Thatcher from the perspective of the right

Thatcher from the perspective of the right

Margaret Thatcher is quite a controversial topic when it comes to politics, and this short text will summarize how she would look politically from a right wing perspective, meaning in this context the perspective of the British Conservative Party based on the fundamentals of their idealism (as there is no universal set of policies considered to be conservative). This text only concerns Thatcherism as when it comes the domestic economy.

In short the Conservative Party for British Unionism (meaning it favours the union of Great Britain). Before Thatcher they would be best described as just “Conservative”, meaning typical traditionalists favouring monarchy and social hierarchy (in which we can find the typical conservative thought, namely that every individual has a duty to fulfil in the society). Hence society would consist several social groups which had different tasks to do in order to have continuity and stability. Eventually the ideology became more modernized, focusing more on capitalism, especially when Thatcher came about.

Under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher the course of the Conservative Party changed quite a bit. During her time as leader of her party and PM, the course was set for a free-market heavily influenced by the economic policies in USA. She believed that too much influence from social democracy would in time decline the British market, and her government pushed for bringing a more liberal programme for the economy in Britain, where public industries were sold out from state control and the power of the trade union was drastically decreased. The trade union set the stakes too high and were of too much support of keeping industries up for the workers’ sake (which also meant supporting strikes that were devastating when it comes to macroeconomics) even though the industries concerned weren’t always profitable, according to Thatcher.

Her new line of politics led to an economic boost in England as ordinary people got a chance to buy the previously state-owned industries and stocks and that way grow rich. In other words common people had a shot at getting wealthier. She was a strong supporter on monetarism, meaning that the state should only focus on keeping a stability in prices but otherwise let the market expand on its own without the state setting limits for it. As in the US people could and did become very successful in such a liberal environment.

Her politics were soon to be called Thatcherism, and in a conservative point of view she was rather radical, since conservatism usually prefers a set state of social order (originally we would be speaking of social classes) instead of having a changing one (as the society would change depending on the market). We can see today that the Conservative Party (often called Tories) sets its political position as center-right, and this would have its origins in Thatcherism. So from a liberal view this would be quite suitable, but from a conservative view it might be too radical. Though Thatcher can only be called  a right wing politician as letting up so much state property and being such a strong follower of monetarism, not to mention closing all the industries she did in the north of England, would never be made by a socialist.

Text: Primus Holm Linder

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_inequality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)#Origins_in_the_Whig_Party
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism#Great_Britain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_the_United_Kingdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thatcherism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premiership_of_Margaret_Thatcher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher#Foreign_affairs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_the_United_Kingdom#Conservatives_.28Tories.29

”Margaret Thatcher is not a woman”

These words were spoken by a male historian as a reaction to Thatcher’s so called “unfemininity” during her time as Prime Minister. However, it wasn’t just men who shared this opinion. When asked about what it was that defined Margaret Thatcher as “unfeminine”, women also made quite unflattering comments.

But were these kind of comments justified? Should they really have slandered a woman who had such an extraordinary power of will? But as UK’s first female Prime Minister, shouldn’t she have fought more for women’s rights in society?

After all, the people of Britain complained about this and said:

 “We want women’s rights, not a right-wing woman.”

Patricia Hewitt, who most recently served as Secretary of State for Health, also commented on the fact that Thatcher was wasting her opportunity to improve the rights and equality for women by saying:

“It's a tragedy that, having become the UK's first female Prime Minister, she did so much to undermine the position of women in society."

In conclusion, Margaret Thatcher ruled Britain like a man would, but since she was a woman, the people of Britain saw it from another perspective. Their opinion of her was influenced by the fact that she was female, which made it hard for her to actually be taken seriously in her saying. People had already made up their mind about her, so even though she did something good, her actions weren’t appreciated because of her gender. If she would have been a man, her way of ruling would have been more accepted.

Despite the negativity, she stuck to her ways and never gave in.

"In politics, if you want anything said, ask men. If you want anything done, ask women." - Margaret Thatcher

By: Emelie Östbring, Rebecca Weiger, Paulina Persson and Hanna Glover

Margaret Thatcher and the European Union

EU in the 70’s (Pre-Thatcher)

Before understanding the rift between Thatcher and the EU, it is best to know what was the situation of the EU was before Thatcher came into the picture:

In the early 70’s, there were only a few member states in the EU: Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. In 1973, three new states joined: Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

In 1970, the EU came up with a plan that had to do with a single currency. This was to maintain monetary stability, and the first thing they did was that they decided that the different currencies of the member states in the EU would only fluctuate against each other within narrow limits. The exchange rate mechanism would be shortened to ERM, and it became official in 1972. This was the first step towards a single currency, the euro, which would be introduced 30 years later.

