A leader who transformed Britain by pushing the nation in new directions.
Margaret Thatcher, who died of a stroke
on Monday at age 87, transformed Britain more thoroughly than any other
prime minister of the past half-century. She was a pathbreaker from the
moment she took office in 1979 as Britain’s first, and so far only,
female prime minister. And she was the rare conservative leader to come
not from the upper echelons of Britain’s class-obsessed society, but
from a modest apartment above her father’s grocery.
But much more than that distinguished the 11 years of Mrs. Thatcher’s
government, which followed years of tepid leadership, economic
stagnation and high inflation. She tamed the power of Britain’s once
powerful labor movement by shutting down inefficient coal mines and
privatizing state-owned industries. She encouraged an entrepreneurial
culture that had grown timid and somnolent. With her powerful,
plain-spoken approach to issues large (like Saddam Hussein’s invasion of
Kuwait) and relatively small (the brief war over the Falkland Islands),
she reawakened Britain’s taste for military engagement.
In the process, she revived policy debates among political parties that
had grown too comfortable with safe consensus mumbling. As she pushed
the conservatives to the right, she pushed the Labour Party to the
center. Without Mrs. Thatcher, there probably would have been no Tony
Blair.
Five more paragraphs – hit the link.
Leave a Reply