Thatcher damaged U.K.

Re: “The Iron Lady transformed Britain; Polarizing PM led U.K. for 11 years,” the Journal, April 9. While many articles will try to rehabilitate former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, others will explain the loathing she still elicits.

It speaks volumes that articles in the Guardian newspaper warn against having a state funeral for her. Despite the lapse of so much time there remains a risk of violent protests.

Thatcher’s doctrine, based on monetarism, led to the destruction of 20 per cent of manufacturing between 1979 and 1981. It caused greater destruction than the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War and drove unemployment to more than three million.

The creed of monetarism or Thatcherism elevates greed and egotism to a principle. Its philosophy is everyone must grab as much as they can regardless of the consequences. The elite are praised while the poor are condemned as undeserving, lazy and indolent.

The policies of Thatcherism have played no small part in reducing the U.K. economy to its present fragile state. It has become a place of anxiety for the vast majority of people with a huge decline in jobs, wages and living standards.

A debt is owed to ordinary decent working people who fought to save jobs and communities. It is a debt that can only be paid by continuing to fight Thatcherism. Keith Norman Wyatt, Innisfail