Margaret Thatcher's Economic Policy Case Study

Introduction
The United Kingdom (UK) had always been an economic power house of the Western world, having one of the largest empires in the 1800s, some of the strongest armies in the World Wars, including the largest and most powerful navy at one point. Although due to their large involvement in the two World Wars and the loss of its colonies the UK lost much of its economic power. The industrial production in the 1960s and 70s was at an all time low due to the trade unions taking control over many of the industrial sectors and causing them to be highly unproductive and become rendered globally uncompetitive. The inflation rate was rising at an alarming rate which furthered the weakening of the economy. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first female Prime Minister,

Although not extremely popular within her own government, she was able to take control with an iron fist and do what she believed to be best for the UK's economy, as a result of her strong stances taken and her conservative attitude towards change. Yet many people deemed Thatcher's policies and decisions to be immoral, such as the shutting down entire towns and villages which were seen as being uneconomical and no longer serving their purpose in the growth of the British economy, this left the inhabitantsof these towns and villages with nowhere to live, no jobs and no one to turn to besides the trade unions. Other people who supported Thatcher's policies saw these hard decisions as a way of strengthening the UK's economy once again, by closing down all industries that were no longer adding any value to the UK's economic growth. In hind sight it is now clear that Thatcher's policies were good for the UK's long term economic goals, setting a solid base for all further Prime ministers to build upon in order to make the UK's economy even stronger. Thus Margaret Thatcher's decisions whilst Prime Minister were indeed necessary in order to make the UK the economic power it was in the