In the 70’s the fight against pollution intensified, as the world got a lot more aware of the environmental problems. The EU’s response to this was to adopt laws to protect the environment, such as the notion of “the pollution pays”. Greenpeace, along with other pressure groups were founded around this time too.

In October 1973 there was an Arab-Israeli war, causing the Middle East oil-producing nations to impose big price increases and also restrict sales to certain European countries. This created economic problems in the EU.

In 1974, the European Regional Development Fund was set up. This was done by the EU leaders so that they could show their solidarity. The purpose of this was to transfer money from the richer regions to the poor ones so that the poor regions could improve roads and communications, attract investment in the regions and also create jobs. This would later become a third of all the EU spending.

In the middle of the 70’s, the last right-wing dictatorships ended, due to the death of General Franco, dictator in Spain, and the overthrow of the Salazar regime in Portugal. This was a step closer to being members of the EU for those countries, as the EU does not, and has never, accepted dictatorships.

In the later 70’s, 1978, the former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was murdered. This was one of many acts of terrorism that was carried out during the 70’s. Other victims of terrorism were leading lawyers, businessmen, politicians along with 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972.

In 1979, EU citizens were able to elect the members of the European Parliament for the very first time. Before this the delegates were chosen from National Parliaments. They would not sit in national delegations, but in pan-European political groups, being Socialists, Conservative, Liberal, Greens etc.

Thatcher’s contribution to the EU and Europe

During her time as Prime Minister of the UK, she made her mark on the EU, both good and bad.

In 1986, British Commissioner Lord Cockfield, with the approval by Thatcher, pushed forward to reform the Treaty of Rome. The EU took this into consideration and later agreed to the Single European Act. With the Treaty of Rome as a foundation, the Single European Act established a single market where there would be free movement of goods, capital, and people within the EU.

Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative party returned to power in 1979 and her critical view on the EU made a mark in 1985 with the UK Rebate. In the rebate, Thatcher demanded the repayment of the UK’s contribution to the EU budget, as at that time, it was being spent on the Common Agricultural Policy which did not benefit the UK as much as the other countries did, as the UK has a small farming sector. The repayment was high in amount, but in the end Thatcher got the money back and the EU had to suffer the consequences.

In 1990, the UK joined the EU’s newest project, the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), with approval from Thatcher. The aim of the ERM was to reduce the exchange rate variability and improve the stability of the currencies in the EU. Unfortunately the UK was forced to leave in 1992 because they were unable to keep the pound sterling above the agreed lower limit which caused an economic crash.

Not only did Thatcher work within the EU, but also around Europe by helping to end the Cold War. She did so by integrating the Soviet bloc of Eastern Europe with the rest of Europe; 

"We must never forget that east of the Iron Curtain, people who once enjoyed a full share of European culture, freedom and identity have been cut off from their roots...we shall always look on Warsaw, Prague and Budapest as great European cities" 

This was also the time when a journalist in the Soviet Union called her the ‘Iron lady’ which was supposed to be mocking considering how some people thought that she ‘ruled’ the UK with an iron fist, but instead she took this as a compliment that she was strong willed.

The Maastricht Treaty, or formally the Treaty of the European Union was the treaty that led to the creation of the single European currency, the Euro. Thatcher was against the idea of the Euro and wanted the UK to keep the Pound. During the signing of the treaty, Britain got an ‘opt out’ clause which meant that Britain would continue to be a part of the European Union but not participate in the Euro, thus maintaining the Pound.

Thatcher and The Euro - back in the 20th century and now:

Thatcher’s firm belief was that the Euro would ruin the EU. It would prove to be fatal to poorer countries, “devastate their inefficient economies”. She thought that the poorer countries would in the end need bailouts because of their uncompetitiveness and it will also be that Germany and France would take the largest hits from these bailouts. 

Thatcher thought the Euro was a bad idea; in her book ‘Statecraft’ she stated that the Euro would fail "economically, politically and socially". According to her, Britain would be better served keeping control over it’s own financial affairs, but because of her critical thought on the EU she was met with a big resistance in the lower house of the parliament. Her point of view made her lose her left hand, Geoffrey Howe. He later stated “I wanted to change the policies, not the leader. But if that meant the leader had to go, then so it had to be.”

