The lady never turned but left a bitterly divided legacy

Margaret Thatcher took over 10 Downing Street from a Labour Party that had lost control of the unions, and more or less of the country, which at the time was under the control of the IMF.

With utter conviction and absolute certainty of her actions, she set out to change a Britain that was mired in paralytic socialism. She broke the unions and cut government red tape and the social safety net. She embarked on the previously unthinkable privatisation of bankrupt state-owned agencies and started the process of turning Britain’s economy into a more entrepreneurial and service-based one that could better weather the storms of future recessions.

After a little over a year in the office, she addressed the Tory Party Conference: 

“If our people feel that they are part of a great nation, and they’re prepared to will the means to keep it great, then a great nation we shall be and shall remain … what could stop us from achieving this? What then stands in our way? The prospect of another winter of discontent? I suppose it might.

“But I prefer to believe that certain lessons have been learned from experience, and we’re coming slowly, painfully to an autumn of understanding. And I hope it will be followed by a winter of common sense.

“If it isn’t, we shall not be diverted from our course. To those waiting with bated breath for that favoured media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say. You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.”

Through the eleven years of her tenure, she proved that she meant what she said.

She and US President Ronald Reagan made tangible the notion of divine destiny. They occupied two powerful offices at the same time, and both embraced with equal fervour the conservative philosophy and ideals. Despite the fact that Reagan let her down absolutely when he wavered and reneged on promised US support to Britain in the Falklands War, their mutual philosophical respect and admiration were well documented. Thatcher, fully aware of her waning memory that was victim to the Alzheimer’s that he also suffered from, wrote his obituary well in advance of his passing. She wanted to make it as dignified as she could make it, while she still could.

Not everything about Margaret Thatcher was roses. Her brutal approach to breaking the miners’ union, one of the most powerful in Britain before her premiership, and to liberalising the economy, were plug-ugly. The images of policemen on horseback pitilessly beating the miners – who were being fed by substandard canned food from the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia and other parts of Eastern Europe – were images hardly seen elsewhere in the civilised Western world before that.

After the deployment of Soviet SS-20 missiles in Eastern Europe, Thatcher made a resolute decision to accept US  Cruise missiles into Britain, which prompted anti-nuclear, anti-American and anti Thatcher demonstrations. But she forged ahead and  effectively managed to increase the role of Britain in the Cold War, and thereby became instrumental in ending it. 

Her handling of the war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands was, and still is, harshly judged. Many criticised her for being responsible and for perpetuating the delusion of colonial arrogance on the part of Britain. Over 1,000 people, 800 of whom were Argentineans, were killed in the war.

Thatcher’s rejection of the Chequers agreement with the then equivalent of the prime minister of Northern Ireland resulted in further sectarian and terrorist violence before it ended with the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998. During the conflict, Thatcher was adamant that Irish Republican Army prisoners were not honourable prisoners of war, as they claimed, but mere criminals that must be treated as such. She was prepared to let some of those prisoners die horrifyingly by starving themselves to death so that her principle was upheld.

As the first female prime minister of Britain, Thatcher was criticised for not doing enough to further women’s causes; to some she was an anathema to the women’s movement. The inequitable tax structure that had forced women out of work was not a battle she fought to repeal.

Thatcher, in life and death, provoked extreme emotions, both positive and negative. However, those who despise her should not disrespect her character. In one of her most significant contributions to her country – the privatisation of state enterprises – she did not enrich herself or her cronies. And that, in itself, is commendable. There were extremely difficult times during her leadership, but she was unfazed. As long as she felt she was following her principles, she could not care less if she created enemies. Some said she even revelled in making enemies, and made them gladly.

To the end, the lady who President Francois Mitterrand of France described as having the mouth of Marilyn Monroe and the eyes of Caligula, did not turn.  And she did it her way.