The economy continued to improve during 1983-87 and the economic liberalization policy was extended. The government began to pursue a policy of selling state assets, which together had accounted for more than 20 percent of the economy when the Conservatives came to power in 1979. The British privatization of the eighties were the first of its kind and proved influential in the world.
The sale of state assets took place by offering shares to the public, with generous terms for small investors. Thatcher's government sent a large increase in the number of people saved through the stock market. He also encouraged people to buy their homes and hire private pension policies which, over time, have greatly increased the wealth of the UK population.
He received harsh criticism from his own party's decision to allow American warplanes taking off from British bases to attack targets in Libya in April 1986. It said the government and its leader were worn, which had lasted too long.
His response was typical of her: in the Conservative Party's annual conference in October 1986, his speech spied a lot of reforms to the third Thatcher government. With the economy now very strong, expectations were well ahead of the elections and the government came back with a 101-seat parliamentary majority in June 1987.
The legislative platform of the third Thatcher government was the most ambitious ever launched by a British administration. There were measures to reform the education system (1988), introducing a national curriculum for the first time. There was a new tax system for municipalities (1989), the Community Charge, or "poll tax" as dubbed his detractors. And there was legislation to separate the buyers of the National Health Service providers (1990), opening the system to competition for the first time and the possibilities for efficient management.
The three policies were highly controversial. The Community Charge, in particular, became a serious political problem when the municipalities took advantage of this new legislation to raise taxes increase blaming Thatcher government. (The system was abandoned by the successor of Margaret Thatcher, John Major, in 1991.) However, health and education reforms remain. Successive governments have worked on this new basis and in some ways expanded.
The economy was buoyant in 1987-1988. A speech by Margaret Thatcher in Bruges in September 1988 began the process by which the Conservative Party, once overwhelmingly 'pro-European', it was predominantly a 'euro-skeptic.
"Margaret Thatcher played a role in the final phase of the Cold War both in strengthening the Western alliance against the Soviets in the early eighties and in the successful final outcome a decade later.
The Soviets had nicknamed the 'Iron Lady', a nickname he loved, for the hard line she took against them in the speech shortly after becoming Conservative leader in 1975. In the eighties, offered broad support for the defense policies of the Reagan administration.
But when Mikhail Gorbachev emerged as a potential leader of the Soviet Union, she invited the United Kingdom in December 1984 and said he was a man with whom she could treat. She did not soften his criticisms of the Soviet system, using new opportunities to address television audiences in the East to present their case against communism. Anyway, played a constructive role in the diplomacy that softened the breakdown of the Soviet Empire and the Soviet Union in the years 1989-91.
Divisions over European policy within the British government came at the end of the Cold War and then became more acute during the European unification. He resigned as Prime Minister on November 28, 1990. John Major succeeded her and served until May 1997 elections, Tony Blair won.
Margaret Thatcher remains a hugely controversial figure in the United Kingdom. Critics say his economic policies were 'hard' and 'insensitive' and hostile to the institutions of the British welfare state. Proponents highlight the transformation in economic performance in the UK over the Thatcher government and its successor. The trade union reforms, privatization, deregulation and strong anti-inflation measures, and control of public spending have created better economic prospects for the UK than it would have seemed possible when she became Prime Minister in 1979.
Both critics and fans recognize that Thatcher's leadership was a critical period in British history. Margaret Thatcher won a reputation throughout the eighties and often earned the respect of its most determined critics. In fact, its effect on the terms of political debate has been profound. Whether converted to 'Thatcherism', or simply were forced to encaramelar his constituency, the Labour Party leadership was transformed during the term of her and the politics of 'New Labour "of Tony Blair would not have existed without it.