page_title: Thatcherism
section_title: Thatcher's legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Thatcherism / Thatcher's legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Basic mock-up of the 'New Labour, New [Life for] Britain' logo that was used by the British Labour Party during the New Labour period.
context_page_description: Thatcherism is a type of British Conservative ideology. It has also been used to describe the principles of the British government under Thatcher as Head of the Conservative Party from 1979 to 1990 and continued into the governments of John Major and David Cameron. An exponent of Thatcherism is regarded as a "Thatcherite". Thatcherism represented a systematic, decisive rejection and reversal of the post-war consensus, whereby the major political parties largely agreed on the central themes of Keynesianism, the welfare state, nationalised industry and close regulation of the British economy. There was one major exception, the NHS, which was widely popular. In 1982, Thatcher promised the British people that the NHS was "safe in our hands".
  Both the exact terms of what makes up Thatcherism as well as its specific legacy in terms of British history over the past decades are controversial. In terms of ideology, Thatcherism has been described by Nigel Lawson, Thatcher's Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1983 to 1989, as a political platform emphasising free markets with restrained government spending and tax cuts, coupled with British nationalism both at home and abroad.
context_section_description: The extent to which one can say Thatcherism has a continuing influence on British political and economic life is unclear. In 2002, 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".
  In reference to modern British political culture, it could be said that a "post-Thatcherite consensus" exists, especially in regards to economic policy. In the 1980s, the now defunct Social Democratic Party adhered to a "tough and tender" approach in which Thatcherite reforms were coupled with extra welfare provision. Neil Kinnock, leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992, initiated Labour's rightward shift across the political spectrum by largely concurring with the economic policies of the Thatcher governments. The New Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were described as "neo-Thatcherite" by some on the left, since many of their economic policies mimicked those of Thatcher.
  Most of the major British political parties today accept the trade union legislation, privatisations and general free market approach to government that Thatcher's governments installed. Before 2010, no major political party in the United Kingdom had committed to reversing the Thatcher government's reforms of the economy, although in the aftermath of the Great Recession from 2007 to 2012, the then Labour Party leader Ed Miliband had indicated he would support stricter financial regulation and industry-focused policy in a move to a more mixed economy. In 2011, Miliband declared his support for Thatcher's reductions in income tax on top earners, her legislation to change the rules on the closed shop and strikes before ballots as well as her introduction of Right to Buy, claiming Labour had been wrong to oppose these reforms at the time.
  Moreover, the United Kingdom's comparative macroeconomic performance has improved since the implementation of Thatcherite economic policies. Since Thatcher resigned as British Prime Minister in 1990, British economic growth was on average higher than the other large European economies (i.e. Germany, France and Italy). Tony Blair wrote in his 2010 autobiography A Journey that "Britain needed the industrial and economic reforms of the Thatcher period". He described Thatcher's efforts as "ideological, sometimes unnecessarily so" while also stating that "much of what she wanted to do in the 1980s was inevitable, a consequence not of ideology but of social and economic change".
  On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Thatcher's 1979 election victory, the BBC conducted a survey of opinions which opened with the following comments:
  To her supporters, she was a revolutionary figure who transformed Britain's stagnant economy, tamed the unions and re-established the country as a world power. Together with US presidents Reagan and Bush, she helped bring about the end of the Cold War. But her 11-year premiership was also marked by social unrest, industrial strife and high unemployment. Her critics claim British society is still feeling the effect of her divisive economic policies and the culture of greed and selfishness they allegedly promoted.
  From the viewpoint of late 2019, the state of British politics showed that Thatcherism had suffered a "sad fate," according to The Economist magazine columnist Bagehot. As a political-economic philosophy Thatcherism was originally built upon four components:  commitment to free enterprise; British nationalism; a plan to strengthen the state by  improving efficiency;  and a belief in traditional Victorian values especially hard work and civic responsibility. The tone of Thatcherism was establishment bashing, with intellectuals a prime target, and that  tone remains sharp today. Bagehot argues that some Thatcherisms have become mainstream, such as a more efficient operation of the government. Others have been sharply reduced, such as insisting that deregulation is always the answer to everything. The dream of restoring traditional values by creating a property owning democracy 
caption: The majority of Thatcher's reforms were retained by New Labour. In 2002 she was said to have regarded this as her greatest achievement.[66]
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