The Formation of Thatcherism and Public Perception

Hello and welcome to season seven of Origin Story, where Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey continue to explore the misunderstood ideas and people that shape our politics today. We hope you’ve enjoyed all the bonus episodes. We’re starting with a topic that’s been on our shortlist since the very beginning, and it’s a big one: Thatcherism. By that we mean Margaret Thatcher herself, born 100 years ago, and the evolution of the rather nebulous idea that bears her name. Is it a coherent ideology or the expression of a very unusual personality?

In part one we follow Thatcher from her birth in Grantham in 1925 to her triumph in the Falklands War 57 years later. We investigate the influence of her father, the Methodist grocer and local celebrity Arthur Roberts; her entry into the reformist wing of the Conservative Party at Oxford University; and her journey to becoming MP for Finchley in 1959. It’s only in the 1970s that Thatcherism really takes shape. Scarred by her vilification as the “Milk Snatcher”, and repelled by Ted Heath and the post-war consensus, she follows the likes of Enoch Powell and Keith Joseph to the right, finding intellectual ideas to match her instinctive

beliefs.

The Thatcher who becomes Tory leader in 1975 and prime minister in 1979 is more “Cautious Margaret” than “Iron Lady”, not yet allergic to advice and compromise. She even has nice things to say about Europe. But before long, she’s the most unpopular prime minister since polling began. As her radical monetarist experiment leads to recession, mass unemployment and civil unrest, she appears doomed but once she’s defeated both the Tory “wets” and Argentina’s General Galtieri, Thatcherism is unchained.

What were Thatcher’s formative influences? How did she grow to hate consensus politics and see herself as the antidote? Who were the other architects of Thatcherism? How close did she come to disaster and was it really the Falklands that saved her? And can Keir Starmer learn anything from her chaotic and unpopular first term?

Next week the story continues with the 1983 election, the miners’ strike and the Thatcherite revolution, before it all goes horribly wrong for Maggie. If you’re a Patreon, you don’t have to wait: you can hear it right now.

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Reading list

• Andy Beckett, Pinochet in Piccadilly: Britain and Chile’s Hidden History (2002)

• Andy Beckett, When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies (2009)

• Andy Beckett, Promised You a Miracle: Why 1980-82 Made Modern Britain (2015)

• Brian and Maggie, written by James Graham and directed by Stephen Frears (2025)

• Ronald Butt, Interview with Margaret Thatcher, Sunday Times (1981)

• Conservative Central Office, ‘The Right Approach’ (1976)

• Iain Dale (ed.), Memories of Margaret Thatcher (2013)

• Patrick Dunleavy, ‘The lasting achievement of Thatcherism as a political project is that Britain now has three political parties of the right, instead of one’, LSE (2013)

• Ian Gilmour, Dancing with Dogma: Britain Under Thatcherism (1992)

• Ipsos polling on the Falklands War, Ipsos (1982)

• John Harris, ‘Spare a thought for the late unlamented one nation Tory’, The Guardian (2013)

• John Hoskyns and Norman Strauss, ‘Stepping Stones’ (1977)

• Geoffrey Howe’s resignation speech (1990)

• Geoffrey Howe, Conflict of Loyalty (1994)

• The Iron Lady, written by Abi Morgan and directed by Phyllida Lloyd (2011)

• Sir Keith Joseph, ‘Notes Towards the Definition of Policy’, Conservative Research Department (1975)

• Kwasi Kwarteng et al, Britannia Unchained: Global Lessons for Growth and Posterity (2012)

... reading list continues on Patreon

Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt. Produced by Simon Williams. Music by Jade Bailey. Art by Jim Parrett. Logo by Mischa Welsh. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production

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