That was my recollection, but looking at plots of real GDP per capita and debt/GDP, I'm not seeing any substantive changes associated with the Thatcher years. Is there any metric where it pops?
It looks like under Thatcher got inflation under control, unemployment rose, then fell (similar to the US during the same time period) and the economy had a run of growth from '81 to '90 that peaked near 5%.
Not too shabby when you look at the 10 years prior when inflation was 25% and the economy shrank from '74-76.
Britain was regarded as a "sick man of Europe" before Thatcher took office.
1970-1979, unemployment was mostly below 5%. It was about 7% after it "fell" post-Thatcher, when it started rising again in 1991. It then fell again, finally getting back to pre-Thatcher levels only sometime post 2000 - where it stayed until the 2009 crash.
"[T]he economy had a run of growth from '81 to '90 that peaked near 5%.
"Not too shabby when you look at the 10 years prior when inflation was 25% and the economy shrank from '74-76."
That's pretty cherrypicky. Let's get a slightly broader view:
The economy shrank from '74-'76; it also shrank '79-'81 and '90-'91. The years '71-'80 peaked in '73 at over 7% growth (for which the '74-'76 slump may well have been a correction). I'm not sure I'd call it shabby, but I'm not sure it's great, especially with the high unemployment rate.
'Britain was regarded as a "sick man of Europe" before Thatcher took office.'
I'm aware of the perception, and the shifts therein. I was curious as to the accuracy of it.
I don't think, that such figures as economic growth and inflation rate are the only and best methods to evaluate the results of a specific politic.
What is the impact on the people and the state in general? Which factors are also important in this time.
The thing is, that economic bad times change with better times -- even with no change at all in politics. To consider every time a success of the leading party is often times just statistical brainwashing.
The Germans also had a bigger raise in economy with the opposite politics.
Also look how the long term results are, since the Thatcherian politics are still followed by the successors. The privatization of many areas like railway and water services resulted in worse quality of service. Also the UK today has nearly killed of all its industry base. Instead they have only left their banks, so they are largely susceptible now to blackmail of this sector, that is the reason why the banking sector can not be reorganized in Europe, since it is blocked by the veto of the British.
What is left is a poor leftover of capitalism.
Of course it is white-washed by statistical figures that always skip the negatives, since the advocates of unregulated capitalism want to prove their point.
