Brexit has been fought for and won by many who see themselves as the true children of Margaret Thatcher. The ones who have finally achieved what she wanted and in the process destroyed those who ended her career. But how Thatcherite are they, because many of their policies seem to be the opposite of Thatcherism?
For a start, and I am happy to stand corrected on this, she never called for the UK to leave the EU.
Then Michael Gove says new red tape on trade with the EU is good because it means British industry will get better at form filing. I am certain that one wasn’t in the Iron Lady’s rule book.
Calls for the UK population to eat more turnips and less imported food, are not Thatcherism; she was many things but not a survivalist. She certainly believed in British exporting and importing to its advantage, as has every one since Ricardo really. Its difficult to think anything else when you live a in a country where 40% of people would starve to death if you stopped importing.
Finally we have all those claims that the UK has left the EU so it can massively subsidise domestic industry and the creation of a new Government body to invest in risky science and tech firms. Picking winners it used to be called.
Next we be hearing that Margaret Thatcher wanted to leave the EU in order to reopen the coal mines and the ship yards, which had, of course, been closed down by Brussels bureaucracy.
https://jonty.substack.com/
Mrs Thatcher was a lady of her time and the World has moved on in a different direction since then. So yes Remainers and Leavers may be able to make just cause to their ownership of her legacy. She was a pragmatist and fought battles with her handbag she believed that she could win. "I want my money back" was a battle cry I recall - well the only way that could be fully delivered was by leaving.
She won some good battles but the EU wanted greater integration than the UK was willing to participate in, she was very uncomfortable with a reunited Germany.