Margaret Thatcher

(CC) Photo: Jay Galvin
Margaret Thatcher in September 1990. By this point she had been Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for eleven years.

Margaret Thatcher (13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) was the leader of the British Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990, and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. She was Britain's first woman prime minister, and led her party to three general election victories in 1979, 1983 and 1987.

Policies

Thatcher was a right-wing politician who constantly preached a doctrine labelled as "Thatcherism". This was on one hand a direct attack upon the freedom of trade unions and on the other a privatisation scheme to transfer ownership of key public utilities into the hands of shareholders. Unlike Johnson in the 2020s, Thatcher could not be called a liar as she was always open and direct about her policies, but those policies seriously divided communities, damaged public welfare and caused increasing levels of poverty and homelessness among the country's poorer citizens.

Thatcher and her supporters believed in a form of economics called monetarism, whereby she rejected Keynesian economics for the "theories" espoused by Milton Friedman. She claimed that monetarism would "reinvigorate" the British economy, but its failure is evidenced by the doubling of unemployment, the high inflation of the time, and the long-term economic chaos that has ensued. In foreign policy, she collaborated closely with American President Ronald Reagan, especially in his efforts to end the Cold War by, as she put it, "doing business" with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Thatcher liked to be called the "Iron Lady" — in the Third Reich, Goering liked to be called "Der Eisener" (the Iron Man) — because she knew her "tough" image impressed many voters. She was a domineering personality, as illustrated by her insistence that she was "not for turning" regardless of what lay ahead, and her style eventually alienated even her closest supporters, especially Geoffrey Howe and Michael Heseltine. The end for Thatcher came after she alienated voters by insisting on the replacement of property taxes with a poll tax. In 1990, Howe delivered a devastating speech against her in the House of Commons and Heseltine challenged her for the Tory leadership. She won the vote but, with a significant loss of support, she was obliged to resign. Her hectoring claim that she had enjoyed "eleven wonderful years" was largely met with derision because inflation at the time was 11% and there had been substantial increases in unemployment, poverty and crime.

1979 general election

In 1979, when Thatcher won her first election, the Tories gained 43.9% of the vote and 339 seats to Labour's 269, for an overall majority of 43 seats. People generally voted against Labour rather than for the Conservatives. Labour had been weakened by the steady, long-term decline in the proportion of manual workers in the electorate. Twice as many manual workers normally voted Labour as voted Conservative, but they now constituted only 56% of the electorate. When Harold Wilson had won narrowly in 1964, manual workers had accounted for 63 per cent. Furthermore, they were beginning to turn against the trade unions — alienated, perhaps, by the difficulties of the winter of 1978-1999. In contrast, Tory policies stressed wider home ownership, which Labour refused to match. Thatcher did best in districts where the economy was relatively strong and poorest where it was contracting.

Falklands War

Thatcher's popularity rose in 1982 after she dispatched a task force to the Falkland Islands following the invasion by Argentina. She claimed credit for the victory of the British service people but blithely ignored the fact that Argentina only dared to attempt an invasion because of her policy of reducing the size of the Royal Navy and withdrawing vessels from the South Atlantic, all in the interests of private enterprise. Even so, helped by marketing and tabloid propaganda, she did gain credit for the British victory and it enabled her to retain office by winning the general election in June 1983. With Labour still in transition and not yet seen as a credible alternative, she won again in June 1987.

Intellectuals

Among her early supporters were libertarian intellectuals, their think-tanks, and neoliberal economists such as Sir Keith Joseph who in the mid-1970s had challenged the Conservative Party's previously collectivist orientation. Her attempts to implement their ideas deeply divided the British intellectual establishment and infuriated many academics and members of the artistic and literary worlds. Thatcher's populist style of politics, identification with the business world, strong personality, cuts to education budgets and idiosyncratic mannerisms enhanced the divisive impact of the controversial ideas she espoused.

