Book reviews
Margaret Thatcher, The
Authorized Biography
By Norman Hill
In the late 1800s through the start of World War
I, Turkey, the old Ottoman Empire was often called
“The sick man of Europe.” This referred to its
ongoing losses of geographical territories and
states, its deteriorating military capacity and
a perceived general collapse in its cultural and
social stability.
Heath’s leadership led to Margaret Thatcher’s
ousting him as Conservative Party leader.
In the 1970s, a less likely nation sometimes
received this unfortunate description—the United
Kingdom. This nation, often referred to as the
mother country of the U.S., our staunchest
European ally, was in very bad shape, economically
and, to some extent, socially. Basic heavy
industries, nationalized since shortly after World
War II, were throwing of heavy financial losses.
Labor unions, often in local areas only, were calling
strikes that caused great inconvenience and losses
for the country. In the early part of the decade,
the Conservative Prime Minister, Edward Heath,
was sometimes described as “symbolizing national
decline, even while he futilely tried to ward it off.”
Some in her party urged Thatcher to move slowly
against longstanding features of the country’s
semi-socialist structure. But she disregarded this
advice. She sold off ailing nationalized industries
and curbed the power of labor unions and many
local governments long dominated by Labor
leaders. She reduced the country’s punitive
personal income tax rates. Later, in a 1983 U.S.
conference, a former spokesman of hers said that
she also wanted to take on the nationalized health
system, but it was too entrenched.
The author, Charles Moore, aptly describes in this
first of a two volume biography, how Margaret
Thatcher stepped into this daunting situation and
served as the U.K. Prime Minister from 1979 to
1990. He admittedly had always been sympathetic
to Thatcher’s political views, both before and after
her tenure in office. But this does not prevent him
from covering some of her faults, such as in dealing
with people.
Moore stresses that Thatcher gave the utmost
cooperation in allowing him access to her own
voluminous papers and paving the way for him
to have access to many still classified state papers.
But she did not interfere or “look over his
shoulder” while he was writing this text. One part
of their agreement was that neither volume of this
biography would be released until after her death.
Many in the U.S. were surprised when the Labor
Party won the U.K. election of 1945 and ousted
war hero Winston Churchill. Party leaders were
passionately committed to socialist doctrine and
proceeded to implement many of its platforms.
A program of “cradle to the grave security”
included nationalization of basic industries,
very stiff personal income taxes and, above
all, socialized or national health care.
By the 1970s, cracks in this system were evident.
“Labour does not work” was a Conservative Party
motto used at the end of the decade. The winter of
1979, plagued by strikes and a failing economy, was
referred to as the “Winter of discontent.” General
Conservative unrest and disagreement with
The general economic disarray in the U.K. led to
Thatcher’s victory in 1979. She became the first
female Prime Minister and, eventually, would serve
the longest term of any in the 20th century.
Economic recovery from her programs was slow and
led to no end of hysterical denunciations of her
policies. “Margaret Thatcher, the milk snatcher”
was a common epithet, to symbolize her
actions as taking milk out of the mouths of
babies.
Moore shows how the 1982 Falklands dispute
with Argentina greatly increased Thatcher’s
popularity and united the nation with the
greatest pride since World War II. Although
the Falklands were a small group of islands
in the south Atlantic, Argentinean claims
and occupation stirred British patriotism to
a pitch. Thatcher’s firm military stand to
retain Falkland control increased her
approval ratings as never before.
Presumably, Moore’s second volume wi