What Did Thatcher Ever Do For Us?

Generali

In reading the many tributes (and the odd outpouring of hatred) towards Lady Thatcher, I thought it might be interesting to look at some of her less recognized achievements. We all know that 'she won' the Falklands and about privatization. What about some of the other stuff?

To my mind, she was the first mainstream politician to embrace the modern form of environmentalism: not a policy reaction to an ongoing problem like the Victorian sewers or the Clean Air Acts but a recognition that there could be serious long-term implications to our actions (e.g. The ozone layer hole & global warming):

"No generation has a freehold on this Earth. All we have is a life-tenancy—with a full repairing lease." Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher MP, in a speech to the Royal Society, 1988.

She wanted wealth for all, not a select few and took on entrenched interests in other parts of the economy, not just among the unions. Professionals and The City had their feather bedded consumer stitch-up destroyed by her Government too.

I'm sure there were plenty of other good but less sung things too that I don't remember as I was only 8 when she got in as PM.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Generali wrote: »

She wanted wealth for all, not a select few

This is the main thing for me.

It has been the expansion of private property ownership over the last century that has had the biggest impact on personal wealth in the UK.

The roots of which go back to the 1920's, but didn't truly flourish until the 1980's.

The phrase "Property Owning Democracy" was originally conceived of by a Scotsman, Noel Skelton, in the mid-20's and gained national attention after it was included in Anthony Eden's speech in Nov 1929.

"The Conservative objective, must be to spread the private ownership of property as widely as possible, to enable every worker to become a capitalist."
~ Anthony Eden, November 1929

Eden saw true capitalism as only being achievable when workers had a stake in society, and that the most direct way to encourage workers to produce efficiently was to align their interests with that of their employers through enabling them to build wealth and security.

Or as he also said....

"The wider we can spread the basis of national well-being, the larger the share of it every worker in the land can enjoy, the more real and direct his incentive to promote the welfare of the industry in which he is engaged, because it is his concern, the more certainly shall we create a Britain where her people may dwell in peace and plenty."
~ Anthony Eden, November 1929

It was Eden, and Skelton, who originally conceived of spreading wealth to the masses through widespread private ownership of property.

But it was Maggie who finally delivered it, half a century later.

For that alone, she would go down in my book as the greatest Prime Minister in peacetime history, but her list of truly remarkable achievements is so long, that now looks like a small part.

Thrugelmir

Well respected on the international stage. The Cold War was very much in play. Russia and the USA had a thousand nuclear warheads pointing at each other. Germany was not unified. Middle East i.e. Iraq was unstable. Her open honest direct style won many plaudits. Even if views were polarised. As she was always well informed on the key issues. Much as Churchill made a great war leader. Sometimes you need to someone to lead and make difficult decisions. Along with an ability to negotiate.

gloria7819

Supported Reagan and helped us win the Cold War.:)

Tancred

Just another utopian idea. You cannot have a society in which everyone has wealth, simply because everything is relative - the rich are an elite, and when everyone becomes rich in reality they are not rich at all because prices go up in line with that rise in wealth.

Spirit_2

In 1980 I was appointed as a graduate trainee in a blue chip company. I was 1 of 12 trainees and the companies first female graduate trainee appointment .

An older man ( 30's) in the team I was thrust into, greeted me with..we have Margaret Thatcher I suppose it had to happen.

I think she role modelled capability as the criteria for appointments rather than gender, admittedly she needed to demonstrate some pretty macho behaviour but she forged a path.

zagubov

I don't know. You can find redeeming features on many right-wing politicians. if you look deeply enough.

Enoch Powell (and we all know what he's famous for) argued against banning Sinn Fein as a political force from the UK on the grounds that that meant we'd have to ban the ANC from operating in the UK as well.

Winston Churchill ( don't research his racial ideas too much, if you want to keep your dinner down) foretold the collapse of the Eastern bloc to within a couple of years. Nobody else did to my recollection and everybody was equally taken aback. That was insightful and visionary.

Maggie had the good fortune that it was during her watch that a realist walked into the Kremlin.

Western leaders were pragmatists but not geniuses. You could have walked through Ronald Reagan's deepest thoughts without getting your ankles wet. I'd like to think Maggie was of a higher calibre and I hope she was.

May she rest in peace.

globalds

Was it Napoleon who said Don't bring me a good General ,bring me a lucky General

She was in my opinion a lucky Prime Minister ..But they also say Luck favours the Brave ..And if I had one thing to say positive about her ..It would be that she was Brave ..She was indeed an Iron Lady ...

ruggedtoast

I was a kid when she was PM. I remember there was a lot of anger about her.

In hindsight the policies she enacted, however unpopular brought about changes that in the globalised world we live in seem to have been inevitable anyway. I think she probably realised the finality of what was coming more than anyone realised, but she was a dreadful communicator and presented herself as the enemy of the working class when in some ways you could say she was trying to provide a future where there would still be work for them to do.

Maybe it's better we got it over with then.

I do know that as a kid growing up under under Thatcherism and the aftermath of her legacy in the 90s, I had a reasonable free education in an England that still mostly looked like England, and then went to university for free with a living grant at a time when more people were becoming homeowners than ever before.

When I finished uni and found there were no jobs in my home town I suppose I did exactly what she would have expected me to and moved somewhere where there were jobs.

The legacy of Labour are that only the mega rich can afford a house, university costs an arm and a leg, the demographics of the country are totally different, and 80% of people seem to expect a free handout of some sort, either from the government or their property portfolio.

On balance I hate Gordon Brown and Tony Blair much more. At least Thatcher was completely honest about what she was about, unlike those lying faux socialist weasles.

Generali

Tancred wrote: »

Just another utopian idea. You cannot have a society in which everyone has wealth, simply because everything is relative - the rich are an elite, and when everyone becomes rich in reality they are not rich at all because prices go up in line with that rise in wealth.

I don't see why you can't have a society where the majority have some wealth.

Surely, even feudalism realized that they had to give people a stake in society by giving them land to farm.

vivatifosi

I think she set the tone for our relationship with Europe in a way that has continued under governments of both persuasions. She was the one who negotiated the rebate. She also saw the importance of Eastern Europe in diluting the Franco-German axis years before those countries could join.

I wonder if we'd be in the Euro now if it wasn't for the choices she'd made. I for one am glad we aren't.