Thatcher's 80th Birthday

They celebrated the 80th birthday last night of
Margaret Thatcher, the other half
of the tag team of Reagan and Thatcher. She was a scholarship girl, daughter of the corner
grocer who went to Cambridge University and then into national politics.

Her great life achievement was to turn Britain away from the disastrous expert-led death
spiral of the 1970s when the economy was utterly devastated by political power and rent-seeking,
all in the name of social progress and compassion.

Now she is 80 and we all live in the afterglow of her hard-won achievements. The success of the
New Labour Blair government is based on the continuing good economic growth that was founded
in the hard years of 1979-1984.

But the hard truth is that, while the British Conservative Party solved the economic problem of
productivity in the private sector the British Labour Party under Tony Blair has failed to solve
the economic problem of productivity in the public sector. And that is too bad for the British people.

It is said that you only get strong leaders when you need them. At least, the Anglosphere seems to
throw up strong leaders in a time of need. The British certainly got their strong leader
when they needed one in Margaret Thatcher, and just in the nick
of time.