Did Thatcher Turn Britain Around? Better Look For Yourself
There will presumably be a lot of commentary about Margaret Thatcher over the next few days, although probably nothing like the “Reagasm” of 2004. And there will in particular be many assertions that Thatcher turned around a moribund British economy. So, is this right?
OK, I don’t want to do a slash-and-burn here — the question mark in the title of this post is for real. But I think it is interesting to look at what actually happened at a macro level.
Now, there is no question that Britain did turn around. In the 1970s it was a country with huge economic problems; today, despite the failure of austerity policies, it’s in a much stronger position. There are various ways you could show this; I find it useful to compare Britain with its love-hate-relationship neighbor France.
So, a real turnaround. Was it the Iron Lady wot did it?
