Judge Gray: Lessons to Learn from Margaret Thatcher

The Functional Libertarian
April 25, 2013

As you know, Margaret Thatcher died on this past April 8 at the age of 87 after serving as Britain’s prime minister from 1979 until 1990. We owe her a debt for at least two reasons, one of them principled, and the other cautionary.

First and foremost, Ms. Thatcher took office at a time when Britain’s economy had become stagnated and inflation was rampant. This was in large part due to the government having introduced the welfare state and also having nationalized numbers of businesses, including railroads, telephone services, airlines and gas companies. In addition, labor unions were then so strong that they were in many ways dictating how companies could manage their businesses.

A story from Winston Churchill illustrates the two approaches. After one of his speeches, Churchill happened to be in a men’s room at a urinal when Clement Attlee, one of his longtime political nemeses, came in and went to a urinal right next to Churchill. Now most men know that it is an unwritten rule that, when the urinals are not crowded, you leave a space between yourself and someone else. So when Attlee moved next to him Churchill stopped his business and moved one urinal over. Attlee noticed this and said “You’re getting a bit modest in your old age aren’t you Winston?” To which Churchill responded, “I know you Clement, and whenever you see something that is big, private and works well, you always try to nationalize it.”

Margaret Thatcher reversed much of the government’s intrusion into the marketplace. In so doing, she often quoted the words of Abraham Lincoln that “You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong; You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift; You cannot help the wage-earner by pulling down the wage payer.” That is the principled lesson she exemplified for us.

Thatcher did this by slowly but steadily causing nationalized companies to be sold back to private individuals, cutting government subsidies to businesses, reaffirming the right of businesses to manage themselves and seriously reducing government spending. In other words, she put into practice the teachings of economists like Friedrich Hayek in his book “The Road to Serfdom,” and Milton Friedman in his book “Free to Choose.” This approach directly served to balance the government’s books, reduce inflation and bring back economic strength to Britain. And it also reversed what had become known as “the ratchet effect,” in which the state is rewarded for its failures with even more power.

Along the way, naturally, Ms. Thatcher made some political enemies. These included some labor union members, as shown by the Broadway musical “Billy Elliott,” and some welfare recipients. Unfortunately, this antipathy has endured, such that some of those people displayed epic poor taste in vilifying Thatcher upon her death, and even celebrating it.

What those people fail to understand is that Margaret Thatcher was the elected prime minister, and if they did not like her approach, they had every right to attempt to vote her out of office. Furthermore, they also fail to note that the revolution of privatization, less government intrusion into the marketplace and the rewarding of risk-taking, as led by Margaret Thatcher, was so successful that it spread around the world to India, Latin America, and, after the Soviet Union fell in 1991, to Russia. And it continues to spread in many other countries to this day.

Our country should also refocus upon this lesson. Think of it this way. Today Mr. Jones, and many people like him, gets up in the morning and leaves his guard-gated community (because the government’s police have failed to keep people safe at home), drops his child off at a private school (because many government schools are failing their students), drives to work on the private toll road (because the government roads do not meet his needs), goes to his office building that has a private security staff (for the same reasons), and ships his goods by private companies like FedEx (because they outperform the government’s mail and package delivery services).

In addition, the business of private judging is rapidly expanding due to some failures of our government’s courts. This is particularly troubling because only government courts can enforce our rights under the Constitution. So the revitalization of our court system should be a high priority for us all.

Regretfully, the second lesson we can learn is quite different. As Prime Minister Thatcher became increasingly successful and powerful, she became ever more autocratic and imperial in her style. In fact, she even adopted the “Royal We” in her public speaking. In the end, she was so out of touch that her government became known as the party of the wealthy and she was kicked out of office. Regretfully, all of this caused some of her policies to be abandoned.

Thus the second lesson for us all is that even someone who believes in and implements Libertarian values to reduce the size, intrusion and cost of government can fall prey to the trappings of power. So power can corrupt anyone, even including our angels.

James P. Gray is a retired judge of the Superior Court in Orange County, California, the author of “A Voter’s Handbook: Effective Solutions to America’s Problems” (The Forum Press, 2010), and the 2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with Governor Gary Johnson for President. Judge Gray can be contacted at [email protected].