Unravelling Britain: ‘Thatcher and Thatcherism’ (Dr Robert Saunders)

‘The kind people have a wonderful dream/ Margaret on the
Guillotine. Because people like you make me feel so tired. When will you die? When will you die? Make the dream real’ (‘Margaret on the
Guillotine’, Morrissey)
‘When they finally put you in the ground, I’ll stand on your grave
and tramp the dirt down’ (‘Tramp the Dirt Down’, Elvis Costello)
‘Stand Down Margaret’ (The Beat)
‘The Day that Thatcher Dies’ (Hefner)
‘Thatcher F***ed the Kids’ (Frank Turner)

THE BRIGHTON BOMBING, 12 October 1984

‘I came into politics because of the conflict between good and evil’

Women’s Liberation

‘We do not intend to ask for anything. We intend to stand firm and assert our basic rights. If this involves violence, it will not be we who initiate this, but those who attempt to stand in our way to freedom’ (Gay Liberation Front Manifesto, 1971).

What’s wrong with
Britain?
1. The state was too big
2. Trade Unions were too powerful
3. Something had gone wrong with the national character
SOCIALISM!

The ‘Gang of Four’: Bill Rodgers, David Owen, Roy Jenkins and Shirley Williams

What to do next?
1. Tax Cuts: Top rate of income tax halved
(83p to 40p); basic rate down from 33p to
35p
2. Privatisation: British Gas, British Coal,
British Telecom etc
3. Cuts in public spending – especially subsidies to industry
4. Reform of Trade Union law: 7 new
Trade Union Acts

Thatcher on Council Housing
‘council estates bring together people who are out of work but enjoy security of tenure at subsidized rents. They not only have every incentive to stay where they are: they mutually reinforce each other’s passivity and undermine each other’s initiative. Thus a culture grows up in which the unemployed are content to remain living mainly on the state with little will to move and find work’.

Thatcher on Privatisation
‘Privatisation was fundamental to improving Britain’s economic performance. But for me, it was far more than that: it was about reversing the corrupting and corrosive effects of socialism. Privatisation is at the heart of any programme of reclaiming territory for freedom’.

‘The Battle of Orgreave’, June 1984

Poll Tax Riots
1989-1990

John Major (‘The Grey Man’)

‘We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them
reimposed at a European level’ (‘The Bruges Speech ‘, 1988)

Michael Heseltine Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle

22 November 1990: Margaret Thatcher announces her resignation

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhdHO5_HSQQ
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOFvgiCyChA