The Downing Street years (Margaret Thatcher)

Résumé du document

This text is an extract from Margaret Thatcher's Memoirs, 'My Downing Street Years'. This book is an autobiography written by Thatcher herself in 1995, in which she explains her ideology and justifies her government policies, led from 1979 to 1990. This book is more a political manifesto of Thatcherism, than a simple autobiography as she wrote in her first book 'The Path to power'. This is due to the fact that she was a politician and that she here takes the occasion to respond and answer back the critics made about her and the Tories at the end of her three terms as a Prime Minister. And she does so with a pleasant ironic tone. Thatcher came into power in 1979 after the crisis of Keynesianism in 1975, which was largely blamed on the big state and very mighty trade unions, and after the Labour's electoral defeat and the 'winter of discontent (1978-1979)'. Therefore, Thatcherism emphasised the small state, free markets and weaker trade unions in order to reverse Britain's economic decline. Nevertheless, this ideology did not succeed. It paradoxically only left a legacy in the political background of Britain. Indeed, when she resigned in 1990, 28% of the children in Great Britain were considered to be below poverty line, a number that kept rising to 30% in 1994 during the Conservative government of John Major, who succeeded Thatcher.

Extraits

[...] And, more than that, it appears to be a real “political style”. Indeed, Thatcher inspired herself and justified her ideology by writing about references she used to build “Thatcherism”. First, she advocated “Victorians virtues”, known as Victorian values- from Queen Victoria (1839-1901) - and she founded all her theory on this system of thoughts. It consists in the protection of the Institutions as the Monarchy and the Royal Family, because they provide identification to everyone. The “virtues” also defend small state intervention and individualism. [...]

[...] Thatcher answers the critics by criticising the whole Left, and in particular the Labour's behaviour facing the success of Thatcherism in the mid 1980s. Indeed, Margaret Thatcher, nicknamed the Iron Lady for having helped in the negotiations with Gorbatchev for the end of the iron curtain, was leading her very strict political programme which led to “prosperity”. In the 1985s, prosperity and economic growth appeared in Britain thanks to the opening of markets and the new liberal Conservatism or the New Right, which was born from Friedman and Hayek theories. [...]

[...] This explanation of what the New Right and the governments' agenda are consists in announcing the main principles of Thatcherism. In the text, the author also makes a perfect summary of her own ideology, theory and philosophy. The criticism of the Labour finally leads to a real manifesto of what Thatcherism really is, so as to make things clear. First, Thatcher is an individualist. She strongly believes that individuals are part and parcel of the society, and that they have to be accountable for their actions. [...]

[...] The ideology is first based on little state intervention. The state should intervene for “specific instances” (line 30). The state should intervene only for justice and policing. In the text, Thatcher also gives her feelings and the difficulties she faced as a politician, as for streets were becoming more not less violent, in spite of large increases of police numbers and prison places” (from l to 34). The point is that the state intervenes too much in economy and society with the NHS and the jobs insurance for instance. [...]

[...] The Downing Street years (Margaret Thatcher) want a society where people are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. This is what we mean by a moral society; not a society where the state is responsible for everything and no one is responsible for the state”, Margaret Thatcher (1925-present) declared to vindicate a very small state intervention to recover from the economic and social crisis of the 70s, in banishing the Welfare State system. It is indeed by criticizing the whole Left, Labour, socialism and soviet communism that Margaret Thatcher the British Conservative Party leader from May 1975 to November 1990 - begins the chapter on individuals and communities in her Memoirs. [...]