Thatcher’s legacy
Re: “Harper, ex-PMs honour ‘global giant’,” April 9.
Much will be written about Margaret Thatcher, but I hope that most will be able to take a dispassionate look at her achievements without paying too much attention to the propaganda.
First, it is ludicrous to believe that she and Ronald Reagan had anything to do with the end of communism. That accolade rightly belongs to Mikhail Gorbachev, who saw a prosperity in the West which his country could not achieve while involved in the Cold War arms race.
As to economic success, real growth in the U.K. was no greater under her regime than under Labour in the 1970s. The main result of her rule was that the riches of North Sea oil were dissipated rather than being invested. Norwegians, who invested sensibly, now have the highest per capita income in the world and have a huge lead in wind and wave renewable energy for the next century.
Most especially, Thatcher’s policies decimated the British manufacturing industry at the cost of massive unemployment. She created an unemployed, and now unemployable underclass, who are now blamed for their own condition, and are under attack by her successors.
Perhaps she will be lauded for destroying the power of the unions, but recently revealed evidence makes it clear that violence was initiated by police with the sanction of the highest authority in Britain.
It will take the passage of time, but historians in 100 years will be able to date Britain’s final descent to her time, and to Thatcherism followed by her successors.
James Currie, Calgary