Margaret Thatcher was never short of something to the point to say
Maggie Thatcher was the greatest post war Prime Minister that Britain has had to date. The Grocer's daughter from Grantham, Lincolnshire, who achieved a university degree before having a family and entering politics, that's quite a story for a start, but then to become Britain's first female Prime Minister and to be re-elected three times was truly outstanding.
The 1970's was a decade of industrial turmoil with Unions calling out workers on strike almost on a weekly basis, industries which included nationalised concerns such as British Rail, British Leyland and others were plagued by strikes often leading to power black outs as other unions joined in the industrial action.
Britain was becoming a laughing stock and needed a firm hand to take back control and shake Britain into a more business like fashion. Margaret Thatcher stepped up to the plate to become Conservative leader and won the 1979 general election. She was the person to do that.
The Labour party brought the country to near bankruptcy by 1979
The 1978 'winter of discontent' when rubbish piled up in the streets and bodies were left unburied, was a tipping point when all right thinking people said 'enough.' Worse still was the spectre of a country that was almost broke, a typical symptom of Labour governments since WW2, not least ending in the 2005 election year with Labour leaving behind the biggest defecit on record, having been £40 Billion in the black when it took office under Blair.
The so-called 'loony left' of the Kinnock era labour years
helped to make the Labour party unelectable for 18 years
The remedy to the years of Labour was for Mrs Thatcher to shake the situation by the collar and give the bad tasting but necessary medicine of cuts in costs and restructuring of the country.
She was blamed for years afterwards with accusations of 'Thatcher's cuts' by the lefty media and mouthpieces, but these cuts were necessary thanks to the profligacy of the Labour years of mismanagement.
It was not an easy or popular choice, many left wingers over the years since have blamed cuts in the 1980's as 'Thatcher's cuts,' this is unfair as she inherited a legacy of disaster from Labour and the solution was not to just keep setting fire to £5 notes to feed the situation but to put the fire out.
Coming from a working class background, from a household with a father who ran a shop, gave Margaret Thatcher a sound grounding in budgeting, financial prudence and business common sense. As a housewife and mother, she had no doubt had to budget and manage a house and extended the remit to managing a country.
A Royal Wedding in 1981 of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer gave Britain an opportunity to celebrate and put the bad times aside for a while.
Hard choices had to be made in the early Thatcher government years
So with a country staggering back to life, Margaret Thatcher's first major test came with the invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982. The Argentinian military 'Junta' government led by General Galtieri had decided that it was going to take back the Falkland Islands off South Georgia in 1982 by force, a disputed in their view territory that the Argentinian's called 'Las Malvinas.'
A hastily assembled British task force was mobilised towards the islands which had been invaded. It would be the test of Margaret Thatcher's mettle and lead to what Roy Hattersley called 'the Maggie Moment' which a young MP Tony Blair saw when she secured victory in the Falklands and he wanted to achieve, no doubt he hoped Iraq would give him this situation, as we have seen, it did not and assured his legacy was toxic.
Royal Marine Commandos on the way to the next objective in the Falklands 1982
The Falklands campaign was no easy walkover and during the military campaign, during which Margaret Thatcher worked 20 hour days and was in constant communication with the military commanders.
Outstanding feats of endurance were the order of things, from the relay flight of Vulcan bombers who flew to bomb the runway at Port Stanley involving multiple refuelling by service aircraft which showed the Argentinians that this was no walkover, to the forces who made their way over inhospitable mountains to Port Stanley, showed how this war was going to end.
Margaret Thatcher visits the Falkland Islands post conflict
The British forces although outnumbered and supplied as best as could be done, achieved victory, routing the largely more numerical but less well trained conscript Argentinian forces.
At the end of the situation it would be a great achievement that showed the world that Britain was in no way finished and was led by a very capable leader who also happened to be a woman. Another first, being that Margaret Thatcher was also the first war time woman leader since Boadicea.
Michael Foot in a real 'Donkey Jacket' on a 'Ban the Bomb' march in the 1950's
The public relations coup that followed the Falklands showed what this new government could do and the first general election fought against Labour now led by Michael Foot was a clear victory for the Conservatives, not helped by the hapless Mr Foot's said to be less than successful appearance at the Cenotaph in a duffel coat which the press jumped on as disrespectful. 'Michael Foot in a Donkey Jacket' became the soundbite of the day.
Michael Foot at the Cenotaph with Mrs Thatcher, in the often misquoted 'Donkey Jacket'
The 1984 Miner's strike
The next major test of the Thatcher administration was the 1984 Miner's strike brought about by the National Union of Mineworkers, led by Arthur Scargill. After the strikes of the 1970's, the economic consequences of these actions was putting Britain at a disadvantage and legislation was brought in to deal with the ease with which strike action could be called.
