Volume 30, Number 12 · July 21, 1983
Mrs. Thatcher's New England
By Peter Jenkins
The Changing Anatomy of Britain
by Anthony Sampson
Random House, 476 pp., $17.95
Until Mrs. Thatcher's recent victory, no prime minister since Lord Salisbury in 1900 had won an election, served a full term, and then been reelected. And these should be hard times for incumbents. Since the period of postwar prosperity came to its abrupt end in 1973, no Western leader has made it back to power with the exception of Helmut Schmidt, and the coalition that he led collapsed within two years. During Mrs. Thatcher's four-year regime, unemployment increased from 5.4 percent to 13.9 percent. (That would be about 16 percent, as unemployment is measured in the US.) Nevertheless she routed her opponents.
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