Thatcherism Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Thatcherism is the system of political thought attributed to the governments of Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister during the 1980s.Mrs Thatcher was unusual in late twentieth century British politics in being a highly ideological leader. She once thumped a copy of The Constitution of Liberty, by Friedrich Hayek upon the dispatch box in the House of Commons, proclaiming: "This is what we believe". Thatcherism is characterized by a free market economy perhaps more closely associated with Victorian Liberalism in the United Kingdom, monetarist economic policy, privatisation of state-owned industries, low taxation, opposition to Trade Unions and a check on the size of the Welfare State. Thinkers closely associated with Thatcherism include Keith Joseph and Milton Friedman. Thatcherism was strongest in south east England, the wealthiest region of the United Kingdom, and the greatest beneficiary of Thatcherite policy. Yet, the economy of the whole country was rejuvenated from the "sick man of Europe". Nonetheless, Thatcherism became a term of abuse in areas where the Conservatives were weak, particularly in Scotland. After the initial shock and the recession of the early 1980s, the United Kingdom economy began to revive based on the service industries thatcher in the south east; manufacturing industries and the north, Wales and Scotland did not prosper as much.
Changes to the power of the Trade Unions were made gradually unlike the approach of the Heath Government, and the greatest single confrontation with the unions was the NUM strike of 1984 to 1985 in which the union eventually had to concede.
Whether it ultimately benefited Britain or not, it destroyed the post-war consensus of British politics. In 2001 Peter Mandelson, a member of parliament belonging to the British Labour Party closely associated with Tony Blair, famously declared that "we are all Thatcherites now".
Towards the end of the 1980s, Thatcherism was stubborn in its opposition to perceived attempts by the European Union to erode British sovereignty. In a famous 1988 Bruges speech, Thatcher declared that "We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them reimposed at a European level, with a European superstate exercising a new dominance from Brussels."
Thatcherism may be compared with Reaganomics and Rogernomics.
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