There are few politicians that leave a legacy that endures so prominently more than 20 years after their tenure ended. There are few politicians that generate as much chatter or discussion. Also there are so few politicians that have caused so much suffering, needless suffering, devastation of traditional Britain values and entrenched an entire philosophy that endangers the whole fabric of human co-existence.
Margaret Thatcher succeeded were Ted Heath, Harold Wilson and James Callaghan failed in the 1970s. She tamed the trade unions. No, she crushed them into pulp, she managed to wholly marginalise their influence and values in British society. Cheered on by the white, Home County Middle Classes and the financiers in the City of London she deregulated the financial markets, liberalised the housing market and began the march towards a service economy. Admirable? Far-sighted? Necessary? Brilliant? Everyone has their opinion and ideological bias. However, if one traces the roots of most social-economic problems in today's Britain then one could say many of them can be located in the policies of the 1980s.
The London riots which brutally exposed the rife disregard for civic responsibility and state institutions? Well, look no further than Maggie's famous quip "there is no such thing as society, just groups of people". The frenzied speculation and intransparent finanical derivatives that not even Nick Leeson could have imagined? Conceived in the free market hysteria of the Big Bang deregulation in 1986. The phone hacking scandal of 2011? Who let Murdoch buy the Times, set up BSkyB, and systematically attack the BBC? It was all the fairy godmother of John Redwood, Jeffrey Archer and Neil Hamilton.
Something needed to be done after the rampant excesses of Scargill and his minions. They had become an uncontrollable juggernaunt and threatened the nature of British parliamentarian democracy. They needed to be straightened out. However, the nature in which it was executed, the terrible human cost and the economy that succeeded the Keynesian, postwar full-employment mantra has not benefited the United Kingdom and the majority of the British people - it has helped an array of greedy, dishonest, sleazy and unscrupulous people such as Tim Bell and Martin Sorrell to prosper and corrupt Britain's media, institutions and democratic process. Cheered on by the legions of brainless and hollow PR merchants and Murdoch journalists she has been cannonized into someone who not only betrayed English heritage but also ruined the very essence of English decency and respect.
She tore the soul out of England and replaced it with endless Starbucks, Tescos, Sky box sets and reality TV shows. Something to be proud of.
Maggie, my hat goes off to you.
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