Margaret Thatcher, 1925-2013

Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Margaret Thatcher's passing from a stroke, and after a long battle with dementia, was not completely unexpected, but it does provide an opportunity for someone who lived in Britain in 1980s to reflect on the "Thatcher Years". In contrast to many American ex-presidents, she, like most ex-Prime Ministers, had been largely out of the spotlight since her ouster in 1990. Interestingly, like Al Stewart's 'old admirals', she had been hoping to be called back into service (or at least for some advice) in both the Iraq wars. A quarter century has now passed since her premiership, sufficient for a historical perspective. Commentators have of course been asking about her legacy. Some have called her the most influential Western leader of the 20th century. And there is a Churchillian grandeur, a larger than life quality that stemming from the strength of her convictions. Anticipating the Tea Party by more than 20 years, she remarked: "I am not a consensus politician. I am a conviction politician”. Pre-emtion Her close friendship with Rupert Murdoch (of Fox News fame) says something about her views of those on the left. And chillingly one of her first actions on arriving at Number 10, was to triple (you you did read that correctly - a factor of 3) police salaries. This was just before she'd stockpiled enough coal to take on Arthur Scargill without risking a backlash in public opinion when the power went off (as it had done under Edward Heath and Jim Callahan a few years before). What I found deeply disturbing was the notion that she knew just how ugly things were going to get; as dictators the world over know, when you provoke civil unrest, you need to have law enforcement firmly on your side. Legacy "They are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there's no such thing as society." she said in an interview in Women's Own in 1987. A fan of the Austrian school of economics, she was the not just the first post-war embodiment of ideas we associate today with the Tea Party, but arguably she set a new tone, a shift in values, pithily summed up by Gordon Gekko in his one line condensation of Adam Smith's the Wealth of Nations: "greed is good". An unintended but not unwelcome consequence of her rise to power has been a diminution of the class divide in Britain. And although largely hated by feminists who were generally left of center, she has removed the perception that women aren't suited to positions of leadership. On balance, while she did improve the state of Britain's economy, one has to wonder at what cost to Britain in terms of its social cohesion and to the current world view regarding the role of government in regulating business. Influential, she was. But that alone isn't enough; one has to ask what was gained and what was sacrificed.