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The news that Margaret Thatcher has been forced to retire from public life has brought the curtain down on one of the most influential political careers of the twentieth century. From her election as Prime Minister in 1979 she has commanded more column inches than any other politician. Certainly her influence waned after her removal from Downing Street in 1990 but the Conservative Party remained haunted by the threat of an intervention from ‘The Mummy.’ From Europe to BA liveries nothing was immune to a few words of wisdom. Three Tory leaders have had to bow and scrape to the grand old lady whilst secretly cursing her meddling. At the start of his premiership Tony Blair was so taken with her reputation that he invited her for tea: Old Labourites wept into their pints of beer. Now, however, it appears to be over and Maggie will be finally transferred to the pages of the history books. The debate over where she belongs in those books can properly begin.
It is important in any assessment of Margaret Thatcher not to be coloured by the persona she has presented in the last few years of her public life. After years of dismissing Ted Heath as a bitter relic of her party’s past she became, as an ex-Prime Minister, a bitter relic of her party’s past. Never recovering from what she saw as the ‘constitutional coup’ that delivered her the order of the boot she set about cementing her reputation as the Iron Lady. In doing so she cared little about the reputation of others. John Major, her chosen successor, was irreparably tainted by her claim that she would be a back street driver. The last Tory election campaign gained little from her embarrassing ‘The Mummy Returns’ quip. The anonymous Ian Duncan Smith must have groaned with dismay when she stole headlines on Europe at the beginning of this week. The Tory party faithful, however, still loved her. She represented to the increasingly geriatric party membership something that was quintessentially British. When she used her hankie to cover up BA’s attempt at an ethno-centric livery she seemed to strike a blow for the bulldog spirit of old. Little matter that to many people she looked like an increasingly unhinged old lady, the party conference would still lap it up.
Despite her best attempts, however, one cannot judge her political career on the distasteful image she has projected over the last decade. Rather we must begin with her experience in the Heath government of the early 70’s. She would claim that her political beliefs stemmed from her early life as Margaret Hilda Roberts, grammar school pupil and grocer’s daughter from Grantham. This may be true but it was her experience as Education Secretary that fully moulded her attitude to government. It is easy now to look back at the abolition of free school milk (‘Maggie Thatcher, Milk Snatcher’) as a sign of things to come but I think a more telling experience revolved around the grammar school system. As a product of a grammar school Thatcher believed wholeheartedly that the rise of the comprehensive system should be thwarted. She had intended to reverse the policies put in place by her Labour counterpart Tony Crosland who had intended to ‘destroy every fucking grammar school in England. And Wales. And Northern Ireland.’ She found herself impotent, however, in the face of the overriding desire of the education establishment. In the words of Ben Pimlott ‘Margaret Thatcher established an all time record as the greatest destroyer of fucking grammar schools in British history.’ It was not an experience she enjoyed and in government she attempted to ensure that she would never be so powerless again.
Margaret Thatcher had come to view Ted Heath as a symbol of the so-called post war consensus that had bound both Labour and Conservative governments to a commitment to Keynes and Beveridge. Her Tory party would break away from this and commit to monetarism and privatisation. Certainly she had to surround herself, at least at first, with a number of ‘wets’ and Heath acolytes but this was her party and it would revolve around her. In truth the façade of the post war consensus was already cracking. Harold Wilson, who provided a living link with the Attlee government, had retreated to the Scilly Isles in a bizarre cloud of conspiracy theories and recriminations. Jim Callaghan was presiding over a country that seemed to be in terminal decline. The people felt the need for a change and Mrs Thatcher seemed to offer it. Few would be willing to predict, however, just how much she would change things during her premiership.
