UK Prime Ministers: Margaret Thatcher

In this video I give an overview of Margaret Thatcher's time as UK Prime Minister between winning the general election in 1979 and her resignation in 1990.
In the video I explore key events such as: Thatcher's experiment with monetarism, her battle to tame inflation, the Falklands War, the 1983 election, the Miner's Strike, the 1987 election, Section 28, the poll tax, cabinet disagreements over Europe, her resignation and downfall.
I also give an overall assessment of her period in office - reaching the conclusion that, whilst she ranks highly in any assessment of post-war Prime Ministers as we all live in the shadow of Thatcherism, there is significant contestation about her legacy.
Hopefully this will be of interest to A-Level Politics students and anyone interested in UK Politics and History.

[@jamesstone5043]

Really high quality content. Voiceover is sounding excellent

[@politicoteacher]

Thanks, I enjoyed making it. My favourite find was the song about monetarism towards the beginning.

[@torak_34]

Love her or hate her, there’s no doubt that she is, and will remain, the most divisive prime minister

[@jonno209]

Privatising rail and water has worked out so well...

[@iielysiumx5811]

Now we have shit in our rivers and E. coli in our water supply

[@Ha-lw2cn]

Didn’t John Major privatise the rail?

[@jonno209]

@@Ha-lw2cn correct, but she started it all off

[@patrickel94]

You hit the nail on the head perfectly at @15:35 we still feel the effects of her policies on a daily basis, even those who weren't alive during her premiership...

[@politicoteacher]

Absolutely. We are Thatcher's children.

[@Pikaling3408]

@@politicoteacher I'm a Blair child as I was born in 2003.

[@rhysepoos]

​@politicoteacher The children of an abusive parent. We're still feeling the effects of the damage she's did to our society, whether it's the chronic shortage of affordable housing, the demonisation of low income families, or the destructive 'greed is good' mantra.

[@lucasdolding6924]

@@Pikaling3408 Blair's time as PM was still informed by the influence of Thatcherism. Hopefully with nationalising the rails under Labour we can start to see a shift away from Thatcherite politics over the next decade.

[@patrickel94]

@@lucasdolding6924 I'd like to hope so, but I just don't trust Starmer at all (I would love to be proved wrong though). It's very evident to more and more people that Neo-Liberalism does not work and there needs to be a solution to it. Lots of the core industries / facilities / utilises need to be nationalised again or at the very least heavily regulated. Sadly I think Brexit has made it more of an excuse to go down the US route..

[@TomJohnson67]

I am so ready to challenge these ideas that were bad at the time and have obviously failed, but as long as the Labour party keeps looking at the world through Thatchervision goggles, nothing will improve. She was probably more influential over the opposition than she was in her own party, and that's saying something.

[@Morning404]

Exactly. Thatetchrism totally failed.

[@SirSupremmmmmmme]

@@Morning404 how so?

[@duncancurtis5108]

We shalt not payeth ourselves more than we earn. Keep whatcha got. No such thing as society.

[@tomlevick2935]

We tried to remove the thatcher goggles, the problem was we got smeared and undermined from within.

[@owengould8696]

Could you do Tony Blair next please ?

[@GTA5Player1]

Gotta love how divisive the comments are, swinging between her being the best/worst PM

[@williamwilson8582]

One of the first things she did in 79 was to sever the earnings link to the state pension.It lead to a significant decline relative to working age incomes and a spike in poverty among the old and vulnerable . This was a sign of things to come . She sold off every public utility service in the biggest act of corporate vandalism that this country has ever seen. And the worst case of governmental dereliction of duty ever encountered . She sold public council housing this was no act of benevelance but a cynical attempt to eradicate social housing forbidding councils to use the proceeds to reinvest the proceeds on housing. She introduced Care in the Community once again no act of kindness but a money saving exercise that threw the most vulnerable in society to the wolves . The woman was a menace , her legacy lives on around us for all to see .Dickensian sights on our streets and a country at the mercy of foreign conglomerates .

[@fremes3918]

Yes but you didn’t say how, I could say Biden raising the minimum wage is bad and therefore he is financially irresponsible, but I haven’t explained how that makes him financially irresponsible.

[@williamwilson8582]

@@fremes3918 You've lost me .

[@mildlydispleased3221]

A dark period for Britain.

[@Bungle-UK]

Really? The best PM of my lifetime by a mile. Of course there were mistakes, there always are, but she left the country in a much better state than she found it.

[@mildlydispleased3221]

@@Bungle-UK She destroyed millions of jobs, sold off some of our most important assets which we are now seeing the consequences of with Thames water and our awful railways and created a lasting north-south divide.

[@maku8075]

​@@mildlydispleased3221 typical commie bullshit

[@Bungle-UK]

@@mildlydispleased3221 What exactly are these millions of jobs you talk about? I’m afraid you’re completely deluded if you think many of those heavy industries would survive today given the global competition. Economies evolve and that exactly what happened - we as a country couldn’t continue as if it was 1900 forever. The same Labour members that were desperate to save the coal industry would today be closing it down in the name of net zero. Incidentally, more pits were closed under Labour than by Mrs T. As for privatisation, she didn’t do anything with the railways - that was Major. Indeed, spending on British Rail increased under Thatcher with significant infrastructure projects and lots of new rolling stock. The selling of some industries were a great success (telecoms, British Airways etc) while some can be debated, but the real issue is poor regulation and oversight.

