were replaced by the politics of me and mine, deregulation and the markets and privatization of the state s assets. thatcherism gave rise to a conservative love affair across the pond. but the ardor did much to blind its lovers to reality. thatcher s brutal takedown of the unions, dismantling of the social safety net and monetary policies, helped to contain double-digit inflation and raised unemployment levels to those not seen since the great depression. the gap between those with and without opened up dramatically. on the subject of raising taxes, an anathema to modern-day conservatives, thatcher cut personal income taxes, lowering the top rate from 83% to 60%, but she simultaneously paid for those taxes by raising the national v.a.t. sales tax from 8% to 15%. and it was thatcher s institution of a regressive pole tax in 1989 that led to widespread rioting and her
a soft focus. from a guardian newspaper obituary, the iron lady was more admired abroad than at home where even many conservative voters recoiled from her apparent lack of compassion for those whose lives and careers were disrupted by her policies. maybe you would expect that criticism. even the take of the guardian more broadly today, and the overall mainstream reaction in britain today to her death is to remember margaret thatcher as an important and transformational figure in british politics. but her means of transforming that country are still debated today and are not being whitewashed today as something that her country all accepted with delight. this is the riots against her trying to impose a pole tax. earlier, some massive and violent crushes of strikes as she busted british unions. there were riots in liverpool, huge strikes in support of coal
she was perfectly prepared. she was perfectly prepared and had fierce arguments with her cabinet colleagues. sir john, did you ever feel for even a fleeting moment yourself and your fellow cabinet ministers that she was losing touch at any time with what the caucus wanted or thought was best for the country? almost railroading policy or did you feel like you were always in a fair debate and in a role of guider? i think right until very near towards the end it was a fair debate. i think margaret lost something that had always been a great characteristic of hers. for the first eight years of her premiership she was impeccable. she seemed to have a divining rod to people s instincts. in the last couple of years i think that fell away just a little, particularly over the imposition of a new tax called the pole tax where i think
privatization. but for the u.s. audience, it s interesting. i was based in london from 87 to 91 and saw that sort of end of thatcher and the pole tax year. interesting in the u.s. she s sort of bathed in a glorious light if you like, but you can t talk about her without covering her divisiveness even within her own party. the proof of the pudding she was not out of office by the voters. she might have been. but she wasn t. she turf out because her own party decided they didn t want her at the top anymore. by the way, there was not a single elected you know, it took a long, long time for conservatives to come back into power after john major up until 199 you know, it was that ability that allowed tony blair to become prime minister in 97. and he even said that we have to recognize the constructive contributions of margaret thatcher. so she s begun to have a huge
margaret thought it was a very good idea. in theory it was. but in practice it was pretty disastrous. there was a big split between margaret and the political party and the country over the question of the pole tax. but was she on an island, or was there a particular or was this her perhaps i mean, in your most indicated guess, was this perhaps the early onset of illness setting in that caused that to happen? oh, no, no, no. absolutely not. no, no. she was perfectly fit. perfectly healthy. she had formed a judgment on the policy, and i think really, it didn t often happen, but i think she made a mistake in judgment, and most people disagreed with her, and if you have won three elections, you rather expect to get your own way, and so margaret wasn t backing away from that policy, and that caused i like that. a very great fiction. i think you re right. if you win three consecutive elections and you are the first one to do so and certainly the only one to do so in that c