On Reforms
Thatcher wanted to see improvements in the quality of education. Grammar and spelling were major problems for the British student. She believed a strong national curriculum would help. She also wanted to reward teachers who were graded positively and punish poorly graded teachers. Thatcher believed in measurement targets and empirical data as a valuable tool for determining success in education. Education was by no means completely reformed. The success was moderate: Thatcher wanted continued improvement. Housing was adjusted. The NHS spending increased 40% in less than a decade in office. Thatcher rejected pressure to put more money into the healthcare system. Thatcher laments the Scottish question of devolution. The Scottish Tories were very weak during her tenure. The 1987 election saw southern England vote Tory but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland split the vote.

On Family, Arts, The Environment, Privatization
Thatcher believes the BBC produces sub par material most of the time. She believes that the arts should be promoted. But whenever the state is too involved with a project it inevitably withers away, according to Thatcher. Crime is caused by a lack of family not by poverty as socialists believe. Socialists are wrong. Family needs to be protected at all costs. The Family was disintegrating in British life during the 1980s. Father’s who abandoned their children lead to a lower standard of living. Such abandonment has horrible ramifications. Thatcher believed that climate change was an emerging concern in society. She spoke about it in a speech. She was unsure of the cause but saw that scientific facts were mounting against polluters, and was convinced that future Prime Ministers would be called on for a global effort to combat environmental damage. Thatcher strongly believed in privatization and tax cuts as a solution to Britain’s ills.

On The General Election of 1987 Thatcher had suffered from the Westland affair and the attack on Libya but Britain was healing economically. The Westland affair was used to show Thatcher as intransigent and a poor listener. Thatcher agrees that she will talk over timid or inarticulate arguments. Thatcher has to interrupt men whose voices they themselves love too much. Thatcher had to show that her government would espouse an open dialogue of views.

Strategy groups were formed to develop new policies. The economy, jobs, foreign affairs, defence, agriculture and NHS were the major issues. Fortunately Labour offered an anti-American defence policy, according to Thatcher. The 1986 Conservative conference was about the “Next Move Forward”. She attacked the Labour Party for wanting to dismantle the NATO nuclear umbrella. It worked as a pre-election attack. Thatcher believes that she was transforming Britain from limited ownership to popular capitalism: giving power back to the people of Britain.

NHS was a touchstone to Conservative support of the Welfare State. Thatcher wanted to bring down waiting lists although she accepted that a new cohort of aging people would cost greatly. The big issues for the election were housing, trade unions, privatization, lower taxes and local government financing. She called for giving regular citizens the kinds of public services that the rich already enjoyed. Thatcher wanted to empower not just the rich (as is implicit in her politics) but the poor as well. The soft Tory Alliance Party was a threat as a third party to the Conservative majority.

Thatcher called the Labour manifesto an ‘iceberg’ of socialism. The Conservative weak point would always be the social services, admits Thatcher. The lengthy preparations of NHS were kept until late in the campaign when it became a significant issue. Alliance shot itself in the foot when it attacked Thatcher’s strength on National Defense exposing a unilateralist position. Neil Kinnock’s massive gaffe was that he would run for the hills and prepare for a guerrilla warfare if Soviet aggression emerged: “using the resource we had to make an occupation untenable.” Thatcher attacked his weakness here stating he should not be PM taking the issue too lightly and based on his Labour party unilateral disarmament defence policy. Kinnock in the media was portrayed with crowds always where Thatcher was shown with boardrooms or factories: Britain’s industrial/innovative future. The Labour Party was talking about white flags, guerrilla fighting while Thatcher pounced on this weakness to suggest that her defence policy was superior. This was the major focus of the 1987 campaign. Thatcher won with a reduced majority of 102 seats. Conservatives gained a third convincing majority.

On Hong Kong, Israel, South Africa
Hong Kong was set to be returned to China in 1997. Thatcher accepted this but wanted to entrench strong democratic values and economic strength to influence China’s communist government into liberalizing elsewhere. She wanted to change China when Hong Kong became part of that country. Thatcher was open about her intentions. She wanted China to recognize the economic superiority of the Western market. The US was most responsible for the establishment of Israel. Thatcher believes that Britain was build on Judaeo-Christian values. Britain stays balanced between Palestine and Jewish influence on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

South African segregation was part of a tradition that Thatcher effectively supported. She did not want to abandon SA because of the racial violence occurring there. She felt the policy reflected the hierarchical values of that society. Brian Mulroney attempted to push for the exclusion of SA from the Common Wealth, Thatcher felt he was posturing. Thatcher didn’t want to give Mulroney her negotiating hand because concessions often get pocketed if revealed inappropriately.