The Euro proved Thatcher right as it has caused a major crisis in the Euro-zone, countries are falling apart because they can’t handle the Euro. Germany and France are taking huge blows to their economy to save the poor countries and even Italy may need a bailout if things continue this way

Thatcher the Euro-skeptic?

Without a doubt Thatcher was a prime example of a Euro-skeptic, but she had her reasons for seeing the EU in her way.

During the United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum in 1975, Thatcher actually voted ‘yes’ for the UK stay in the then European Community. But at this time, she was a Europhile along with many her party members as the dream everyone shared then was to bring peace and stability to Europe and the UK. It was only later in her years as Prime Minister that she became suspicious that the EU stood more for political and ideological ambition rather than bringing together an economical and democratic Europe.

Slowly her impression of the EU changed to that of a centralized bureaucratic super state that would extinguish democracy and take away sovereign power from the European countries ; or in her own words, 

“That such an unnecessary and irrational project as building a European super state ever embarked on will seem in future years to be perhaps the greatest folly of the modern era. And that Britain, with traditional strengths and global destiny, should ever become part of it will appear a political error of the first magnitude” 

(in her book, Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, published in 2002)

Looking back at the Single European Act and the ERM, Thatcher wasn’t actually too keen on these ideas and only agreed to them to keep her party, cabinet, and people afloat, as there was a rift between Euro-skeptics like her and Europhiles like Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe. While the Single European Act was a major contribution to European growth and integration, the ERM was a total flop that resulted in an economic failure and the eventual defeat of the Conservative government.

Many of her views on the EU, both love and hate, were expressed in her famous Bruges Speech at the College of Europe 1988. In this speech she shared her vision of an EU that was 

“...united and with greater sense of common purpose. But it must be in a way which preserves the different traditions, parliamentary powers and sense of national pride in one’s own country, for these have been the source of Europe’s vitality through the centuries”

She basically wanted the EU to be more of a union of countries that continued to hold on to their sovereignty and worked together independently.

In fact there are parts in her speech that sounded more pro-European than what many would have thought;

“Let Europe be a family of nations, understanding each other better, appreciating each other more, doing more together but relishing our national identity no less than our common European endeavour. Let us have a Europe which plays its full part in the wider world, which looks outward not inward, and which preserves that Atlantic community—that Europe on both sides of the Atlantic—which is our noblest inheritance and our greatest strength”

“Europe will be stronger because it has France as France, Spain as Spain, Britain and Britain, each with its own customs, traditions and identity. It would be folly to try to fit them into some sort of identikit European personality”

“Europe is not the creation of the Treaty of Rome. Nor is the European idea the property of any group or institution. We British are as much heirs to the legacy of European culture as any other nation. Our links to the rest of Europe, the continent of Europe, have been the dominant factor in our history…"

Furthermore, she also put out her thoughts on how the EU could work better if it was not a centralised bureaucratic superstate;

“But working more closely together does not require power to be centralized in Brussels or decisions to be taken by an appointed bureaucracy”

“We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state of Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels”

 And to sum all of that up in her own words ;

“To try to suppress nationhood and concentrate power as the centre of a European conglomerate would be highly damaging and would jeopardize the objectives we seek to achieve”

She did try to defend Britain’s isolation from Europe as “Britain does not dream of some cozy, isolated existence on the fringes of the European Community” , but many saw this as ironic since she had for some time given that exact impression (UK not joining the Euro is one example) for the rest of Europe to see.

The rift between her and the rest of cabinet and party continue to worsen, and by the time her right hand man and Euro-phile, Geoffrey Howe resigned after Thatcher's speech at the European Council meeting in Rome 1990 (her famous statement being “No,No,No” to the House of Commons), the plot for her ‘political assassination’ began.

While Margaret Thatcher had her reasons for not trusting the EU and was very skeptical with their projects, she did have her own vision on how the EU should have been, could have been, and would have been.

Authors: Izabella Karlsson, Alexsandra Buachoom, Agnes Ek, Emilia Baunach

Margareth Thatcher and Ireland

It is well known that Margaret Thatcher disliked Ireland. There are several events that led up to this dispute. Some events played a bigger role than others. Here are some of them:

One of the first events was about a month before she was elected to become Prime Minister. It was the assasination of Airey Neave, her spokesman in Northern Ireland that was possibly going to become Secretery of State in Northern Ireland. It was revealed that INLA (the Irish National Liberation Army) that was behind the car bomb that killed Airey Neave. This made Thatcher focus more on ensuring the security forces in Northern Ireland than creating lasting peace.

