Why Thatcher’s legacy must not be abandoned

This celebration of Thatcherism comes at a time when many of its principles are suddenly under threat, says Minette Marrin

FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 5, 2008

Margaret Thatcher was always a heroine of mine, from the moment she won the 1979 election, to howls of anguish round all the televisions in the BBC current affairs department where I was then working.

To me Thatcher meant freedom - freedom from the strangehold of the print unions, which had prevented me getting work as a journalist with their archaic protectionism, freedom from union pressure to go out on ludicrous strikes, freedom from the bullying political orthodoxy which had brought us to the 'winter of discontent', and freedom from the fear of speaking openly about one's political views.

People too young to remember that time can have no understanding of the social and political repressiveness of the left-liberal intellectual establishment. It was hateful, and in routing it, Thatcher did leave a wonderful legacy, and one that has, at least so far, survived: people on the right of centre do feel able to talk openly, pretty much, without being denounced as fascists or philistines.

Socialism remains undead; it is crawling out of the sacrophagus right now

Thatcher proved that the stifling, incompetent hand of socialism could be wrenched from the throat of the body politic, and people all over the world took note. And in due course the Soviet empire collapsed, and the Berlin Wall came down. That is part of Thatcher's legacy, but socialism remains undead; it is crawling out of the sacrophagus right now.

Events can suddenly overtake books, as well as politicians' careers and global economies. It is very unfortunate for the writer Claire Belinski that her new book There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters (Perseus Books £16.99) was published in this particularly eventful year; these days even the book's title must seem pretty much irrelevant, even to Thatcher's most loyal admirers.

Thatcher proved that the stifling, incompetent hand of socialism could be wrenched from the throat of the body politic

Rightly or wrongly, the Thatcherite free market revolution has in many people's minds been discredited; the Thatcherites' victories against socialism are beginning now to look rather more like short–lived skirmishes, and for better or worse there is indeed an alternative, which is now being imposed on us, without much protest even from distinguished Thatcherites.

The unlucky author is writing a critique of a Britain that has already disappeared. She refers frequently to this country's economic success in the present tense: discussing the achievements of Thatcherite monetarism, and the winning of that debate, she writes that "rates of both inflation and unemployment in Britain are now very low".

Then, asking whether Thatcher's "intransigent adherence" to monetarism was a) responsible for this, b) insanity, or c) uncanny intuition coupled to the triumph of the will, she replies in her

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Unlike Marrin, I was never aware there was no freedom to speak openly about one's political views until Thatcher, I had always done so. Nor do I recognise the 'bullying' she claims existed, although I became aware of the bullying Thatcher indulged in, using 'her' police to trash the miners and their communities and many other instances of class war she initiated. And all this from a grocer's daughter who married a millionaire, so clearly no believer in hard work getting its just rewards; how far would she have got without Dennis's money? Her idea to sell off the social housing stock meant many who could afford to buy private housing got a massive handout from the councils, others who couldn't afford to buy were seduced into getting into debt they could not afford only to eventually lose their houses, and the social housing stock has never recovered, with record numbers now on waiting lists they have no hope of ever getting to the top of. But as long as Thatcher let Marrin make loads of money, none of that matters apparently. Thatcher was unmitigated bad news for the people of Britain, and especially the working class; she sowed dissent and disharmony across the country, and her legacy lives on in the antisocial attitudes, barefaced profiteering and lack of community feeling we have today, along with the 'market forces' which have brought us to the brink of financial collapse out of sheer uncontrolled greed. She manipulated a war with Argentina over the Falklands which killed thousands but got her re-elected on a wave of jingoistic, flag-waving nationalism, it's purpose all along. Thatcher was the worst thing to happen to this country in my lifetime, and I am just waiting for her death to REJOICE!

Posted by Peter Simmons at 4:05pm on December 11, 2008