John Redwood: A woman who cut free from the past and inspired voters

I would just remind Margaret Thatcher’s critics that she won three General Elections with large majorities. Everything she did was approved by Parliament – and subject to challenge in Parliament by the opposition of the day.

The main opposition to her later had 13 years with large majorities of their own when they could overturn or correct anything they did not like from her past actions.

She did not cause the banking crash of 2007-8, the deep recession of 2008-9, nor the decline of industry of the last decade. The whole financial regulatory framework was changed by the new government in 1997. The Labour government chose not to renationalise privatised industries, not to restore free milk in schools (which they had taken away from secondary pupils), not to change most of the new union laws, and not to put the income tax rates back up.

When Margaret Thatcher said that she did not expect a woman Prime Minister in her lifetime, she was being both characteristically modest, and realistic. In the early 1970s, politics was largely a man’s world. There were no female role models of great prime ministers or presidents to turn to.

Her bravery and confidence shone through in the 1975 leadership election. Tory MPs did the unthinkable, and chose her as their leader.

At the beginning, Margaret Thatcher relied heavily on Sir Keith Joseph, a Leeds MP, as an intellectual adviser as he sought to change his own thoughts – and the thoughts of the whole party and nation – away from the failed state interventions, the price controls, the enforced nationalisations, the money printing of the Heath era.

She also, on advice, adopted strong words on the international stage, fearing that a woman would be seen as a soft touch or someone likely to change her mind under pressure. The Iron Lady image was carefully constructed to tackle what some men thought of as the “woman problem”. Maybe they overdid it a bit.

When she got into office she needed to create a new language, wardrobe and behaviour for a Prime Minister who was a mother of two and very feminine in many of her ways. There is no female uniform for being Prime Minister, in the way there is a male uniform of suits, ties, DJs and morning coats for special occasions. There was no previous experience of how to combine being a mother with the top office in the land, or how to involve your husband without people saying he had too much influence.

After the first reshuffle and the decisive 1981 Budget, she overcame the early wobbles and the plots of many in the party for change at the top.

She developed a new style of being Prime Minister. She was very feminine in many ways, but she was respected and feared by many of her male colleagues who realised the lady was not only not for turning, but expected good performance and progress from Cabinet.

She did everything by hard work, and sought to understand and influence all the main things going on in the government she led. Some previous prime ministers had read less and done less, leaving more to individual departments.

Contrary to common belief, she was neither dogmatic nor very ideological. A person who was a keen advocate of the EEC in the 1975 referendum became a Eurosceptic by the time of the Bruges speech. A person who calculated that you could not privatise the nationalised industries in the 1970s or early ‘80s bravely pushed through a huge programme after 1983. A person who claimed to want a smaller state nonetheless battled for money for state education and the NHS and was reluctant to reform them.

I think the fact that she was 
very much a woman enabled her to cut loose from the clubbable world of the male Conservative MPs, and to speak more directly to electors.

Being a woman meant she looked different from most people’s idea of a leading politician, and was different.

Just as Elizabeth I presided 
over an incredible English renaissance, so Margaret Thatcher put the Great back into Great Britain after a decade of disaster and defeatism.

Just as Elizabeth constructed great Protestant alliances to 
keep England safe from the predatory threats of the Catholic powers, so Margaret built a stronger alliance with America to blow the cruel walls of communism down from the west just as the USSR began to realise the game was up from the east.

It could take her months to make up her mind about a new policy or preferred course of action. She would cross examine and challenge every detail of a proposal.

Her very long days were punctuated by many small 
acts of kindness and consideration, both for those in her immediate circle and for those she had 
been told about who were suffering and where government might help.