Iron Lady bolstered UK’s image but crushed working class

When I looked on the internet and viewed how the death of Margaret Thatcher has been received by the working people of the UK, I had to take a look back on her political legacy.

Some say much was wrong with the Britain she inherited in 1979, with so called “undemocratic” union power, and that Thatcher took it on with a decisive determination. Over 20 years since resigning as PM,  the emotions about her have not dimmed amongst  fans and foes.

Though Baroness Thatcher is a figure idolized by many, there are those who reflect on her with pain, regret and immense anger.

Decentralization of the economy

Some see Thatcher as a national saviour, others only see her ruthless demolition of state-owned industries. The coal, steel and shipbuilding industries fell under her wrecking ball and today, Britain’s global presence in these industries is virtually non-existent. 

Other sectors such as Transport, particularly British Rail, Water, and telecommunications all went to private sector ownership. The national carrier, British Airways and British Petroleum were all privatized.  Natural gas and nuclear power in the UK have been privatized. Sound familiar? The rich got richer.

In 1986, she relaxed the regulation on the London Stock Exchange. Some new rules allowed foreign companies to buy City firms, introducing screen-based computer trading. Known as the ‘Big Bang’, it helped give Britain a competitive edge in the global economic market and the rise of the integrated investment banks. Along with a system of more easy credit, easier stock market transactions, allowed London to build a global financial centre. Some critics have linked the banking and global financial crisis 2007-2012 to the Thatcher years.

Centralization of government 

Thatcher presided over an 11-year war between central and local government. She seemed to take perverse pleasure in breaking Labour-controlled councils. The abolition of local government independence became her  policy. This began with cuts to local government funding for councils. A grant system was set up that allowed her to impose grant penalties on councils which exceeded expenditure targets. A deliberately-aimed blow at the union-dominated public sector. Anything sound familiar?

Demonization of labour

The greatest example was Thatcher’s move to abolish the Greater London Council (GLC) and the six metropolitan county councils — which embodied all she thought  was bad in local government. In reality, Thatcher seemed to believe that the market economy required protection  by a  strong state. Thatcher’s legacy to local governments was increased centralization and the willingness to limit and control local democracy in England. Basically she became Queen B.

Warmongeress

Thatcher seemed to revel in conflict. And she effectively used her approach to conflict to her advantage.

The Falklands War in 1982 was initially seen as a mistake. Her biographer Hugo Young describes it as “a prime example of ignorance lending pellucid clarity to her judgment”. 

Despite the hesitancy of colleagues, Thatcher went for it and sent the British fleet on an 8,000-mile journey to reclaim British soil and was victorious. It transformed an ordinary career and was seen by supporters as a magnificent stroke of political leadership. Sort of like George Bush going into Iraq.   

Propelled by the Falklands victory and electoral triumph in 1983, she went to war with the trade unions, resulting in the Miners’ strike from 1984 -1985. In the end, Thatcher won and this victory proceeded to reform Trade Union laws to seriously weaken their power. 

Unrest broke out across the nation, with urban riots in the industrial north. Social upheaval became commonplace in the urban centres of London, Birmingham and elsewhere. 

Her uncaring actions destroyed the lives of several million people who lost their jobs. Sound familiar? War with the unions and the poor got poorer. Hence the people of Brixton danced at news of her death.

Poetic justice

Thatcher had electoral victories in 1979, 1983 and 1987, but it would be her own friends who got rid of her. Her ‘Poll Tax’ policy was disastrous and unjust. It came to embody a Prime Minister who gloried in repeated confrontation with political adversaries, institutions, and the electorate. Following the Poll Tax controversy, her position on Europe caused the majority of her Cabinet to behead her.  

The positives from her period in office are as complex as the negatives. Thatcher undoubtedly rescued the prestige of the country in politics and international economics, supported climate change; promoted homeownership with families buying council homes, created a new class of wealth, an enterprise culture and caused political reform of the Liberal Democrats and New Labour. She enhanced the upper class at the expense of the working class

Iron Lady, many of your own UK people dance at your death. May your soul be protected from the wrecking ball of privatization and rust.

“Then this is a day of Independence. For all the Munchkins and their descendants.”

— The Wizard of Oz