Margaret Thatcher: A Legacy of Revolution

Before she became Prime Minister in 1979 and for several years after, Margaret Thatcher’s great concern was that decades of decline under omnipresent and meddlesome government might have destroyed the British people’s initiative. Her passionate belief, she said, was that “free enterprise and competition are the engines of prosperity.” But she feared that even if her Conservative ( government got rid of central planning, high taxation and other obstacles to economic growth, there might be no upsurge in response. “Supposing I put the ball at their feet, and they don’t kick it?” she mused. “That was the nightmare.”

The kick came with a resounding thump and set in motion a profound reversal in national fortunes that became known as Thatcherism. It is also rightly referred to as the Thatcher Revolution because the leader of the Conservative Party was a radical ideologue whose policies turned British society upside down. In recognition of her 11 1/2 years in office and her immense achievements, historians will inevitably rank her alongside Winston Churchill as the greatest of this century’s British Prime Ministers.

One of her most remarkable successes was challenging Edward Heath for the party leadership in 1975 and winning. The Tory inner circle then consisted mainly of consensus-minded technocrats and clubby squires with no great regard for women. Thatcher’s victory surprised and unsettled the old boys so badly that some columnists in London speculated last week that her ouster was in part a settling of accounts.

For many of the party grandees, including members of her own Cabinets, her leadership must have felt like returning to school: she often treated them as if they were errant pupils, hectoring them and making decisions for them. Leaks from upper levels of the party accused her of squelching Cabinet debate and trying to impose a presidential-style system. The combative Prime Minister put much of this down to male chauvinism, saying, “When a woman is strong, she is strident. If a man is strong, gosh, he’s a good guy.”

More is written about that leadership style, however, than about her undeniable substance. Like her good friend Ronald Reagan, founder of his own ism, she grew up in a small town, the daughter of a grocer and the inheritor of strong, traditional values. She saw nothing but infamy in what she regarded as socialism’s sapping her country’s strength. She determined to give enervated Britain a good shake and force it to become an economic and political world power once again. Arriving at 10 Downing Street, she embarked on policies that would encourage self-reliance and reward hard work. Her vision, she said, was “of a free, classless, open Britain.”

In the eight years of her first two terms, she broke the suffocating power of the trade unions by slicing away at them with restrictive legislation. She assumed tight control over the money supply, deregulated industry, built a free market economy and encouraged foreign investment. Believing personal wealth is a worthy objective, she cut the basic rate of income tax from 33% to 25% and the top rate from 83% to 40%. To cap it off, she sold to the public many of the enterprises postwar Labour governments had nationalized.

Prosperity, productivity and competitiveness returned to Britain with the culture of enterprise. Almost 70% of homes now belong to those who live in them, and 20% of adult Britons own stock shares, up from just 7% in 1979. There is a price for this, of course, and Britain pays it in the form of inflation, currently at 10.9%; unemployment, at 6% and rising; and disrepair in the social-safety net that Labour had so carefully woven. Roads and railways are showing signs of neglect, homelessness has visibly increased, and Thatcher’s critics charge that her kind of individualism implies greed and selfishness.

The final challenge to her position arose over a foreign policy issue: Britain’s role in the European Community. But throughout the years, she benefited greatly from her skillful, high-profile handling of international affairs. Her re-election in 1983 was ensured by her unhesitating dispatch of British forces to recapture the Falkland Islands from the Argentine invaders.

Reinvigorating the special relationship with the U.S., she became Reagan’s closest ally in placing new nuclear missiles in Europe to counter Soviet deployments in the early 1980s. Moscow christened her the Iron Lady, a title she savored. Playing an intermediary role between the superpowers, she realized more quickly than Reagan that Mikhail Gorbachev really meant it when he called for the healing of Europe. She affixed her seal of approval during a Gorbachev visit to England in late 1984, before he became leader of the Soviet Union. “I like Mr. Gorbachev,” she said. “We can do business together.”

Thatcher relinquishes power this week, but her legacy is firmly in place. Her potential Tory successors proudly describe themselves as disciples of Thatcherism and pledge to continue it. More impressive still is the opposition Labour Party’s turn from leftist economics and unilateral nuclear disarmament in the past three years toward more centrist policies to compete with Thatcherism at the polls. Even if Labour wins the next election, the public will not allow it to reassemble the huge governmental edifice Thatcher pulled down.

Four years ago, Thatcher predicted, “I think, historically, the term Thatcherism will be seen as a compliment.” As the proclaimed policies of her potential successors and the opposition demonstrate, that has already come to pass.