That’s the argument made by David Cameron in today’s Telegraph. Mr Cameron presented Lady Thatcher with a lifetime achievement award last evening.
This is the key paragraph:
"Today we know what Thatcherism meant for our country – victory in the Cold War, victory against unbridled trade union power, the sale of council houses, the liberation of the British economy. Yet all of this was achieved gradually, by a government that knew it had to take public opinion along with it if real and lasting change was to be made."
Note the seven words we highlight. David Cameron is signalling that Margaret Thatcher didn’t rush things. She chose the timing of her fights carefully – giving the miners what they wanted at the start of her premiership, for example, and then confronting Arthur Scargill in her second term when she was prepared for the fight.
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