Iron Lady or monster? Thatcher film stirs UK passions

Margaret Thatcher

LONDON, (Reuters) – No one inflames British  passions quite like Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister  whose biopic “The Iron Lady” has rekindled debate on her legacy  ahead of the film’s release yesterday.

Margaret Thatcher

Legions of admirers cast her as a pioneering politician  whose bold policies rescued Britain from economic collapse, but  equally numerous detractors see her as a heartless champion of  free market orthodoxy at the expense of the poor.

Memories of her 1979-1990 rule have come into sharper focus  for many Britons because the country is again grappling with  high unemployment, spending cuts, tensions with Europe, union  discontent and riots — all features of the Thatcher years.

“Her legacy is enormous,” said Conservative lawmaker John  Whittingdale, who was once Thatcher’s political secretary.  “She carried through policies that transformed Britain and  indeed Britain’s relationship with the world, which will never  be reversed and nor would anyone contemplate reversing them.”

He cited Thatcher’s role in ending the Cold War through her  alliance with then U.S. President Ronald Reagan, which along  with her successful prosecution of the 1982 Falklands war with  Argentina, bolstered British authority on the world stage.

Thatcher’s admirers also credit her with turning around,  through privatisations and deregulation, what they saw as a  quasi-socialist British economy in steep decline and at the  mercy of powerful unions when she first took office.

Her detractors point to the bitter and violent strikes when  she took on the coalminers’ union in 1984, riots in 1990 over  her wildly unpopular Poll Tax, and swathes of industrial Britain  abandoned to long-term unemployment and decline.

Her tenure became synonymous with the rise of the “yuppie”  and a greedy, individualistic capitalist culture that many blame  today for Britain’s economic woes and lack of social cohesion.

“The legacy of Margaret Thatcher was one of division and  conflict and the political encouragement of the ‘greed is good’  culture at the root of the banking crisis we are all paying a  heavy price for today,” said Bob Crow of the RMT rail union.

In a sign of her continuing ability to stoke controversy,  more than 24,000 people have signed a tongue-in-cheek petition  pushing for any state funeral for Thatcher to be privatised.

“This unique opportunity is an ideal way to cut government  expense and further prove the merits of liberalised economics  Baroness Thatcher spearheaded,” the petition reads.

Thatcher is now 86, frail and suffering from dementia.

“FEMINISM IS POISON”

Thatcher’s power to polarise makes it difficult for those  trying to give a balanced account of her time in office.