Time 23Mar2020

(Frankie) #1
1982 | IRON LADY

MARGARET

THATCHER
BY BILLY PERRIGO

The decades afTer The second
World War were a chastening time for the
U.K. The once mighty British Empire lost
most of its colonies, and despite steadily
rising living standards, the British econ-
omy was no longer the global steam en-
gine it had once been.
So in 1982, when Prime Minister Mar-
garet Thatcher led a successful military
campaign to defend one of the last of Brit-
ain’s overseas outposts, the Falkland Is-
lands, from an Argentine attack, it stirred
a swell of patriotism, reigniting the war-
time spirit, especially for her Conserva-
tive Party’s elderly voters. The following
year those voters rewarded Thatcher with
a massive parliamentary majority, which
she used to unleash a free- market revo-
lution. She slashed the size of the Brit-
ish state, deregulated the economy, sold
off dozens of state-owned industries and
cut taxes with the proceeds. Many be-
came rich as a result of her reforms, but
inequality increased substantially too.
The rift she created in British society
still cuts deep. But nobody disputes her
position as one of Britain’s most influen-
tial Prime Ministers of the 20th century.
THATCHER ABOARD H.M.S. HERMES
AFTER ITS RETURN FROM THE
FALKLANDS WAR IN 1982

WALENTYNOWICZ: SIMON/WILDENBERG/GAMMA-RAPHO/GETTY IMAGES/POOL; EL SAADAWI: ANTHONY LEWIS—FAIRFAX MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES; THATCHER: TED BLACKBROW—ASSOCIATED NEWSPAPERS^73

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