The state Margaret Thatcher inherited was still trying to come to terms with the Attlee revolution of the late 40’s. The laudable increase in state services had represented the will of the people but the finances had rarely added up. The Iron Lady would roll back the state and create a new society. The problematic unions were met head on in a way that would have made Heath drop his conductor’s baton. Spoil for a fight with the miners then take them on, head to head, no matter how long it takes. Increase the size of the police force first to ensure the public realise you believe in public order and won’t be dictated to by lawless unions. This was Bismarckian realpolitik of the highest order. If your most vocal opponent happens to be Arthur Scargill then even better. Believe in the poll tax but realise your core support may not accept it? Then try it on the ingratiate Scots first; they’ve never really liked you anyway. Forests have been on wasted on articles about how the Falklands saved her first government so little else needs to be said but it is symbolic of how Thatcher saw herself that she was prepared to risk British lives in what amounted to an imperial conflict in the late twentieth century. General Galtieri chose the wrong woman to have a fight with.
Wholesale privatisation (BP, British Gas, British Aerospace et al) began amidst a storm of government publicity encouraging the ordinary man on the street to buy shares. Public spending fell to fund tax cuts that appealed to the rich and the wannabe rich. Nigel Lawson as Chancellor presided over growing unemployment and the advent of the yuppy: the latter offered enough votes for the former to be all but forgotten. The underclass grew and resentment was evident in many quarters but for every person excluded from the Thatcher revolution someone else bought a council house for a pittance. In 1983 and 1987 against the backdrop of a Labour party self-combusting there were enough winners to out vote the losers. Thatcherism was here to stay, no matter that Britain was in many ways a harsher, less forgiving country than it had been before. Margaret Thatcher had created a new economic orthodoxy that Gordon Brown is still restrained by today.
Thatcherites like to claim that Mrs Thatcher redefined the British role in Europe. In reality by swinging her handbag at anyone who disagreed with her she earned Britain a reputation as a difficult and reluctant partner. The vetoes and opt outs she negotiated sent us to the edges of European politics and did little to enhance the view of Europe in Britain or Britain in Europe. Much of the ground we now find ourselves having to make up was caused by Thatcher’s refusal to compromise. She saw her true role as being on the world stage and enjoyed a rapport with Ronald Regan that helped perpetuate the special relationship between Britain and America. World events at the moment do not immediately suggest we should be grateful for that legacy. In the latter stages of the Cold War Thatcher took a leading role in improving relations with Russia and supporting Gorbachev’s reforms. Whilst Malcolm Rifkind’s claim that she did more than anyone to bring about the downfall of communism is debateable at best and insulting at worst, her role in the ending of the Cold War is an undoubted positive of the Thatcher legacy. Moreover, she occupies a unique position as the first woman Prime Minister. This in itself is symbolic of the determination and iron will she brought to her political career.
Mrs Thatcher saw her removal from office as treason of the highest order. The truth is the end had come. Even the loathsome Michael Forsyth, who covered himself in a special kind of glory by crying live on TV the night she resigned, had to admit that her position had become untenable. Lawson had left, the ‘dead sheep’ Howe had ‘savaged’ her and Heseltine finally saw the opportunity to extract revenge. She abhorred the cabinet system of consensual agreement as practiced by Heath and had led her government as a one-woman show. The cabinet should operate as a homogenous group exercising collective responsibility. If you don’t delegate and defer then eventually you shall pay the price. Thatcher saw herself as untouchable, latterly the quiet sense of Willie Whitelaw was sorely missed, and gave little thought to her colleagues. Eventually the ‘hamsters’ turned on the ‘tigress’ and she paid the ultimate price – Tony Blair should take note. She and Denis packed their bags and left Downing Street, she would spend the next ten years travelling the world trying to cement her reputation. In reality she did little to enhance it, appearing arrogant, negative and, increasingly, out of touch with the modern world. Only now that her public life has ended can her true place be judged.
In the gallery of post war Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and Clem Attlee stand alone as the greatest holders of the office. One could not hope to find more contrasting styles of government or differences of policy yet they hold one thing in common. Both irreversibly changed British politics and society from the orthodoxy that preceded their election. Attlee’s changes were borne from a society changed by war, Thatcher’s by a society changed by the break up of the post war consensus. The changes they wrought outlasted their premierships and moulded the attitudes of future governments. Indeed it is easy to see that Thatcher, not Attlee, is a more important figure in the ideology of New Labour. History may not judge Thatcherism kindly but it will not deny her position as one the great and most important Prime Minister’s of the twentieth century.
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