Why I Disliked Margaret Thatcher

Perhaps a good place to start is Thatcher’s labeling Nelson Mandela a “terrorist” and calling Mandela’s party, the African National Congress, “a typical terrorist organization.” Hard to believe, but true. Add to that tidbit, Thatcher refused to join the worldwide crusade against the racist apartheid regime that ruled the Republic of South Africa with an iron white fist. Those two items should be enough to deflate the bloated balloon that is the current Thatcher mania. Even worse, though, was her support for the Khmer Rouge, a political movement of monsters who murdered somewhere between one and two million Cambodians.

But not all the bad press Thatcher garnered over her lifetime was associated with her role as Prime Minister. When she was Education Secretary she eliminated the school milk program for elementary school children aged seven to eleven and was awarded her first nickname, “Thatcher the Milk Snatcher.” Needless to say, the milk program was intended to improve the nutritional condition of poor children.

Thatcher also instituted what was widely known in England as the poll tax—a tax to fund local government—that resulted in shifting the tax burden from the upper-income toward lower-income Brits  Also among her most unpopular measures was when she was instrumental in cutting the highest individual income tax rate from 83 to 60 percent while raising the lowest rate from 25 to 30 percent. To pay for those cuts, Thatcher nearly doubled the value-added tax, raising it from eight percent to 15 percent, a move that even British conservatives disliked intensely.

Here are two things you should never forget about Thatcher. She was kicked out of office by her own Conservative Party because her policies were unpalatable and unsupportable, even for conservatives. And after Thatcher was booted out of office, she became a paid consultant to Philip Morris, the tobacco company, earning $250,000 per year topped by an annual contribution from Philip Morris of $250,000 to her foundation. A fitting end to her career.