Of course, the airwaves and the internet are full of reminiscences of 'that woman!' and that has proved efficacious for me. First of all because I had mostly forgotten what an utter and total basket-case this country was in the '70s. You really do need to have lived through it to appreciate its grim, seedy nastiness with militant unions running roughshod over all decency (the dead left unburied), 3-day working weeks, the lights going off for long periods of time, giant state-owned corporations treating us, their 'customers', as though we were contemptible nuisances, top rate of tax at 83%, and our brightest and best, either in terms of intelligence or ability to run a profitable business, disappearing down the 'brain drain' to the USA as fast they could. It was all hideously depressing.
Then 'that woman' arrived! I was too busy trying to earn a living in those days to waste much time on politics and so my first impression of her was - that voice - truly off-putting! But gradually I listened to what she was saying rather than the frightfully careful and grating pronunciation she used to deliver it. And what she said made more and more sense. I had just taken up as a passing fad (the way you do!) philosophy in general and economic philosophy in particular. It was her known respect for Friedrich Hayek's thoughts on political and economic philosophy which made me seek him out in the several books which still sit on my bookshelf. Reading him and others, and then listening to her, was truly a revelation.
What was quite incredible at the time - and still is in retrospect - is that she not only saw the rightness in Hayek's philosophy but that she then set about hammering and bashing it into a recalcitrant Britain. Needless to say, my less-than-dearly beloved countrymen and women hated it and hated her and her poll numbers sank without trace. But she was blessed in her enemies. Two of the stupidest men in the world provided her with opportunities to win back her support. The first was the slimy and ridiculous leader of the National Union of Mineworkers, Arthur Scargill, who led his 'poor bloody infantry' into total defeat and destruction. It took about a year and at times it was a close run thing but in the end she prevailed. Other unions rapidly got the message!
Her second enemy was the ineffably stupid, and frequently drunken, Gen. Galtieri of Argentinia who invaded the Falklands and thus gave the lady what every prime minister desires - a resounding military victory. She was swept back into power and there she stayed until the treacherous and pusillanimous likes of Geoffrey Howe and Michael Heseltine stabbed her in the back.
But, never mind, a seeming miracle had occurred in just 11 years! Britain, from being sneered at, not unreasonably, as the 'poor man of Europe' was now a hustling, bustling, wealth-creating, modernising country. Looking back it seems almost unbelievable that such a change should occur in such a short time. Quite literally, the Britain of the early 1990s was a foreign country to that of the 1970s. Now you, dear reader, might have detected a bit of doom 'n' gloom invading these august columns recently. In particular, my dread for the downward slide of the United States. The sad death of Mrs.(*) Thatcher serves to remind me that in politics nothing is set in stone. All it takes is for the right man or woman to appear at the right time and anything is possible.
Hello - America! - about NOW would be a good time, ya hear what I'm sayin'?!
(*) She is, of course, Lady Thatcher, but somehow, in some way, Mrs. Thatcher seems the right memory for the grocer's daughter from Grantham.