Another key event was the hunger strike. This was in 1981. A group of prisoners that had murdered the Queen's cousin for IRA in the Maze said they should be given prisoners-of-war status. Thatcher strongly rejected their request. She said "Crime is crime is crime. It is not political, it is crime", which shows in a clear way her opinion on this. The prisoners decided to go on a hunger strike until they were approved of their prisoners-of-war title. This ended with 10 prisoners dying. This made the hatred towards Thatcher to increase among republicans, especially because it is suspected that she was given an offer to end the hunger strike before anyone died.

Thatcher's relation to Ireland worsened. In 1984 the IRA tried to kill Thatcher by bombing the hotel she was staying at during the Conservative Party conference in Brighton. Five people were killed (among those was a Conservative MP) and dozens injured but Thatcher got away without a scratch. The IRA claimed the responisbility and Thatcher was even more motivated to crack down the IRA and republican terrorism. The sitaution between Thatcher and Ireland was once again worsening.

In 1985 the Anglo-Irish Agreement was signed. The agreement gave the Irish Government an advisory role in the North's government but there would be no change in the constitutional position of the North until the majority of people in the North wanted it. Now Thatcher was criticized by unionist who thought that the agreement would give the Republicans a way to reunify with the North. This now made nationalists and unionalists hate Thatcher.

Thatcher never stopped being tough on republicans and their terrorism. She put in a broadcasting ban up until IRA's ceaserfire in 1994 to stop republicans from getting publicity.

Her actions in the issue between her and Ireland and Northern Ireland played a big part after she left 10 Downing Street, for example in the Good Friday Agreement.

Thatcher will always be remembered as hated by republicans, much because of her action in the hunger strike. Even now after her death she is seen in an unfavourable way by the republicans and many irsihmen and maybe she always will.

Margaret Thatcher the saviour of Great Britain

Strikes were everyday life; the state had Europe’s both largestdeficit and inflation. Some workers were only able to work 4 days per week due to the coal strikes in the north which lead to power failures in big parts of Britain. The British industry was both out dated and moving overseas. Undeceive politicians failed to do the reforms that were needed. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher was elected Europe’s first female PM. When she entered 10 Downing Street she was facing one of the worst economies in Europe.

Margaret Thatcher reformed the British school system; she implemented a national curriculum and allowed the schools to manage their own economy. She brought in regular school inspections, and her reforms made the school more effective.

A part of Thatcherism is that the state should be limited and only provide the country with the vital needs to sustain modern society, such as defence, health care and security. Before Thatcher and under the Labour government many companieswere bought up by the state due to that the companies wereoutdated and malfunctioning this made the state inflexible. Under Thatcher over 50 out dated state run companies were sold and privatised.  Competiveness between the companies then grew stronger and the out dated industries were either moved abroad or went bankrupt. This boosted the service sector which leads to a modernised British economy. A consequence of the privatisation was that many people from the former old industries were unemployed. This leads to critique against Thatcher. But these reforms were needed to tackle the British economy and it resulted in a stable British economy and in the long run unemployment decreased.

One of the biggest problems Thatcher faced was the record high inflation of 20% in the UK at the time. Money was losing its value and salaries did not increase at the same pace as the coast of living. There was simply too much money on the market. What Thatcher did was to implement higher taxes and the interest rates increased, this made the inflation decrease from the 20% down to 5%.

In 1982 British soil was invaded by the dictatorship of Argentina. Margaret Thatcher’s response was to send a task force to save the innocent British citizens of the Falkland Islands. The task force succeeded in its mission of liberating the islands from the Argentinian invaders and the people of Britain saw Thatcher’s achievement as a great deed for the British Empire and re-elected her to four more years as the British Prime Minister. She now maintained a position, both domestic and international, as a strong and firm leader.

Margaret Thatcher played a key role in the ending of the cold war due to her good relations with both the US president Ronald Regan and the Soviet president Gorbachev. Thatcher was a symbol of liberty to the soviet people and also a representant of the western world.

Margaret Thatcher pledged a great scepticism towards the EU. A British membership did lead to an increased political impact from other countries according to Thatcher.

/Evelina, Jakob, Carl, Viktoria L & Rebecca

Sources:

http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/margaret-thatcher/52391/margaret-thatcher-legacy-pros-cons

http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/margaret-thatcher/24403/how-margaret-thatcher-made-britain-great-again

Thatcher and the EU

Thatcher and the EU

While Thatcher has always been known as an outspoken Eurosceptic, she was not all against Europe and the European Union, always advocating a united Europe against communism, which she despised.