Economic policies

Because of industrial strife, the British economy had done poorly in the 1970s and, after Thatcher was voted in, there was another recession in 1980-81 before things settled down somewhat. Her 'Medium Term Financial Strategy' (MTFS) of 1980 was based on Friedman's monetarism in its focus on "broad money". Although she reduced public spending, increased privatisation, and spearheaded legislative reforms restricting trade union activity, unemployment and poverty grew substantially.

Privatisation

In the long term, privatisation has been the most damaging aspect of the political economy developed under Thatcher. She privatised long-nationalised corporations (such as energy, telephone and aerospace), and sold public housing to tenants on favourable terms. The policy developed a significant electoral dimension during the second and third Thatcher governments (1983-1990). It involved more than denationalisation: wider share ownership was the second plank of the policy, and this provides a historical perspective on the relationship between Thatcherism and twentieth-century conservatism.

Ousting

Even in the new anti-socialist climate Thatcher had forged, her replacement of property taxes with a poll tax proved highly unpopular. Inflation of 11%, coupled with her resistance to the UK's further integration into the European monetary system, disillusioned the Conservatives, as did her abrasive leadership. The resignations of Michael Heseltine and Geoffrey Howe were particularly damaging; Heseltine ultimately challenged Thatcher for leadership of the party. On 22nd November 1990, she was forced to resign her party role (and thus the prime ministership), despite having beaten Heseltine in the first round of voting by Conservative MPs; it was nevertheless clear that she had lost a lot of support. John Major, Thatcher's preferred successor at the time, succeeded her, following victory over Heseltine in a second round.

Post-Downing Street career

Thatcher remained an MP until the 1992 election, and on 5 June 1992 she was given a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven. In the House of Lords she frequently criticised Major's European policies. She penned two biographies and remained much in demand as a speaker. Thatcher's opinion on political matters was often sought by politicians and the media, and she publicly supported William Hague as Major's successor following the party's heavy defeat in the 1997 general election. Thatcher also returned to the headlines in the later 1990s as an ardent supporter of General Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, who was under house arrest in London following an extradition request on human rights grounds.

Further reading

See the more detailed guide at Margaret Thatcher/Bibliography

• Campbell, John. Margaret Thatcher. Vol. 1: The Grocer's Daughter. (2000); Margaret Thatcher. vol. 2: Iron Lady (2007), 520pp; 913pp; long, detailed authoritative biography .
• Evans, Brendan. Thatcherism and British Politics, 1975-1997 (2000).
• Evans, Eric J. Thatcher and Thatcherism. (2nd ed. 2004). 176 pp online edition
• Fry, Geoffrey K. Politics of the Thatcher Revolution: An Interpretation of British Politics 1975-1990 (2008).
• Geelhoed, Bruce E. and Hobbs, James F. Margaret Thatcher's Last Hurrah: In Victory and Downfall, 1987 and 1990. (1992). 193 pp. online edition; also excerpt and text search
• Holmes, Martin. The First Thatcher Government, 1979-83: Contemporary Conservatism and Economic Change (1985); Thatcherism: Scope and Limits, 1983-87. (1989). 174 pp. a sympathetic assessment.
• Kavanagh, Dennis, and Anthony Seldon, eds. The Thatcher Effect (1989), major interpretive essays by experts.
• Pugliese, Stanislao, ed. The Political Legacy of Margaret Thatcher. (2003). 419 pp.
• Reitan, Earl A. The Thatcher Revolution: Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and Tony Blair, and the Transformation of Modern Britain, 1979-2001. (2003). 260 pp.
• Roy, Subroto and Clarke, John, eds. Margaret Thatcher's Revolution: How It Happened and What It Meant. (2005). 209 pp.
• Sharp, Paul. Thatcher's Diplomacy: The Revival of British Foreign Policy. (1997). 269 pp.
• Thatcher, Margaret. The Path to Power (1995); The Downing Street Years. (1993). 914 pp., highly detailed memoirs
• Thompson, Juliet S., and Wayne C. Thompson. Margaret Thatcher: Prime Minister Indomitable (1994) online edition.
• Wapshott, Nicholas. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage. (2007) 329 pp.
• Young, Hugo. The Iron Lady: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher. (1989). 570 pp. Well written and researched.