Thatcher is a get-out clause, says historian

A historian has argued that the 1980s would have been the same even if Margaret Thatcher “had fallen under a bus”.

Academic Dominic Sandbrook, who has previously examined the 1960s in his book White Heat and the 1970s in books including State Of Emergency and Mad As Hell, has turned his attention to the 1980s for a documenta- ry series. Sandbrook said: “It would be easy to talk about the ‘60s without mentioning Harold Wilson, the ‘90s without John Major. But the ‘80s without Thatcher? Unthinkable. Whether you love or loathe her, she dominates the story.”

However, Mrs Thatcher did not have the impact people thought she did, Sandbrook has argued.

“I think that if Thatcher had fallen under a bus in 1979, the story of ‘80s Britain would have been much less different than we think,” he said. “Mass unemployment, conflict in the coal mines, even wine bars and shoulder pads were probably all coming anyway.

“The truth is that the Iron Lady has become a convenient get-out, a way for the rest of us to pretend we live in a country that somebody else made.”

The 80s With Dominic Sandbrook starts on Thursday, August 4 on BBC2 at 9pm.