckle.".

Baroness Thatcher's ultra-loyal fan club will gather at the Savoy Hotel in London tonight to pay homage to the former prime minister 25 years to the day since she moved into No10. It is a vital cause for our party and for Britain's future."To help the cause, a new portrait of Lady Thatcher by the royal artist Richard Stone will be auctioned at the dinner to raise money for the Tories' general election effort. The Conservative challenge today is similar to the challenge 25 years ago: we must rescue our country. She is still under doctors' orders to make no public speeches, but as one of her colleagues said: "You can never tell with her." Last week, she broke her silence since a series of minor strokes in 2002 by saying: "Once again we have a tired and confused Labour government, showering us with promises but leaving the nation in disarray. In May 1979, Britain faced a very different threat, the threat of terminal decline. Most people felt our decline was inevitable and that it was the job of politicians simply to manage it One woman thought differently.

It was her political will, her iron courage and her leadership that reversed Britain's decline."She believed in the British people and in what we could achieve. She didn't see her job as managing Britain's decline; she wanted to reverse it. And that is exactly what she did."Lady Thatcher is not expected to reply to Mr Howard. But two others who have had strained relations with the Iron Lady, her predecessor, Sir Edward Heath, and successor, John Major, are not expected to attend.In Mr Howard's speech, he will hail Lady Thatcher as "the greatest British prime minister since Winston Churchill". He will say: "What Churchill did in 1940 was the supreme example of how one man's political will, iron courage and leadership can save a nation. Tickets cost £95 for members, £120 for non-members, and £950 for a table of 10.The dinner is being staged by Conservative Way Forward, a group that keeps the Thatcherite flame burning She is its president.

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