The previous few months had been called the "Winter of Discontent," as per Shakespeare's "Richard III" - and it was grim, very grim indeed.
There were pickets at ports, oil refineries and manufacturers of essentials; gas supplies were disrupted and gas stations closed. Ambulance drivers went on strike - not responding to emergency calls in many areas. Hospital support staff (not doctors) decided whom to admit, and if people died, so be it. The trash collectors and gravediggers went on strike, so garbage and coffins piled up.
There were food shortages. British Rail issued the shortest press release ever: "There are no trains today." Pregnant women were denied medical services. Disabled people's homes were blockaded. Trolleys carrying meals to old people were smashed.
Britain lay 19th out of 22 on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's league table. The French ambassador said we were suffering "degringolade" or falling-down sickness; the West German ambassador said we had the economy of East Germany. We had enjoyed double-digit inflation for five of the past six years, with an average of 16 percent and a high of 24 percent.
It lasted from Jan. 3, 1979, to March 28, 1979, when the socialist government fell. The ensuing election on May 3, 1979, propelled Margaret Thatcher into Number 10 Downing Street the following day. She was to live there for 11 1/2 years, followed by six years of John Major. So what happened between 1979 and the advent of Tony Blair in 1997?
Mrs. Thatcher's earliest bold move was to suspend exchange controls, to free the pound. The British no longer had to go, passport in hand, to beg their bank managers for foreign currency.
She abolished a raft of price and dividend controls, limits on hire purchase, office-development permits, pay controls and industrial-development certificates. Twenty-one bleak, rundown areas - victims of municipal socialization by both parties - were transformed as Enterprise Zones - areas of much lighter regulation and taxation.
Economic policy changed to using interest rates and monetary policy to control inflation and taxing spending rather than income.
Mrs. Thatcher faced down 364 economists who wanted her to reflate and bring back wage-and-price controls. When archsocialist Michael Foot waved the 364 in her face across the despatch box and challenged her to name two who supported her, she snapped: "Patrick Minford and Alan Walters." In the car heading back to Number 10 Downing Street, she confided: "Thank goodness he did not ask for three!"
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