Saturday 13 April 2013

Maggie Thatcher and me.

For good or ill, Margaret Thatcher has played a big part in my life. I was just 15 when she came to power in 1979, and 26 when she famously drove away from Downing Street having a shed that tear. In that time I did my exams and left school, graduated from university, trained as a teacher, and got my first post teaching politics (mainly about Margaret Thatcher, or so it seemed). When I heard she had resigned as prime minister in late 1990 I had my 'JFK' moment, in that I can recall exactly where I was when I received the news. Thatcher's period in office shaped my political education. Even today I can recount almost every political episode of that decade in precise detail. For me, therefore, the 1980s were a time of exciting change and new beginnings, not the 'dismal decade' portrayed by so many.

So what do I think about Maggie Thatcher? I accept the view reached by serious observers, including Dominic Sandbrook, that the challenges facing the country were evident before Thatcher came to power in 1979. For instance, unemployment was already above 1.5 million under the Labour government. Similarly manufacturing was in serious decline and the traditional working class communities were under threat like never before. Therefore Thatcher did not cause the problems that faced Britain in the 1980s; however her response to those challenges has shaped politics to the present day. In essence she advocated an extreme liberal free market solution that brought unbelievable wealth to some but left many working class communities desolate and without hope. The banking fiasco of recent years has its origins in the Thatcherite reforms of that era.

The 'yuppy' greed culture was given kudos and the division between the rich and poor continued to grow. Thatcher had set Britain upon a North American economic model and claimed there was 'no alternative'. The British electorate were indeed offered very little alternative. If one takes the briefest look at the 1983 election then the voter had either the Thatcherite free market programme or the Labour Party offering a backward looking set of policies that equally failed to grasp the changing nature of the global economy. A senior Labour figure later described their manifesto as the 'longest suicide note in history'. He was not far wrong. Therefore Thatcher was able to embark upon her radical set of economic reforms without any serious opposition. Only gradually did Neil Kinnock marshal a concerted Labour response to the devastating impact of Tory polices. By then though the damage was done.

The leadership of Michael Foot and the influence of Tony Benn meant that Labour's policies were tinged with a romanticised view of the British working class that was not always recognised by men and women living in those communities. Thatcher stole a march and appealed to the aspirational instincts of the working classes to such an extent that in 1983 a majority of trade union members voted Tory. This is an inconvenient fact over-looked by many in the days since Maggie died. It is to be regretted that Labour failed to offer a European or Scandinavian model that recognised the need for modernisation, while at the same time preventing the schism in society that Thatcherism heralded. The point I'm trying to make is that Thatcher far from being omnipotent, was in fact given an easy time by Labour in the 1980s. Further, the influence of Maggie Thatcher would dominate the economic thinking of New Labour under Tony Blair.

All of this points to the fact that Margaret Thatcher is a hugely important historical figure and will draw comment from student of the subject for generations to come. I have a hunch that Ed Milliband will benefit most from the furore surrounding her death. He may conclude that both old Labour and New Labour need consigning to the history books.

4 comments:

  1. A balanced and insightful view when the press is full of hagiography and Trafalgar Square is full of sound and fury.

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  2. As someone who stood with my dad on the miners picket line and grew up in the mining village of Silverdale, Stoke on trent; as someone who was made redundant by her from Shotton Steel; as someone who holds Tony benn in the highest regard; I look at her legacy very differently. Her Thursday funeral will have almost all the trimmings of Churchills. Was she Churchillian in statue? Far from it. In 1979 I too recall the amazing election victory and rise to power. The first female PM. What a boost for the female sex!! Not a single woman included in her cabinet in all three election victories, and I would wager that I will never live to see another female PM, and perhaps you won't either Tim. She may have shown a woman can rise to this high office but she also made sure they won't for a long time to come.

    Back to Silverdale, a mining village 33 miles from Mold with three mines in a five mile vicinity, a village that was left without hope for its young people, with money worries that resulted in so many marriages failing, often through violence. The money worries not helped by the sale of miners homes to a new elite rich buying them up to rent back out at double the rent. Two of the people who bought them made their money from providing security services to aid the police on picket lines. A new and corrupt "seize the day" group of people encouraged to pursue a career in greed by taking advantage of manufacturing destruction. Before Thatcher you, me and millions of others had ownership of water, telecom, gas, electricity, etc. "Syd" may have got hold of shares, but not to be come an ownership class but to make a quick profit. Look at the fat cats now. As Tony Benn said, "if the Argentines had offered to buy the Falklands, she would have sold it."

    We got and kept Thatcher not only because the opposition was toothless, divided and poorly led as you said, but also because she surrounded herself with a cabinet of wimps. They would not stand against her or hold her to account. The Falklands war saved her and made her and yet it all started because of cuts to the defence budget that withdrew a strong military force on the islands. Who did well out of her? The police and military. If you look back at a teacher's salary it was equal to an Inspectors in the police or a major in the army. When she left office teachers and nurses had fallen way behind. Inflation reached 18% and so many lost their homes.

    Her biographer said on Question Time she did not leave society divided. That may be true if there was no such thing as society and it certainly is true if one accepts that society was divided when she came to power. Of course it is not true at all, not only did she leave society divided politically, she left society bereft of compassion or any sign of equality. She also left new labour who also left the same. And did she not lose power because she eventually divided her own cabinet?

    Churchill brought the nation together to achieve success in the face of tyranny and was deserving of his funeral goodbye. Mrs Thatcher is deserving of a family funeral and to reach number one in the charts.

    You know who it is Tim.

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  3. I agree with much of what you say, especially about the funeral. Thatcherism proved disastrous for so many, and I have no truck with it whatsoever. However, that should not detract from her historical importance. She casts an immense shadow, even to present day. We must seek to understand Thatcherism

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  4. ...so it can never be repeated and we can strive to undo the damage her legacy left behind.

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