A History of Britain by Jeremy Black

Author:Jeremy Black
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780253068446
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2023-11-11T00:00:00+00:00

7

THATCHERISM, 1979–90

THE DEATH OF Margaret Thatcher in 2013 underlined the contentious nature of her legacy. The death also demonstrated the changing character of British society, being greeted with more division than that of any former prime minister. A state funeral in St Paul’s Cathedral attended, most unusually, by the Queen in a very public show of respect, contrasted with the vocal abuse circulating in, and from, some circles. This difference captured the ambiguities of Thatcher’s government and legacy, each of which bulk especially large in foreign attention. These ambiguities also relate to very different histories of Britain, and these histories focus on Thatcher’s intentions and impact.

Coming to power determined to reverse what she saw as Britain’s decline and to overthrow what she presented as the causes, Thatcher presented herself, not as a restorer, as Churchill had done when replacing Labour in 1951, but as a radical reformer and an opponent of big government, whose reforms were intended to change as much as to restore. Churchill had focused on foreign policy and defense, but, while doing so, the hyperactive Thatcher was also determined to change Britain from within, as Churchill had not sought to do. Her agenda was greatly shaped by a response to what had happened earlier in her life, including her upbringing as the daughter of a devout Methodist self-made grocer in small-town England, which was a background very much outside the usual circles of Conservative privilege. World War II was also important. However, coming from outside the circles of privilege did not entail any obvious political trajectory as both experiences had also been true of Heath and Powell and were to be true of Major and May. A key element in all these cases (bar Major) was a lack of “clubability” and, notably, of the upper-class clubability of shared assumptions and background that was true of the social elite from which the Conservative leaders of the 1950s had come.

Thatcher’s agenda, and, even more, the language with which she expressed it, challenged not only those she believed needed challenging but also many of those who provided her with electoral and political support. Seeing herself as a radical reformer, Thatcher sought to transform not only the country and its politics but also the Conservative Party, believing that the last was necessary to the former. In her mind, politics was a necessary and moral struggle, and doubt had to be overcome.

It never was. Indeed, it was one of the great ironies of her career that, having won three elections in a row (1979, 1983, 1987), at that point an unprecedented triumph under the mass franchise (Blair was to repeat it in 1997, 2001, and 2005; Wilson had won four but not in a row), Thatcher was overthrown in 1990 by a rebellion within her own parliamentary party, although not one by the party members in the country; Blair, in contrast, had become unpopular with the latter. Whereas her two Conservative predecessors since Macmillan in 1963 (who resigned due to poor health),

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