Final word, from me at least, on the subject of Mrs T.
Margaret Thatcher inspired a generation of young people to take an active interest in politics.
I was at university when she became prime minister. Student politics – the National Union of Students especially – was a haven for the militant hard left which controlled student unions up and down the country.
Like all other unions, the NUS was a closed shop. If you were an undergraduate you had no choice, you had to be a member. Your subscription was stolen from you long before it touched your pocket.
Mrs Thatcher gave hope to those who wanted to challenge the status quo. Where her predecessors dithered, Thatcher acted. She gave people the opportunity to take greater responsibility for their lives and not rely on the state from cradle to grave.
Her policies helped cure the “British disease” of shoddy workmanship, low productivity and archaic (sometimes corrupt) working practises.
In opposition and in government she encouraged us to stand up to bullies and dictators. She defeated General Galtieri and she dispatched Arthur Scargill.
She stood up to the IRA – who murdered two of her closest colleagues and tried to assassinate her – and those of us who were in Brighton for the 1984 Conservative party conference will never forget the extraordinary courage and leadership she showed after terrorists bombed the Grand Hotel.
She rejected unilateral nuclear disarmament and together with Ronald Reagan she forced the Soviet Union to abandon the arms race.
Twenty-three years after Mrs Thatcher left office her influence can still be felt in Parliament and throughout Britain.
She didn’t get everything right but there’s no shame in that.
Blessed with hindsight, historians will have the final say on her legacy. What they must never lose sight of is what Britain was like before Mrs T came to power.
I grew up in the Seventies and I remember all too well the three-day week (quite fun for a child), the millions of days lost to labour disputes (click on the graph below), a Labour chancellor forced to agree to the demands of the International Monetary Fund, and so on.
There is no question that Mrs Thatcher ‘saved’ Britain from further decline and abject humiliation. But you had to experience the Seventies to appreciate fully what she achieved in the Eighties.
I did and like millions of others I will never forget what Mrs T did for her country.
RIP, Maggie Thatcher. Your opponents took a hell of a beating.
See also: Margaret Thatcher and the free society, Thatcherism lives! and Rejoice! Hollywood bows to the Iron Lady (Taking Liberties)