In the first instance I’m a Trade Unionist. Always have been always will be.
I am working class and grew up in culture where class distinction and belonging to a Trade Union was important to people. I appreciate criticism of Trade Unions is not unwarranted, but Thatcher wanted to make it illegal to belong to one at all and Trade Unions were the only voice the working classes had - particularly Irish Catholics. She succeeded in passing a law preventing certain civil servants from belonging to one. No working class Trade Unionist could support Thatcher.
Putting personal bias to the side -
Poverty rose dramatically during the Thatcher years as a consequence of her policies. Her treatment of the working classes and the poor was diabolical. Even former members of her own cabinet said that, and said it was the reason they resigned from her cabinet.
She was undemocratic and in fact a dictator. If any of her cabinet disagreed with her she got rid of them. She gets credit for being the ‘Iron Lady’ and refusing to budge. However their is time to listen to the advice of others and a time to negotiate. She wouldn’t listen to her own ministers. ministers she appointed, when they were giving her sound advice. She ignored them to the point where her own cabinet ousted her. Political commentators have suggested John Major was put forward in the hope the Tories would loose the election as another term in office would have destroyed the Tory Party - which was Thatcher’s doing. Major won the election and it did destroy the Tory Party. Not that I personally minded that having no love for the British Conservative Party, but it demonstrates what those closest to her and her one time ardent supporters really thought of her, contrary to what they are currently saying publicly.
She gerrymandered elections to stay in power and gagged the press. On one occasion Thatcher was elected to power on a 38% majority.
She said she was going to make Britain a nation of homeowners which she did. However, she then crippled homeowners with interest rates as she refused, against the advice of economists and her own cabinet, to control inflation by any means other than interest rates. Thousands of people lost their homes, the suicide rate soared, and it cost the country a fortune putting families up in B & B’s because they were homeless.
She destroyed industry and replaced it with nothing. Unemployment was at an all time high during the Thatcher years and to this day the UK has still not recovered from the Thatcher years.
She handled the hunger strike badly - further polarizing nationalists and unionists and was the cause of the escalation in violence. Had she handled it better which if she is elected PM she is supposed to be able to do, quell the situation rather than inflame it, much could have been avoided. In addition, the whole time she was saying ‘we will not negotiate with terrorists’ a senior minister was secretly engaged in discussions with the IRA which she was aware of. When the hunger strike ended I believe he was sent to Argentina.
She gets credit for the Falklands War and her role in the Gulf War. Many a soldier who served in these wars will tell you how badly the Thatcher government treated them on their return home.
I’m a nationalist I was willing to support the Anglo-Irish Agreement. However, it was a dictated peace in that she gave people here who wanted to remain British no voice on the matter. She didn’t even consult with local politicians. Unionist’s were outraged - more violence - because it was a dictated peace and they felt she had betrayed them, yet she was willing to send men to fight in the Falklands because people there wanted to remain British. At that time, Thatcher was behind in the opinion polls and it was coming up to the General Election. She may well have made the same decision had that not been the case, but I don’t think anyone can say it wasn’t an influential factor.
She destroyed the NHS and her policies on education prevented the working classes from obtaining a university education.
She destroyed communities and ‘Thatcherism’ produced a narcissistic, materialistic, self-centered generation.
She did nothing for women, or the elderly. She encouraged women to stay at home and be good mother’s, as of course she did,
and people who had paid into the state pension all their working lives, some who had fought for their country found themselves living on the poverty line as a consequence of her treatment of them.
The ‘brain drain’ was a consequence of ‘Thatcherism’ as the only work that was available to smart, young people was low-paid service industry jobs. One of the reasons why the UK now has a very high percentage of people over 60.
She kept income-tax down but phenomenally increased indirect taxes on every goods, and gave big tax cuts to the rich.
There is no doubt there were people who prospered during the Thatcher years, most did not. It can be argued she strengthened the economy, but at what cost and who benefited most?
