If you're looking for intellectual commentary, or partisan worship or defamation, you've come to the wrong place. This is a ramble through my confused thoughts on the late, former Prime Minister.
I'm 42, so Lady Thatcher became leader of the Conservative Party about the time I started at primary school. She became Prime Minister before I left, but she remained Prime Minister throughout my years at secondary school and college years and was only forced out when I was an undergraduate.
This means that she was running the country during my (politically) formative years. Now where does a young person receive wisdom about politics? Obviously in my youth, it wasn't from the InterNet. Nor did I ever read my father's paper (which was then The Telegraph - which I now read (on-line), and he doesn't). I learned all I needed to know from Spitting Image and various late night Radio 4 sketch shows. Later these were augmented or replaced by Friday Night Live (compered by Ben "Mrs. Thatch" Elton) and whole host of other equally, let's face it, biased programmes.
Somewhere in the mid-80s I started to watch the news, and we were prompted on a daily basis about how many more people had lost their jobs. For those who don't remember, they used to show maps and list the numbers put out of work at various businesses. There was also the highly negative view placed on her association with Reagan (who, like Bush Jr. would be later, was portrayed as an idiot in British satirical comedy) - atlanticism was an anathema to many Britons, and still is. Add in anti-nuclear sentiment that trickled down through the media, (some) teachers, etc. and she was on a hiding-to-nothing.
Now, I did know some people who liked Mrs. T at the time; these were the children of working class parents. They liked her, because they believed that thanks to her, they would be able to be rich when they grew up. Oh how I grinned inwardly at the time in my superior smugness. Now it may be true that many of them have not grown up to be rich, but at least they had the hope; the dream and possibly the chance. They also probably own their own homes. (I suspect many of my better-off, middle class friends were also Tories, but kept their opinions quietly to themselves.)
Not being at all business-minded, I didn't understand what she was trying to do. Why de-nationalise? I didn't understand or hadn't heard of the terms "free market" or "competition" or why these would be advantageous. I also didn't understand the idea of free enterprise.
So what else have I learned since then? And I don't mean by watching such accurate social documentaries as The Full Monty, Billy Elliot and Brassed Off.
- She had to get the country out from being in thrall of the unions.
- Manufacturing in this country had already been fatally wounded before she came to power by a combination of: aforesaid unions; the legacy of British superiority, leading to weak management, a lack of innovation and thus lack of competitiveness in the marketplace.
- Her Atlanticism kept Britain in the power loop. See how cast adrift we are now that Obama has turned his back on us. (America doesn't really need us as much as we need them).
I'm still confused on some issues. Her social conservatism was a bit hit-and-miss. I still don't fully understand the issues around the miners. Was it all about stopping the powerful NUM from being able to shut down the country as it had in the 70s? Were the mines really unprofitable?
She lead the country out of the terminal decline it was in, but into what? Like a doctor who heals the patient only to throw them out onto the street without a plan as what to do next. The new manufacturing our union-free land could now attract never transpired. Perhaps this was the flaw in her plan; perhaps it was globalisation.
I'm also conflicted on the moral decline that Thatcherism lead this country into. Despite her best intentions (she was a Methodist) the one highly significant, negative legacy of her time in office, is the new materialistic nature of British society. By making people believe they could want more and have more, they now focus on getting more, even if this is at the cost of their fellow man, friends, and family.
So was she brilliant, focussed, hard-working and a great leader? Yes. Was she good for the country? In that, we couldn't go on like we were before, then begrudgingly: yes. Is society better now than it was before? I would say that it has been severely wounded, and thus, no.
requiescat in pace. Margaret Thatcher 1925-2003
