Margaret Thatcher’s legacy 40 years on – the thoughts of Professor Kevin Theakston
Professor Kevin Theakston has been quoted in the Yorkshire Post, looking back on Margaret Thatcher’s legacy in British Government.
Speaking to Greg Wright, Professor Theakston said: “What was remarkable, was the way in which, over her premiership, her government became more – rather than less – radical and innovative.
“The privatisation policy, for instance, was not the result of a clear blueprint drawn up in opposition, but developed piecemeal in office and built up momentum as a central and defining ‘Thatcherite’ policy only after 1983.
“In other areas, such as local government and education, increasingly radical policies were put together through the 1980s as the Government struggled to learn from experience, respond to events and keep the initiative.
“Mrs Thatcher was a dynamic force, aiming by force of will and force of personality to bury the old consensus, fill the ideological vacuum and transform the economy, society and social attitudes.”
Forty years on, she still divides opinion, but nobody can deny her place among the most powerful Prime Ministers.
