loathed, reviled, seldom loved but never ignored, Margaret Thatcher’s memory will divide Britons — and her victims in societies which tried to imitate her doctrine — till long after next week’s grand funeral. But who can deny her place in historyIJ
Margaret Thatcher believed in winning and she has won in death too. Britain is preparing to give her a State funeral on Wednesday, April 17, at the historic St. Paul’s Cathedral designed by Christopher Wren, and it will be attended by the Queen. Not after Winston Churchill has a funeral been planned with so much pomp. But unlike Churchill’s final journey which was all pageantry amidst national grief, Margaret Thatcher is likely to bow out to the din of protesting mobs screaming good riddance to a leader who made life difficult for more than half of Britons.
long obituaries debating the “Iron lady’s” legacy have appeared in the all major British dailies and the flag is flying at half mast over Buckingham Palace. The sobriety of the occasion is only superficial. It’s doubtful if anybody on the streets of london or its hallowed institutions is actually feeling sorry for her passing. Her enemies, many of whom had not been born when she ruled as Prime Minister, are celebrating her death with dancing and singing ‘The Witch is dead’, opening bottles of Champaign.
To be sure, Margaret Thatcher evokes only strong emotions — you could admire her or hate her but you could not be indifferent to her. An ordinary Greengrocer’s daughter, she was brought up in a small town called Grantham in the middle of England. She rose to be the longest serving (11 years) Prime Minister of Britain and the first woman to be so. She was political even when studying at Oxford and became president of the University Conservative Association. After her marriage to a rich businessman, she studied law and became a barrister. Even after the birth of her twins, Mark and Carol, she did not leave politics but plunged into it again to be elected as Conservative MP from Finchley in north london.
Anti-Communist
She shared Ronald Reagan’s deep mistrust of Communism and was pivotal in bringing about an end to the Cold War. She remained unpopular with the leftists who among many other things called her ‘Thatcher the Milk snatcher’ after she stopped the distribution of free milk in schools. likewise she did not dither cutting subsidies to the arts and was hated by most people connected with the arts. She believed in trimming the Civil service and undertook cuts in government expenditure.
She became Prime Minister on May 3, 1979 and her main motive was to make Britain great again. All leaders, including Indira Gandhi who made their countrymen and women feel proud, have left a mark on history. Rupert Murdoch has written in The Times, london, that Mrs. Thatcher gave back Britain its backbone. How did she do itIJ By concentrating on the economy first.
Economy first
Britain’s economy had been gripped by strikes and lockouts and was poorer than its European neighbours when she took charge as Prime Minister. She tackled the problems head on and aimed at making British industry more competitive. She believed in privatisation and carried it out with a missionary zeal. She privatised British gas, oil, telecom, railways, water, steel airways, one by one.
It was after the winter of discontent in 1978-79 when garbage piled up in the streets and power cuts made the cold unbearable. She cracked down on the trade unions. For her taming the unions was vital for economic recovery. Her government weakened workers’ rights and won the battle with Arthur Scargill’s National Union of Mineworkers. But all said and done, her treatment of workers was seen as unforgivable. A whole generation of workers saw their rights eroded as unemployment soared.
Growth
But the upshot was that the economy expanded like never before. Many industries became more competitive with privatisation and compulsive pruning of staff and management. She also believed that each one in Britain should own a share of a company and a home. Home ownership rose to 68 per cent during her time in office while one in five Britons owned company share.
She slashed the top rate of income tax and almost doubled the rate of VAT. In October 1979 she also abolished foreign exchange controls and people were free to take out money and bring in foreign exchange. Prices, however, rose rapidly due to the international oil price hike and high VAT, and inflation was at 21 per cent in 1980. It required ruthless application of high interest rates to bring inflation back under control.
Her tight money policy led to sharp contraction in production and bankruptcies. There was hardening of the sterling and unemployment tripled and 364 economists wrote in protest in The Times, london against the 1981 Budget which seemed to turn Keynesian Economics on its head by raising taxes in the midst of recession.
But her draconian measures seemed to have worked. From 1981 inflation fell to 4 per cent and interest rates were slashed. In her second term in 1983 she started market reforms. She privatised British Telecom in 1984 amidst much hue and cry. More privatisation followed. By breaking the trade unions, she encouraged foreign direct investment. She was the proponent of the Single European Act of 1985 that attempted to extend her economic philosophy to a pan European single market. She managed to get a rebate from the EU for contributing the highest share in taxes. This rebate has amounted to £75 billion and apparently can pay for the cost of her funeral which is likely to cost £10 million only!
According to many of her admirers, the reforms, deregulation, and privatisation of the Thatcherite era created a competitive market economy for the first time in the Twentieth century for Britain but problems of demand management and handling of the monetary policy remained unsolved. Only after she left a different set of policies could be adopted.
Being a Greengrocer’s daughter she was down to earth and will be remembered for her one-liners. In 1986, she undertook Big Bang Banking deregulation by freeing the financial markets. The Tories championed it as a way of demolishing the “old boys’ network” that dominated the london Stock Exchange and blocked reforms. But according to an opinion piece in The Times recently, it was replaced by young carnivorous traders.
Victory in the Falklands was her greatest achievement. She quickly despatched a British force to Falklands and 255 British military personnel died. Also the sinking of the Argentinian warship the “Belgrano” with loss of more than 300 lives has remained the war’s most controversial moment. It continues to be a sore point in Britain’s relations with South American countries.
But she managed to invoke patriotism in the British that got her Brownie points and she won the next election.
“Iron lady”
She was the ‘Iron lady ‘, a label she liked. When protestors shouted for a U-turn in her policies, she replied: “The lady is not for turning.” In 1989 she imposed the unpopular Poll Tax which had been a part of the Tory Manifesto for 1979 elections and was based on the number of people living in a house and was seen as a way of making everyone pay for local Council’s services. The result was Poll Tax riots in March 1990 involving 200,000 people. People with a memory of the Poll Tax rejoiced in different parts of England and Scotland after hearing of her death.
From the start she did not believe in a paternalistic government based on the benevolence of a ruler. Her principles are still revered today as Britain is increasingly showing intolerance towards the free National Health Service which the British believe is being misused mainly by immigrants and visiting foreigners. Also by not joining the European Monetary Union she brought considerable advantage for the UK.
It is sad that such an articulate woman suffered from dementia in her later years as revealed by her own daughter in her autobiography. She was alone at the time of her death as both her children were abroad. But she will be mourned by the entire country perhaps for her guts and the steps she relentlessly took to bring Britain back on the rails.
Unfortunately Thatcherism lives on in remote India in which the UPA government believes in expenditure cuts to trim the fiscal deficit and maintain high interest rates. Its impact will be felt in the social sectors and in a poorer country it will manifest itself in many more hurtful ways. The government has to remain paternalistic in India and it is not ripe for the kind of free enterprise espoused by Thatcher. As labour MP actor Glenda Jackson summed up the Thatcher era in British Parliament recently: ‘Greed, selfishness, no care for the weaker. Sharp elbows and sharp knees, this was the way forward.’
Jayshree Sengupta | (The writer is a Senior Fellow, Observer Research Foundation and has written two books on the Indian economy)