The Britain that Margaret Thatcher inherited
鈥淏RITAIN AT THE CROSSROADS,鈥� blared a Monitor headline in July 1978, less than a year before Margaret Thatcher became the country鈥檚 prime minister. 鈥淎re law and order wilting?鈥�
鈥淧olitical, labor storms grow louder in Britain,鈥� warned another, in January 1979.
鈥淏ritons鈥� patience 鈥� wears thin,鈥� read a third.
As both tributes to Mrs. Thatcher and attacks on her leadership have poured in since her death, it is easy to forget the near-crisis that gripped Britain in the years preceding her rule, as the economy sagged under the weight of rampant inflation and broad unemployment. During the winter of 1978-79, just before the Tories swept to power, strikes rippled across the public sector 鈥� the infamous British 鈥淲inter of Discontent鈥� 鈥撀� 颅in response to a government wage cap.
Meanwhile, as nationalist rumblings rose in Scotland and parliament debated stricter limits on immigration, England seemed to be descending into a crisis of confidence about its very Englishness.
As a look through Monitor archives show, this was the deeply divided Britain that Thatcher and her Conservative Party took control of in May 1979 鈥� beleaguered and world-weary, its patience for government tanking and its economy on shaky ground. 聽
As the Monitor鈥檚 Takashi Oka reported, 聽
In London鈥檚 Golden Square, behind fashionable Regent Street, a gardener lovingly tends his neatly trimmed rosebushes surrounding an Everest-high pile of black plastic rubbish bags. A cleaner from one of the smart offices surrounding the square drags over a roll of carpeting to add to the base of the towering pyramid.
Two weeks鈥� worth of uncollected garbage is the most visible sign of the labor discontent that grips strike-weary Britain this winter.鈥� With hundreds of schools closed, more than a thousand hospitals reduced to emergency operations only, and wage demands spreading on numerous fronts, the hard-pressed Labour government, with traditionally close ties to the unions, is facing an increasingly embittered public.
What is the government doing about all this? Why must it mollycoddle the trade unions so? Why doesn鈥檛 it show some firmness for a change?
These questions, in essence, sum up the opposition Conservative Party鈥檚 challenge to Prime Minister James Callaghan and his Labour Cabinet.聽(鈥淏ritons鈥� patience with strikes wears thin,鈥� Feb. 8, 1979)
The strikes were just the last spasm of the economic malaise of 1970s Britain, which featured high unemployment and double-digit inflation. In Sept. 1976, Mr. Oka noted that nearly 1.5 million Britons 鈥� 6.2 percent of the working population 鈥� were unemployed (鈥淪oaring joblessness challenges Britain,鈥� Sept. 22, 1976), a number that held roughly as national elections approached (鈥渕ore than 1.5 million鈥� in 鈥淪unny Jim and Iron Lady about to face off in Britain,鈥� Sept. 7 1978). Inflation averaged around 13 percent throughout the 鈥�70s, peaking at 25 percent.
Meanwhile, as the parties debated across the aisle in Parliament, Britain also revisited its own place in Europe.
Hamilton, Scotland 鈥� The integrity of the United Kingdom is being challenged.
It is under attack from within by the Scottish and Welsh nationalists and, in a somewhat different context, by the Northern Ireland Unionists.
It is also under attack from without, as the sovereignty of the traditional nation-state is eroded in small 鈥� but not insignificant 鈥� chunks by membership in the nine-nation European Community (EC). 鈥�
Is this old continent, where the modern nation-state was born and where it fought some of mankind鈥檚 most disastrous wars, to see its gradual transformation into something neither fish nor fowl, a kind of hybrid in which the trappings of sovereignty remain but much of the content is gone.
And if such a transformation does take place, what will this do to the Britishness of Britain, the Englishness of England?聽(鈥淏ritain at the Crossroads: Nationalist pressure,鈥� July 10, 1978)
If those were the looming questions that faced Thatcher as she took office, however, she had also already earned some of the fierce loyalty that still characterizes her supporters. As Oka reported shortly after Thatcher became head of the Conservative Party in 1975,
The constituency chairman鈥檚 voice range out across the hall filled to bursting with Conservative Party faithful.
"Paraphrasing William Blake," as he put it, he began with familiar words, "I will not cease from mental fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand.鈥� 鈥�
Then, swelling to a climax, 鈥渢ill Margaret Thatcher is in power,鈥� he thundered, 鈥渋n England鈥檚 green and pleasant land.鈥�
Cheers, laughter, and applause. All eyes were riveted on the blue-eyed, golden-haired woman in turquoise-blue dress standing beside the chairman.鈥�
鈥淚t has been said that we are a middle-class party,鈥� she said 鈥� 鈥淲e鈥檙e not, you know 鈥� We鈥檙e the party of all the people who believe in independence and freedom, who believe in living up to the best of Britain and not the worst.鈥�
鈥淢ore cheers and applause,鈥� Oka went on. 鈥淚t was a rousing partisan speech, as it was meant to be.鈥澛�
