Thatcher's legacy: From the poll tax to privatisation - how the Iron Lady's policies altered Britain

It is 30 years since our most divisive Prime Minister took office.

Margaret Thatcher


On May 4, 1979, Margaret Thatcher strode into Number 10 and Britain changed for ever.

Standing on the steps, she quoted St Francis of Assisi…


What followed was 11 years in which she polarised the country. And 18 years after leaving office, that division remains.

Here we look at her policies and how their legacy lives on in today’s Britain…

The roots of today’s current financial chaos can be traced directly back to October 27, 1986, when the biggest revolution in the financial markets took place.

Thatcher saw London being overtaken as the centre of world finance by New York and she decided that its problem was over-regulation. The

Big Bang saw an overhaul of the system with a “light touch” approach

to regulating banks and trading. Bonuses went through the roof as “greed is good” became the mantra and the markets became a casino.

The legacy: Ultimately, the credit crunch. Weak banking regulations led to the irresponsible lending that triggered today’s crisis. World leaders now call for stricter rules.

Thatcher’s market-led policies saw the sale of 20 state-controlled companies including British Telecom.

Sales were marked by huge advertising campaigns, like “Tell Sid” for British Gas, which ended with a £5.4billion sell off.

She said she wanted to open up share ownership to all. But most people who bought shares in the newly-privatised firms sold quickly to make a quick profit.

The proportion of shares held by individuals rather than institutions did not actually increase.

The legacy: With the family silver sold off, market forces now set the price. And privatisation is still in the air as Gordon Brown and Lord Mandelson debate the future of the Royal Mail.

Yet the Government has also had to part-nationalise several banks to save them from collapse.

Thatcher seized on right-wing jibes that Britain had become the sick man of Europe to launch an unprecedented attack on the trade union movement.

Strikes were a regular occurrence and crippled the country. The three-day week was introduced under Edward Heath. And Callaghan’s Labour government in 1978 oversaw the strikes of the Winter of Discontent.

On election, Thatcher used the situation as an excuse to crush the unions. She simply refused to listen to the workers’ representatives,.

The legacy: Thatcher weakened worker’s rights to the extent that they had little control over their working conditions. Labour introduced the minimum wage but has stopped short of handing over more rights to workers.

Thatcher was determined to break the miners and engineered their crippling defeat.

The Ridley Plan detailed how they would fight, and defeat, a major strike in a nationalised industry. In 1984, the National Union of Mineworkers went out on strike for a year over planned pit closures and their defeat marked the end of serious union might.

The legacy: The coal industry was sold off and gradually shut down.

Communities had their hearts ripped out when the pit closed and many have still not recovered. High unemployment still haunts many former pit villages along with poverty, suicide and depression.

When Thatcher came to power she started a revolution in home ownership by allowing council tenants to buy their own homes.

Under the right-to-buy scheme, a discount was given taking into account rent paid over the years.

Speculators took advantage of the deals on offer in high demand areas like London and filled their boots by arranging deferred payment deals.

The legacy: Increased home ownership led to greater affluence being passed from parents to children.

But the disappearance of council homes put great strain on the limited public housing stocks remaining making it harder for poor families to find places to live.

And as repossessions soar, there are 1.7 million desperate people on council house waiting lists.

The introduction of the Community Charge for local government sounded the death knell for Thatcherism.

Abolishing the old rates system, the charge – quickly dubbed the Poll Tax – was worked out on a flat rate where the number of people living in a house determined its charge rate.

Middle England was incensed that a man living in a semi would end up paying the same as a millionaire in a huge mansion down the road.

The legacy: Sparked Thatcher’s downfall. The charge divided her party and was an electoral liability which led to her resignation.

The Poll Tax was replaced by the Council Tax system.

Thatcher tackled high inflation by raising interest rates and slashing public spending.

This led to a huge rise in unemployment topping 3.6 million.

Recession hit the North and manufacturing industry hardest and factory output dropped by more than 30 per cent.

Unemployed workers were told by Norman Tebbit to get on their bikes to look for new jobs. He has since said: “She is blamed for creating three million unemployed. Of course, she didn’t. She exposed the fact that three million people were on the payroll who were not doing a job.”

The legacy: The manufacturing industry was decimated and has never recovered as Britain moved to a service economy.

Thatcher wasn’t bad for Britain.. She was terrible
By Kevin Maguire

She Who Must Be Obeyed will never be forgiven for crushing millions under her heels.


This PM set out to destroy entire industries in an appalling act of political and social vandalism.

Thatcher’s legacy is the drug abuse and crime in communities deliberately stripped of work and dignity. Greed isn’t good but it was her mantra and bank nationalisation is the bankruptcy of her reckless economics.

To remember the Thatcher era is to recall the hate and contempt on both sides.

When she marched into Number 10, it wasn’t bad – it was horrible, absolutely terrible. She split Britain and reaps what she sowed when so many still curse her name.

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