Britain had joined the EU six years before Thatcher came to power and while she did not seem to be too fond of the EU, she had no choice but to accept the situation. Thatcher was very much a proud British remembering the great days of the empire and the policies exercised back then.  To be tied up with the continental countries, which she also blamed for both the world wars, was not what she wanted. This and her hatred for bureaucracy, something she had tried to reduce in the UK, which she said was way too extensive in EU, made her very resistant to any EU policies other than the free market. Among others she heavily criticized the defense and the agricultural policies.

Apart from the free market she also liked the idea of a strong united Europe against the communistic Eastern Europe which she saw as the biggest threat against peace and democracy. With a different European Union she might have been a leading force. Her views of the European Union became rather clear during her very famous “Bruges speech” showing of both her feverish attempts of showing Britain as the liberator of Europe and also her opinions on the EU bureaucracy and policies:

“But we British have in a very special way contributed to Europe. Over the centuries we have fought to prevent Europe from falling under the dominance of a single power.”

“We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels.”

“If we cannot reform those Community policies which are patently wrong or ineffective and which are rightly causing public disquiet, then we shall not get the public support for the Community's future development.”

Thatcher’s views on the European Union were as firm and definite as her opinions on any other matter. She is credited for much of the euroscepticism that is still very prevalent in today’s Britain. As late as the beginning of the millennia she once again expressed very harsh opinions against the EU, urging the UK to leave it.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/391111/Margaret-Thatcher-to-blame-for-way-Britain-deals-with-EU-says-ex-German-Chancellor

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/04/17/margaret-thatcher-relationship-with-europe-euroscepticism-figurehead-iain-begg/

http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107332

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-105481/Time-ditch-EU-says-Thatcher.html             

By: Isak Wernehov, Samuel Macario, Adam Ryde, Daniel Roslund

Margaret Thatcher – Biography

Margaret Hilda Thatcher (née Roberts) was born on 13 October 1925 in Grantham, England. She and her sister Muriel spent most of their childhood assisting their father with her family’s grocery store. Furthermore, her father, who was a member of the town’s council, taught her conservative politics from a young age.

Thatcher won a scholarship to Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ School, where she was head girl in 1942-1943. Her school reports showed academic consistency and brilliance in a number of extra-curricular activities such as field hockey, swimming and playing the piano.

In 1946, Thatcher attended Oxford University. She was initially rejected from Oxford, but another person withdrew and she graduated from Oxford with a degree in chemistry. At the university, Thatcher was the president of the Conservative Association where she came to be inspired by the political works of Freidrich von Hayek. This can be noticed in her reforms and policies.

After graduation, Thatcher’s stubbornness and arrogance caused some trouble when she was looking for a job, but she later worked as a research chemist in Colchester and Dartford.

In 1950, Thatcher applied to be the conservative candidate for a parliamentary seat in Dartford, although she knew it would be impossible to defeat the Labour Party. However, her colleagues respected her for her speeches. The following year, she married Denis Thatcher, a rich businessman. In 1953, she gave birth to the twins Carol and Mark.

Thatcher studied law for a while, but she returned to politics and won a seat in the House of Commons in 1959. She also became a member of the Shadow Cabinet, a group of political leaders who would get posts in the Cabinet if their party was in power.

In 1970, Thatcher was the secretary of state for education and science, but she had a hard time getting Prime Minister Edward Heath to acknowledge her ideas. However, Thatcher was elected leader of the Conservative Party in 1975, since she became the dominant force of the party when it lost power 1974.

The economic and political chaos in England during this time helped the Conservatives to return to power in 1979, and Thatcher became Britain’s first female prime minister.

At first, Thatcher had a tough time with the military. In 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, and Thatcher sent British troops that defeated the Argentines. After the Falklands War, Thatcher called election (which was a genius move) and was re-elected.

In 1984, there was an attempted assassination on Thatcher at the Conservative Conference in Brighton, but she was not harmed and continued with her speech the next day.

In 1987, Thatcher’s implementation of a fixed rate local tax made her lose a lot of support. Other problems arose, and her closest ministers turned against her. Her hatred against the rest of Europe caused problems within her own party, and in 1990, after eleven years, Thatcher was forced to resign.

Afterwards, Thatcher published several books about her views on politics and experiences as a world leader. Around this time, Thatcher suffered from several strokes and in 2003, she lost her husband Denis, followed by her old ally and friend, Ronald Reagan (former president of the US).

Thatcher stopped attending official events, including the wedding of Prince William in April 2011. She suffered from memory problems due to her strokes, and on 8 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher died at the age of 87.

By:

Viktoria

Muzhen

Aimeng

Nadir