I can honestly say I’ve never before celebrated a death. But for Margaret Hilda Thatcher I will make an exception. The world is quite simply a better place without her in it.
Back in May 1979 I was a teenager in the midst of a Marxist phase I would soon grow out of. At a school outdoor centre for a week of canoeing and sailing we awoke to a teacher telling us, “Get up boys, you’ve got a woman prime minister.” I can remember thinking that the class struggle would become much fiercer with Thatcher in charge.
There is no doubting that Margaret Thatcher is the dominant figure in British politics from the time of her election through to the present day. She changed the face of the political landscape with a radical shift to the right that has led to all major parties rethinking their basic stances. The post war consensus that saw Tory and Labour as near-centrist parties agreeing on much was as dead as the idea of compassionate Conservatism.
The savage ideology behind the Iron Lady’s revolution, based on the monetarist economic philosophy, was clear. There was to be no such thing as society. The state should be rolled back. Direct taxes should be lowered and interest rates higher. Greed was good and helping others a sign of weakness. Deregulation and privatisation were the way forward. The market was king. Council houses were sold off at discounts and the powers of local authorities reduced.
Recession and mass unemployment were the results. The rich got richer while the poor paid the price. Many lost their jobs and their homes as unemployment of over three million people was a price she was more than willing to pay. Entire industries were destroyed, communities left devastated. The Poll Tax was unleashed in Scotland first, leading to mass non payment campaigns.
New laws to shackle trades unions were introduced. A confrontation with the National Union of Mineworkers was provoked and a year long strike resulted in defeat for the miners. The consequences for the coal industry were devastating, with the number of pits closed exceeding even the claims of NUM leaders, dismissed at the time as fantasy.
In foreign policy, Thatcher was always close to US President Ronal Reagan. In those cold war days, American Cruise Missiles were brought to the UK and Trident purchased. The UK became a massive USAF base. In Ireland, hunger strikers were allowed to die as Thatcher refused to negotiate and a shoot to kill policy was introduced. She also called Nelson Mandela a terrorist, resisting sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa. The Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Isles led to war, and Thatcher took the decision to sink a cruiser, the General Belgrano, that was sailing away from the islands at the time, resulting in hundreds of needless deaths.
Margaret Thatcher was always a divisive figure. No politician has ever stirred such strong emotions right across the political spectrum. But she won three general elections, one on the back of the Falklands victory that saved her, and was Prime Minister for more than ten years.
It is unfortunate that it was her own party rather than the electorate that defeated her in the end. Despite attracting more votes that Michael Heseltine in 1990 she did not have a sufficient majority to win the Tory leadership contest outright. Initially she vowed to fight on to another vote, but was eventually persuaded to resign. Thatcher always saw the way her cabinet ministers lined up to tell her it was to go as a massive betrayal.
So Margaret Thatcher is finally gone. There will be many newspaper editorials and television programmes devoted to her legacy over the coming days. But for the millions who suffered because of her destructive policies there is only a quiet satisfaction that she has finally departed this world.
Gordon – I agree your point about winning the election on the back of the Falklands war. One could argue that the UK was destroying its self by sustaining unproductive industries and her carvings were necessary – we were going down hill. There are a lot of people owning homes that never would have (otherwise) the other side of coin is that today’s generation does not have access to affordable housing. I do not believe the miners would have been so easily beaten (second time around) if it was not for Scargill’s bizarre decision to call a strike in the summer! Likewise Maggie’s decision to push the Poll Tax was her ‘Scargill moment’. Well written article – my sincere compliments..
Thanks Stephen.
Managing an industrialised workforce in Britain pre Thatcher was an impossibility and whilst she clearly was responsible for the destruction of much of British industry in her time and was the architect of the “snout in the trough greed is good”philosophy that is with us today her most able allies were those union leaders and the workforces they led who lost sight of their raison d’etre and pursued ideology and greed for their own ends. As things were British Industry could not have survived with or without her. Later her baton was one Mr Blair was more than happy to pick up and run with. Frankly when it comes to politicians and their ideologies I take the view of a plague on all their houses. Whatever the colour of their rosette the only benefit they generate is for themselves and their raison d’etre is ideology and self interest not always in that order.
I am surprised at your reactipn. For me this was the death of a frail and destroyed old woman. Worthy of neither grief nor celebration. Had her death led to the undoing of the profound damage that was inflicted upon all of our communities and indeed the very fabric of our society in economic, moral and community values then it would be worthy of celebrating. A terrible woman who damaged the nation to its most deep and profound roots forever wrecking and distorting its essential essence died after going through a similar process of degeneration in her own mind and consciousness. I was left depressed that she had ever come anywhere near power. She was always stark staring bonkers and to me the astonishing thing is and always has been that anyone did anything she beliebed in. A very small minded and limited individual with a child like misguided certainty somehow shaped and shattered the lives of an entire nation.