To what extent did Thatcherism actually exist?

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Q. To what extent did Tchatcherism acvtually exist?

"Thatcherism" is the system of political thought attributed to the governments of Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990. Thatcher was unusual among late twentieth century British Conservative Prime Ministers in that she was a highly ideological leader - she once slammed a copy of Friedrich Hayek's The Constitution of Liberty down on a table during a Shadow Cabinet meeting, saying, "This is what we believe."

"Thatcherism" is characterised by decreased state intervention via the free market economy, monetaris economic policy, privatisation of state-owned industries, lower direct taxation and higher indirect taxation, opposition to trade unions, and a reduction of the size of the Welfare State. "Thatcherism" may be compared with Reaganomics in the United States, Rogernomics in New Zealand and Economic Rationalism in Australia . Thatcher was deeply in favour of individualism over collectivism, with self-help as a mantra.

I can closely associate with Thatcherism include Keith Joseph, Enoch Powell, Augusto Pinochet,Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. In an interview with Simon Heffr in 1996 Mrs. Thatcher stated that the two greatest influences on her as Conservative leader had been Joseph and Powell, "both of them very great men".

Friedman once said: "the thing that people do not recognise is that Margaret Thatcher is not in terms of belief a Tory. She is a nineteenth-century Liberal." Mrs. Thatcher believed Mr Adam Smith`s philosophy which is "Laissez faire" the economic liberalism and stated in 1983 that "We have a duty to make sure that every penny piece we raise in taxation is spent wisely and well. For it is our party which is dedicated to good housekeeping-indeed, I would not mind betting that if Mr. Gladstone were alive today he would apply to join the Conservative Party". In the 1996 Keith Joseph memorial lecture Mrs. Thatcher argued that "The kind of Conservatism which he and I...favoured would be best described as "liberal", in the old-fashioned sense. And I mean the liberalism of Mr. Gladstone, not of the latter day collectivists".Nigel Lawson, Mrs. Thatcher's Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1983 to 1989, has defined Thatcherism as:
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'Thatcherism' is, I believe, a useful term...No other modern Prime Minister has given his or her name to a particular constellation of policies and values. However it needs to be used with care. The wrong definition is 'whatever Margaret Thatcher herself at any time did or said'. The right definition involves a mixture of free markets, financial discipline, firm control over public expenditure, tax cuts, nationalism, 'Victorian values' (of the Samuel Smiles self-help variety), privatization and a dash of populism.

Points use as evidence to prove that it did and does exist....

Against the trades ...

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