After all the “temporary” controls of World War II, after six years of Clement Attlee and full-blooded socialism, after 28 years of the muddle of the middle and the so-called era of Butskellism (named after leftist Tory Rab Butler and rightist Labourite Hugh Gaitskell), all mixed in with Keynesianism, what did Margaret Thatcher do? It’s worth reminding ourselves:
She smashed the militant mineworkers;
She brought unions back under the rule of law and gave them back to their members by making them accountable;
She conquered inflation;
She turned poor-service loss-making nationalized industries into superior-service profit-making privatized ones;
She stood up to tin-pot Argentinean dictators 8,000 miles away in the Falklands because she believed in the international rule of law, even to the extent of dispatching a task force;
She said NO to the Euro and Brussels-but not often enough;
She told Bush I not to wobble;
She faced down the IRA despite losing very close friends Airey Neave and Ian Gow and nearly being killed herself;
She sold off public housing;
She took Britain from 19th to second in the OECD; and with President Reagan,
She helped tear down that Berlin wall.
Because of her, the whole attitude of the country to enterprise, profit, and building wealth changed, and for the better. Through wider share ownership, the sale of public housing, and the liberalization of the City (the financial district of London) people got access to capital for the very first time in their lives.
In doing so, she created New Labour: Whoever is in power now has to acknowledge Britain need a healthy private sector, and that was just not true prior to 1979. Indeed at times (daily almost) one sees Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs being far more radical than David Cameron’s Conservatives.
To some, that is a disappointment; to others, it is a cause for celebrations and deep reflection.
She was the Iron Lady on so many fronts and issues, and she did not turn or bend. With President Reagan she brought the light of freedom to so many parts of the world. She brought the blessings of freedom to hundreds of millions of people.
She spent nearly 12 years at 10 Downing Street, but really her spell lasted up to 1997, as there was no Major era-nothing you could label Majorism except retreat. So it is fair to compare 1979, when she came to power, with 1997, when New Labour triumphed. And what do we see?
The middle classes grew by 17 percentage points or just over half (from 33 percent to 50 percent).
Home ownership grew by 18 percentage points, or just over a third (from 53 percent to 71 percent).
Share-owning more than trebled (7 percent to 23 percent).
Share-owning among trade unionists all but quintupled, to 29 percent (I’ll explain how and why later).
Strikes virtually disappeared, and the one place they still take place is the postal service which Margaret Thatcher reportedly refused to privatize because Her Majesty The Queen, Queen Elizabeth II would have been upset at not having her likeness on every stamp.
The percent of workers who are self-employed doubled, to 14 percent.
And the percent of workers who are in a trade union collapsed from over 50 percent to under 20 percent.
That’s one heck of an accomplishment !!
Excellent list, thanks!