Why did Thatcher inspire such passionate support and hatred?

Question 1

How did Thatcher’s supporters view her?

Answer 1

• Resolute
• Clear-sighted
• Brought about extensive, much-needed change
• Arrested the national decline symbolised by the industrial unrest and rampant inflation of the 1970s
• Thatcherism = coherent set of principles and policies
• Influenced change with USA under Ronald Reagan.

Question 2

How did Nigel Lawson 1981 define ‘Thatcherism’?

Answer 2

‘a mixture of free markets, financial discipline, firm control over public expenditure, tax cuts, nationalism, “Victorian values” (of the self-help variety), privatisation and a dash of populism’

Question 3

Thatcher’s personal toughness for support?

Answer 3

• 1980 –> responded to claims that she might U-turn with telling Conservative Party conference: ‘You turn if you want to; the lady’s not for turning.’
• ‘iron lady’ image
• Single-minded focus on victory in the 1982 Falklands campaign and her unwavering hostilities to the USSR.
• determination and self-confidence

Question 4

Criticism for Thatcher?

Answer 4

• Shifted emphasis of the tax system from direct to indirect taxation –> disproportionately hit the poor
• Lost jobs in industries hit hard by policies (coal miners)
• ‘cardboard cities’
• Some Church of England bishops publicly drew attention to the problems of the inner city poor.

Question 5

What did Thatcher say October 1987?

Answer 5

‘there is no such thing as society’