I am no fan of the late Mrs T, as might be expected, but I'll try to be balanced in my criticism. I shan't be rejoicing at her death, even though the horror expressed by Tory politicians and commentators at the street parties held to celebrate Thatcher's death is nothing but cynical hypocrisy. As my colleague, Rednev, has pointed out, when Hugo Chavez died recently, the right-wing newspapers in the UK and abroad were gloating over his death.
Instead, I'd like to focus upon the idea, bruited abroad by Thatcher admirers, that she was a runaway success in all she did. That is a myth which needs to be dispelled.
To begin: here is one of Baroness T's earliest quotes:
'Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.'( On winning 1979 election).
Well, we all know how successful she was there. Riots in Brixton and Toxteth, the Miners' strike and the industrial dispute at Wapping, as well as the violent agitation against the poll tax point to a failure in one of Mrs T's stated aims. Whether she was sincere in her quoting St Francis of Assisi or not is another matter, but when she left office, Thatcher left a country which remains deeply divided to this day. Not only this, but there are some regions of our country where despair is a long-established part of everyday life.
When I read claims like this, by Louise Bagshawe, I have to laugh:
"I do not think it is an exaggeration to state that the country I grew up in was shaped and saved by Margaret Thatcher".
If we examine this claim critically, it simply does not hold water. If Mrs T saved anywhere, she saved the South-East of this country, where the so-called "Tory Heartland" is situated. Very few people in Scotland, the North of England and South Wales considered themselves "saved" by the Thatcher government. Of course, many people in the South-East suffered because of Thatcher's policies, but these regions felt the greatest impact. In fact, Mrs Thatcher definitely seemed to be indifferent to many areas of the country where she was unlikely to get votes. To my certain knowledge, she visited Liverpool only once during her time as Prime Minister.
Next, if there is anything that Tories love to praise Baroness T for, it is her stirring leadership during the Falklands War. As Thatcher said herself, after the conflict:
"We knew what we had to do and we went about it and did it. Great Britain is great again",
Margaret Thatcher 26/06/1982.
What has been forgotten is that Mrs Thatcher's government was largely responsible for the war in the first place. Of course, they did not invite the Argentinians to invade, but two things encouraged the Galtieri regime to launch an invasion. One was the withdrawal of HMS Endurance, the Royal Navy ice patrol ship and the other was the 1981 British Nationality Bill, under which the Falkland Islanders lost their right to become full British citizens. These were seen as signs of weakness on Britain's part.
As for the military campaign itself, with all due credit to our armed forces, it was a very close run thing. Had the Argentinians not run out of Exocet missiles, the British Task Force could have been decimated; had the Argentinian garrison not surrendered when they did, the British Forces would have run out of ammunition. British commanders in the Falklands now admit this.
Thanks to the Falklands victory, Thatcher's government survived. Before the war, Mrs T was the most unpopular Prime Minister of the century. After the war, she was winning elections. Had the Task Force failed, however, there would have been a different outcome.
The end of the war saw the beginning of Mrs T's apparent megalomania (remember "We have become a grandmother"?). At the Victory parade in London, the Royal Family were not invited! Two civil servants( CS1 and CS2 )watching the parade are supposed to have said:
CS1: "...this shows the results of letting some desperately unpopular tinpot autocrat use a crazy foreign military adventure to court popularity and get off the hook at home"
CS2: "Charles, you're absolutely right. Yes, Galtieri and the junta really blew it"
CS1: Galtieri? Harry, I'm talking about Margaret Thatcher!"
(Source: "Military Intelligence Blunders and Cover-Ups", by Colonel J. Hughes-Wilson)
Now, as we all know, the Community Charge, aka the "Poll Tax", and the riots it provoked, led to Thatcher's downfall. What is not being stressed is the fact that a number of cabinet members at the time advised against the tax. The same people who now praise Mrs T for her political record do not mention how keen they were to be rid of her at the end of her time as Prime Minister. And, as we know, it all ended in tears - which Mrs T shed when she left Number 10 for the last time in 1990.
In time, I believe that we shall come to see Baroness Thatcher not as an astute and resolute saviour of her country, but an obdurate and opportunistic ideologue - albeit a lucky one.
