That was most unfair. Asked about the possibility of a united Ireland, she said there was a "momentum that's out there and growing". You can feel it in the north, you can feel it the south. Mary Lou McDonald said that while she would always hate Margaret Thatcher's politics, comments made on social media after her death were "most unfair". But that was not before over 2 million manufacturing jobs had been lost in the recession and swathes of industry had been decimated, never to recover - though Tony Blair's Labour administration actually contributed more to manufacturing decline , as seen in the GDP graphic below.
What is less welcome to many people is that Britain was in critical need of this change. Andrew Sullivan sums it up well in his piece, Thatcher, Liberator :. She divided the country deeply — and still does. She made some serious mistakes — the poll tax, opposition to German unification, insisting that Nelson Mandela was a terrorist — but few doubt she altered her country permanently, re-establishing the core basics of a free society and a free economy that Britain had intellectually bequeathed to the world and yet somehow lost in its own class-ridden, envy-choked socialist detour to immiseration.
For a more 'thorough' review you can read a detailed analysis from the Centre for Business Research on the History of British Industrial Performance from , or The impact of Government policies on UK manufacturing since She did. This Guardian article and the linked Google Spreadsheet has a number for excellent interactive charts where you can plot various economic indicators over the course of the Thatcher Government and beyond.
More important than simply being in office during the time of such rates were the consequences and the measures taken to control them. This Parliamentary Briefing Paper shows one of the biggest - repossessions. Ordinary home owners, many of whom had bought their homes as a direct result of the Right to Buy scheme, found themselves losing their homes due to spiraling mortgage payments. However, it must be said that the bulk of repossessions happened directly after Thatcher left office , though no doubt many rightly attribute their defaults to the period of high interest rates that preceded her departure.
Though the control of inflation was ultimately achieved, this further damage to ordinary people, millions of whom had already lost their jobs thanks to the impact on manufacturing, lead to a deep rooted personal hatred of Thatcher and Thatcherism. She did, but the Bill passed anyway. As ever, things are more complicated. Thatcher, the new Secretary of State for Education at the time, was ordered to make cuts in four areas:.
Concerned over the effect of the cuts to milk, she said :. She proposed a compromise, that would later be accepted , to remove milk provision for those aged 7 to 11 but retain it for primary school pupils for nutritional purposes. In , the then Labour Education Secretary Edward Short removed free milk from secondary schools , 3 years before Thatcher continued the phased removal for primary school pupils over 7.
It is therefore prudent to ask at what point responsibility for the current situation switches to successive Governments who have failed to correct this imbalance. The Poll Tax is the stand-out, unequivocal disaster of the Thatcher Government. Though, that's a somewhat contested claim. Many believed that changing the way the tax was calculated, from the estimated market value of a property to the number of people living in it, was a backwards step.
It disproportionately hit large families living in relatively small accommodation and was universally hated for being unfair on ordinary working people. The Community Charge caused intense distrust and deep wounds in the political psyche of millions of voters, many of whom never forgave Thatcher for her actions as we see from the anger released following her death. The changes generated seething public anger , mass protests , public disobedience, mass refusal to pay , legal challenges and some of the worst rioting ever seen in England.
Yorkshire Police even made preparations to refuse to arrest anyone as thanks to the problems of implementing the tax , the force believed it lacked the resources to deal with such wide-scale civil disobedience. John Major won the resultant leadership contest and immediately abolished the Community Charge.
This led to lower taxes, less government spending and a raft of privatisations in British industries, the latter in particular remains a contentious topic to this day. Thatcher held firm during the industrial action but as a result, the British coal mining industry was devastated and some areas that relied on the mining industry, mostly in the north of England, struggled to recover for decades. A true acting masterclass! And all this she achieved having fought against the unadulterated sexism of Britain in the 50s, 60s and 70s on her way to the top.
In fact, Thatcher singlehandedly changed the way Britain, and much of the world, viewed women as professionals and leaders. Other prime ministers since have had her ability Gordon Brown or her charisma Blair or her communications skills Cameron.
But none have had her courage and determination to bring about a radical change to society, and embed it for generations. In fact, the more one sees the puny, second-rate Thatcher-wannabes in the modern Conservative party Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Michael Gove etc , the more she stands out as a thoughtful and grounded leader.
And would she have been duped by the City before the financial crash, as New Labour and George Osborne were? There is, though, one leader who may match her for courage and revolutionary zeal, and who may yet bring about another major shift in society. His name is Jeremy Corbyn. This article is more than 3 years old.
Joseph Harker.
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