[@patrickel94]

@@mildlydispleased3221 Not one to defend her, but it was John Major in the 90s who privatised rail. But completely agree with you - even if there was a short term benefit for people buying their own council home and the short term economic growth, the long term damage far outweighs it. She was certain the most impactful PM in the last 50 years, but not in a positive way

[@Pikaling3408]

I do despise what she done to Britain (snatching free school milk from school children whilst she was education secretary under Ed Heath, harsh restriction of trade unions, privatisation of vital industries, deindustrialisation of Northern England, Scotland and Wales, Section 28 and last but not least Poll Tax disguised as the Community Charge especially with the implementation of it as she used Scotland as a testing ground for it) but however she was quite good on her foreign policy like Falklands War and the European Single Market and also helped free Eastern Europe from Soviet influence so I do give her credit for that. But however I do despise her really for what she done to Britain. Hated at home but loved abroad really.

[@politicoteacher]

They won't. *Responding to an edited comment*

[@ayindestevens6152]

@@politicoteacherwon’t what?

[@politicoteacher]

@@ayindestevens6152 The OP suggested Labour might reverse her legacy, but the post has been edited.

[@ayindestevens6152]

@@politicoteacherperhaps they will be able to but the devil is in the details. I’m from the states but did study in the UK so I’m familiar with some of Thatcher and other UK PMs. Besides over here we’re STILL dealing with Reaganism and it’s hell.

[@Bungle-UK]

She isn’t hated by everyone by any stretch, just the lefties who use her as a bogeyman. The reality is that trade union reform was long overdue and needed implementing, and deindustrialising was an inevitable consequence of globalisation and poor British productivity, made worse by that union influence. That said, not having an effective plan B for affected areas was a mistake. She left Britain in a better place than she found it, at home and abroad.

[@jamescraft2976]

Thatcher and Blair.....exhibit A and B on why PR needs to replace the first past the post system.

[@duncancurtis5108]

Liked and loathed in equal measure but every Tory PM has tried to copy her. Dad found her coarse and rude with everyone, lacking manners in her pushy determination to be tops.

[@georgeund7533]

Crucially, a lot of the sold off industries are now in de facto closed markets as the investment required to create a new company and necessary infrastructure in industries such as rail, gas, energy, water is so great that companies in those industries enjoy local monopolies with no competition. Not very much insight on their part, with great fiscal knowledge of back then, but like always, no planning for the future.

[@CashelOConnolly]

EVIL 🧙🧙

[@FlameReturns]

surprised you didn’t mention the falklands

[@politicoteacher]

I did

[@thomasbachrach]

"Mrs Thatcher set out to create a country in the image of her father, and ended up creating one in the image of her son."

[@platexproductions]

This was pretty negatively skewed in tone - the things she achieved + the Falklands felt glossed over, while the problems / divisive issues were highlighted…

[@politicoteacher]

Thatcher is a divisive PM for good reason. I was as balanced as I could be, whilst offering a political analysis.

[@maku8075]

​@@politicoteacherno u were just bullshit labor party propaganda

[@platexproductions]

@@politicoteacher I feel like you could have been a bit more balanced than this, to be fair - unless you’re foaming on the bit against Thatcher. Your election videos are great.

[@politicoteacher]

I am a socialist, so, yes, I'm not a fan... Although I have gone on a political journey. In my youth, I was a Thatcherite.

[@matthewharrison6345]

@@platexproductionsa balanced view of Stalin would also lead to more negative coverage, because there was more bad than good. That’s how balance works

[@stevev238]

Best we ever had. More people owned their own homes, were able to start their own business with less unnecessary paperwork, had a stake in the company they were working for. We stopped being the "Sick man of Europe"

[@jammyjamzz]

🎶Evil Woman🎶

[@FourLionsClips]

i disagree

[@Bungle-UK]

A great PM who was exactly what we needed at that time; the last truly radical leader we’ve had. Sadly she stayed too long - should have gone at the 10 year mark.

[@Morning404]

You must be a delusional tory voter 😂😂

[@Bungle-UK]

@@Morning404 do explain what you consider to be delusional?

[@dominicchallis2928]

@@Bungle-UKWatch the video.

[@Bungle-UK]

@@dominicchallis2928 I have. What’s your point?

[@FourLionsClips]

@@Bungle-UK i've seen you somewhere..

[@oliveradams8711]

13:59 That wasn't 'infamous', it was dead right!

[@rogermoore-gd9do]

The mother of us all.

[@ivandinsmore6217]

The day the party ousted her was the day Britain died.

[@ce017]

What she did was needed at the time. We have since koved on from the left right dicotomy, the new battle ground is the nation vs globalism