NUM Leader Arthur Scargill arrested for obstruction during the strike
The strike led to a number of pits being closed and the imports of cheaper and lesser quality coal was at the foot of it. Attempts to 'spider' out the strike to include other unions to bring the country to a halt were not successful. Although the strike was broken, the political costs would be high, but not immediately and would be a toxic legacy. The economic reasons for cheaper imports should have been set aside to secure jobs in Britain first.
Ken Livingstone, left wing leader of the GLC (Greater London Council),
who was ousted from office by Margaret Thatcher in 1984
Liverpool's Leader Derek 'Deggsy' Hatton who was ousted under a witch hunt
of the so-called 'Militant Tendency' brand of politics by the Labour party
Ken Livingstone, Neil Kinnock and pop stars and celebrities who were part of the
'Red Wedge' movement, which attempted to galvanize, interest and politicise youth
into an interest in politics by the attractions of music and alternative comedy.
Labour was an alternative comedy under the Foot and Kinnock leaderships.
Margaret Thatcher was not a stranger to question time invective from the opposition
The British economy suddenly grew in the early 1980's from 1984 and as such a new possibility of wealth came to the country for the first time since the 1960's. An almost 'greed is good' unreconstructed attitude was jumped on by the left as a symptom of 'Thatcher's Britain,' but it was largely the petulant rhetoric of class warriors who didn't have the nous to make a quid, but were happy enough to leech off the state whilst making their anti-establishment feelings known. Class War was here.
The unpopular Poll Tax sowed the seeds of Margaret Thatcher's demise
Although for some years Margaret Thatcher enjoyed popularity and success, things conspired to challenge her. The Westland affair which involved the sale of a UK helicopter company was unpopular and was investigated, there was an enquiry involving ministers such as Michael Heseltine and Margaret Thatcher's authority was challenged, although she survived.
The Iraq 'Super Gun' story also threatened to cause problems, but it was the unpopular Poll tax that was the ultimate factor in her eventual downfall. A change from rates levied on the house by its value only, was changed to being levied on the number of the persons in a house, regardless of the rateable value of the property.
Thus many citizens were drawn into paying the tax, which was fairer, but the rate at which it was charged was unpopular and was set by local councils. It was to be rolled out in Scotland first, but it was dropped on the whole of the UK instead and was so unpopular, it led to rioting in London. Even years later, the local authorities were still chasing evaders from the Poll Tax through the courts.
The left wing Media portrayed Margaret Thatcher as the 'Iron Lady.'
That defeat aside, Margaret Thatcher continued to work on and helped to broker the peace with the Soviet Union in the Gorbachev era that led to the collapse of Communism and the Berlin Wall that had divided Europe since 1961 and the nominal street border before that had divided Europe since 1945.
Margaret Thatcher lampooned in puppet form on the popular program 'Spitting Image'
She was being asked 'What about the vegetables?' (meaning the Cabinet members)
to which she replies 'Oh,they'll have the same as me.'
One of Margaret Thatcher's successes was to introduce competition into broadcasting, which led to production companies often set up by television performers such as Mel Smith and Griff Rhys-Jones (Talkback), producer Geoffrey Perkins (Tiger Aspect) amongst the others which broke the monopoly of the major television franchises of the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 as program makers, back in the day when the UK had only 4 channels! Hard to believe now, but true.
Meryl Streep who portrayed Margaret Thatcher on film
In 1990, the reign came to an end with Margaret Thatcher leaving Downing Street as Prime Minister and leaving Britain in far better shape than she found it, a country now full of hope, prosperity and with a future. A far cry from the basket case near broke rubbish tip that Labour had bequeathed it.
The so-called 'New Labour' often touted as 'Blue Labour,' swept to victory in 1997 as the dithering John Major funked the Europe situation, allowing his vote to be diluted by the Referendum Party of James Goldsmith.
Thus, Labour inherited an economy and treasury balance £40 Billion in the Black, which it would in its 3 terms squander and leave us with a multi trillion pound deficit thanks to the usual Labour mismanagement and financial incompetence, the largest financial deficit in history.
'Blue Labour' under the mentorship of Peter Mandelson and others, realigned the Labour party away from the cloth cap and whippet image to a more urban, metropolitan style, building on capturing a metrosexual audience.
Playing to a media with large sections of left leaning supporters, it enjoyed time leading the country, to the type of disaster worse than the Callaghan years, with Tony Blair committing the UK to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that cost billions and destabilised areas like Iraq and Libya.
One thing Margaret Thatcher did was without shouting it, she raised the profile of the woman who could achieve and being from ordinary roots, her message was 'If I can do it so can you.'
She should be regarded as a feminist icon but unfortunately she is on the wrong side of the political fence for most, the women of the left sneer, but may secretly admire her for what she achieved. Her mildly hectoring approach was more than a match for the opposition who really had nothing to offer except more of the same failures.
Margaret Thatcher's legacy is a mixed bag, but she was the right person at the right time to deal with some very serious situations that beset Britain. We have much to thank her for, but not everyone would do that.
Without her, this country would have fared less well and not be in the place it is today.
