Five progressive things done by the governments of Margaret Thatcher

Good Society

There are plenty of things Margaret Thatcher did which progressives are right to have opposed. Support for Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet abroad, the casual disregard her government showed to the unemployed at home, the emasculation of local government and the introduction of Section 28.

There are plenty of things Margaret Thatcher did which progressives are right to have opposed. Support for Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet abroad, the casual disregard her government showed to the unemployed at home, the emasculation of local government and the introduction of Section 28 to name but a few.

She also brought in a few progressive measures, though. Here are five:

  1. The abolition of corporal punishment. Under Margaret Thatcher’s government corporal punishment was abolished in 1986. Mrs Thatcher did not vote herself (she was entertaining Nancy Reagan at the time),  and several pro-caning Tory MPs missed the commons vote – which was won by 231 votes to 230 – because they were stuck in traffic caused by preparations for the wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, which took place the following day.

  2. Took action on HIV/AIDs. It was the government of Margaret Thatcher which started the fightback against the spread of HIV/AIDS, launching a number of campaigns to draw attention to the spread of the disease and promote safe sex as the 1980s epidemic gained ground. Mrs Thatcher had serious misgivings about mounting a campaign at all – she wanted the traditional family to be reclaimed as the backbone of British life, therefore any “deviant” behaviour was to be condemned – but her government broke the ice in talking about sex – safe sex.

  3. Took climate change seriously. For some Margaret Thatcher was a climate change pioneer. Mentioning climate change at the Royal Society in 1988, she told scientists that climate change warranted government action to diminish pollution and promote sustainable development. She also threw her weight behind global efforts to phase out CFCs.

  4. Promoted European intergration. Despite the Conservative Party’s strained relationship with Europe, Margaret Thatcher signed Britain up to the Single European Act, which created the European single market, signaling greater European integration by making it easier to pass laws, strengthening the EU Parliament and laying the basis for a European foreign policy.

  5. Liberated the Falklands from a fascist junta. Despite her uncomfortably close relationship with Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and the fact that she denounced Nelson Madela’s African National Congress as terrorists, Margaret Thatcher sent British forces halfway around the world to defend the self-determination of the islanders against an aggressive government of the far right.

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54 Responses to “Five progressive things done by the governments of Margaret Thatcher”

  1. sonteipheap

    Sun and Mail readers hold your views my friend. You are deluded.

    And you claim that Thatcher wasn’t jingoistic is a blatant rewrite of history. She wrapped herself in the flag and used that bloody war as justification for her attacks on the entire working class, even describing nurses and miners as “the enemy within.

  2. Jeremy Cooper

    Yes.

  3. Jeremy Cooper

    So have Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pol Pot …

  4. salamisausage

    heap,

    Thatcher was the saviour of the working
    class, liberating them from the tyranny of the union mandarins,
    giving them the chance to buy their council houses, selling-off
    the decrepit state-run industries and stimulating
    entrepreneurship that led to increased employment opportunities.
    Her free-market philosophy, rescuing the British economy, has
    generated wealth and employment opportunities for all who are
    not indolent.

    Major beneficiaries of her policies were the
    Scots. When she came to power, the Scottish economy was
    languishing even more than the rest of Britain. Scotland had
    the lowest percentage of owner-occupation than the rest of
    Britain, lower even than in Soviet Russia. By 1990, when she
    left office, the Scottish economy had made an even stronger
    recovery than the rest of Britain and owner-occupation
    represented 64% of the Scottish housing stock.

    Heap, don’t let the truth get in the way of your
    myths.

  5. salamisausage

    Victor, Please be more specific about your Mystic Meg predictions. Are women’s rights now to be respected in Argentina? Will the country appoint a rational president who will rescue the economy? Will the Argentines stop trying to colonise small islands? Will all the stolen children be returned to their families? Will the criminals who dropped people from planes into the sea be arrested and prosecuted?
    I think we should be told.

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