Nick Bye: Reapprasing the legacy of controversial "iron lady"

These few words are scribbled on the eve of Margaret Thatcher's one hundredth birthday so perhaps an opportunity to reflect on her legacy.

Of course any reader who has taken a close interest in politics in Torbay (& has a good memory) might remember back in the day when the "Iron Lady" was in office as our first female Prime Minister, Yours Truly wasn't exactly a supporter and stood in the 1987 General Election as the Liberal/SDP Alliance candidate. I was quite proud of my 20,209 votes although some way behind Rupert Allason's 29,029.

Those were the days when Torbay was known affectionately by some as "Tory Bay" & votes might have been weighed rather than counted. Indeed the greatest excitement was whether Torbay would be the first seat to declare & it was often a race with Sunderland to see who would win the prize. For Torbay it was thought the national publicity would be a boost for tourism although I am not sure folk really would choose their holiday destination on the basis of how quickly votes got counted.

For the candidates it meant being thrust into the limelight for a few moments before there were any other results to discuss & interviewed by the BBC I remember suggesting the "Alliance" with two leaders, David Steel & David Owen, hadn't worked very well & caused some confusion amongst the electorate. The two Davids as they were known were very different characters & no doubt this created some tension.

"Everyone is famous for 15 minutes" according to Andy Warhol & my moment came & went 38 years ago. Some years later it got back to me that David Owen believed I had been put up to say those things by David Steel. The absolute truth is they were the first thoughts I had when someone stuck a microphone in front of me & seemed like common sense. 

As the results came in from around the country it was clear Mrs Thatcher & the Conservatives had won their third outright election victory & we were in for another period of Conservative government with a big majority. Mrs Thatcher was in her strongest position, at the height of her power although as we all now know she was brought down by her own MPs in late 1990 & replaced by John Major who went on against all the odds to win the 1992 general election.

If only Mrs Thatcher had known when to leave the stage she would have avoided the tearful farewell from Downing Street. Ten years in office would have been a remarkable achievement for anyone but perhaps there's a little something inside all of us who hold office, however minor the role, nagging away & believing there's always something more to be done ....

Born in 1925, brought up over the corner shop, with strong beliefs about the necessity of hard work & self reliance, there are things which continue to stand out & form a distinct legacy, regardless of whether you go along with all Margaret Thatcher's thoughts & deeds.

First, she was determined to reverse the UK's decline. Through the 1960s & 70's we were very definitely the "Sick Man of Europe" plagued with strikes, industrial decline & lower rates of growth than other major countries. We were falling further behind in all sorts of ways & I can remember how genuinely upset my grandfather was when Denis Healey had to ask for a multi billion loan from the IMF to bail us out during the 1976 Sterling crisis. This seemed for him & many people an absolute low point, a national disgrace.

It is interesting to note during much of the 1970's net migration was negative. People were voting with their feet: in the mid 1970's in particular more people were leaving the UK than settling here from abroad. Given current controversies I have often thought you have got a REAL problem with migration when the boats are going in the other direction. 

Before Margaret Thatcher it seemed to many people political leadership was all about managing decline. You could be in no doubt she wanted to reverse that decline.

The second point to make is the absolute clarity of Margaret Thatcher's "vision". Even in her early days in opposition she spelt out in very simple terms what her beliefs were & made clear what she would do in government. Two expressions have stood the test of time for me: there's no such thing as government money, only money which people have paid in tax or the government has borrowed; & famously (& something Liz Truss learned to her cost) "you can't buck the markets".

This outlook is as relevant now as it has ever been & as relevant in the Town Hall as in Westminster.

Government debt is now eye watering, resulting in higher longer term interest rates than would otherwise be the case, suffocating growth & a massive obstacle for investment. There's always a risk the markets will stop lending.

In the current year it is expected the interest charge on our ever increasing national debt is expected to be in EXCESS of £110 BILLION Pounds. It's simply unsustainable yet all parties from extreme left to far right continue to promise further "give aways" of one sort or another to win over the electorate. Are we really so stupid?

The third point to make is her fundamental belief in the individual & the importance of self reliance. She believed in opportunity, setting the right conditions to support businesses, lower taxes (eventually) & famously championing the right for people to buy their own homes. 

I accept the "right to buy" policies which enabled tenants to purchase their own council houses has left a much smaller stock of affordable housing. It's ironic when Torbay Council purchased thirty seven properties to serve as temporary accommodation for those in the greatest housing need a couple of years ago, some of those houses were former council houses bought back at ten times the price they had been sold for perhaps thirty years ago!

But hindsight is a wonderful thing & the vision of the time was to extend home ownership so more people had a stake in the prosperity of the country. The huge post war council estates now seem like a distant memory, with every house looking the same, every front door the same colour. The first thing people invariably did when they bought their council house was to buy a new front door. It's sad to reflect home ownership rates in the UK have actually fallen in recent years & home ownership can only be an aspiration for many younger people.

Of course it's a mistake to look to the legacy of someone who left office 35 years ago for the answers to today's problems. But there are enduring themes: clarity of vision, determination to reverse decline, sound money & the fundamental belief in the individual rather than the state to deliver prosperity which all still seem relevant to me.