BOOK REVIEW.

TITLE: THE DOWNING STREET YEARS.

AUTHOR: MARGARET THATCHER.

PUBLISHER: HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHERS.

NO.OF PAGES: 914.

Mrs. Margaret Thatcher came to power after the fall of James Callaghan’s government. She so disdained labor governments that she hoped there would not be another labor government in future. From this side of history we know that her wish did not come true.

The book opens with the dramatic ‘no confidence’ vote that granted victory to the Tories. Ironically, Mrs. Thatcher would also get hounded out of office in similar circumstances. In a manner akin to a work of fiction, the book closes with the heightened politics of the end of reign if one of the most influential politicians in modern history.

Before she ascends to the Downing Street office, Britain had experimented with democratic socialism. She feels that that form of government was a complete failure in every way. By the end of 1979, Britain was described as ‘the sick man of europe’ in view of the high inflation, high unemployment, low productivity and a very low national morale.She brought to the office not only capitalism,free markets, and trade union reforms but also strong defense and economic rejuvenation.

It is in that vein that Mrs. Thatcher earned the epithet ‘iron lady’. In her reign, she led Britain to two wars; the Falklands war and the gulf war. Britain won the Falklands war. She was not in office long enough to see the conclusive end of the gulf war.

One won’t fail to realize Mrs. Thatcher’s penchant for foreign travel. The then prime minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew described her program of international visits as ‘absolute madness’.

With Madam Thatcher you attend the tough negotiations with China for Hong Kong, you marvel at Japan’s technological growth, you visit India, Sri-Lanka, Malaysia an Indonesia all in quick succession. You encounter the high and the mighty from the five continents from the eyes of an insider.

A significant portion of the book deals with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the negotiations leading to the creation of the European Union. There is a lot of debate over ‘single currency’ as opposed to ‘common currency’.

Sometimes her world gets rather treacherous. In 1984, a bomb exploded at the Brighton Grand Hotel at around 2.54 am. The hotel was hosting the conservative party conference. The prime Minister and her entourage were accommodated in the hotel. She escaped unhurt but several of her staff got serious injuries. A few died in the incident. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was blamed for the atrocities.

The IRA had single out the prime minister for assassination on 5^th may 1981.On this day, one of the leaders of the IRA at Maze prison had died in a hunger strike seeking special treatment while in prison since he and his colleagues were political prisoners. Mrs. Thatcher in her characteristic way would not bow to the pressure. Up to eighteen prisoners died in hunger strikes.

By the time she is voted Prime Minister for the third time in a row, she has revamped the economy of Great Britain and is now set to concentrate on the social aspects of life This was to spawn the term ‘social thatcherism’ as she developed policies for housing, education, local authorities and social security.She goes ahead to give ideas on such issues as ‘individuals and communities’, ‘The family’, ‘The Arts’, ‘Broadcasting’ and ‘The environment’.

The book comes out as a handy textbook of political science, International studies and economics. It is rather voluminous but there was no other way that such a rich narration could have been condensed into a smaller tome.The writer is a skilled story teller and possesses a much appreciated sense of humour. You won’t fail to notice her attention to detail.

Eighteenth Century statesman and Prime Minister of Britain Chatham (1766-1768) once remarked; “I know that I can save this country and that no one else can.” Modesty prohibits Mrs. Thatcher from prevailing on a similar conviction. However, the confidence and the agility with which Mrs. Thatcher exercises her mandate tells you that she must have believed that she was the woman of the moment. She may have been born for such a reason as to lead Britain into triumph in the cold war era.

©Sammy Frank is a Chemistry teacher in Kenya. He is currently (March 2011) a student for Msc. Chemistry at The University of Mysore, India. All rights reserved.