European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 13, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thatcher ism plus a a by Gilbert a. Lewthwaite Baltimore Suni f there is to a. One lasting physical Monument to Thatcher ism. In May Lurn out to be the Channel Tunnel Between England and France. For 50 years visionaries have dreamed of a permanent link Between the continent and this Island. But it has taken a politician with the determination vision and persuasive Powers of prime minister Margaret Thatcher to get the English to give up their historic islander status the Channel. As it is known embraces Thatcher ism s Central characteristics radicalism ambition commercial Enterprise individual Effort and new technology equally crucial to any Symbol of the age. It is being constructed without a Penny of Public Money and therefore passes the ultimate lest in the Era of privatization. Alter the $10 billion financial package Lor the Channel was put together Thatcher wrote a note of congratulations to Alastair Morton the British co chairman of the construction consortium saying Asho recalls it Well done it you can do that. I am quite sum investors can do All Toto other things that need to be done " in 1985, when Tunnel was Only on the drawing Board transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley was asked Why Thatcher was so enthusiastic about such an prime minister Margaret Thatcher poses with grandson Michael outside no. 10 Downing St., her official residence. Ambitious scheme because she is looking Lor  he replied Thatcher has virtually Lor cd a new nation out of the land she took Over in 1979 to do so she departed from the usual course of British poll is. Which had teen based on evolving and pragmatic consensus she Izas much a Radical As she is n conservative Thatcher ism is in some ways a very in Antish phenomenon says Martin Jacques editor of marxism three French Girts dressed in Bicentennial costumes stand in front of the Mouth of the French British Channel Tunnel one of the major accomplishments of the Thatcher government. Saturday. May 13, 1989 today a respected political Magazine. From the word go. Its ambition was to undermine and replace the fundamental parameters of the postwar political order with something  Dennis Kavanagh. Professor of politics at Nottingham University also notes Thatcher s departure from traditional consensus politics and says she makes the labor parly look conservative by comparison. She is a political nymphomaniac she can i Stop. She is a Workaholic this is clearly an overloaded  her tireless drive has converted a depressed Industry based Economy into a vibrant service dominated one. She has turned a waning Post Empire Power into a major world player striding the global Arena with an influence unseen in a British loader since sir Winston Churchill. She does not actually like the word Thatcher ism according to those in the know. She feels it smacks of a set of esoteric intellectual mysteries. The truth is simpler. David Willetts director of studies at the Center Lor policy studies puts it this Way what she a Ould say is the main thrust of thatch cosm is to articulate the beliefs of the average British citizen which too Many candidate members of the chattering classes wore rather embarrassed to articulate in the 1950s. 60s 70s they thought it rather mundane rather embarrassing to say. You should t live beyond your Means or you have to take responsibility Lor your own life and not wait for the stale to bail you out or jobs depend on profits what she has done is to simply revert to the truths that Are part of the experience of everyday  in so doing she has acquired the sort of Power Over the British social political and economic scene previously exercised in recent times Only by labor Leader Clement Attlee who introduced much of the welfare stale into Britain alter world War ii and by Harold Macmillan the tory prime minister who was once Able to convince Iho voters that you be never had in so  nobody looking at Iho . Economy now would argue that there Aren t Clouds on the horizon says Calverley who attributes the British economic performance As much to Low global inflation depressed Energy prices and the income from North sea Oil during the 1980s As to thatch Orite policies maybe if there is an economic Miracle it has More to do with those circumstances than with Thatcher ii the word Miracle is too Strong transformation is not things have changed a Good Deal he says one of those changes has been a dramatic boost in manufacturing productivity which has been growing Al an annual average of 33 percent through the 1980s, compared to 1 percent in the late 1970s Morton the Channel co chairman who earned Thatcher s plaudits credits the prime minister Wilh changing attitudes to investment boosting the spirit of entrepreneurship and increasing the individual responsibilities of the citizen. But he says she has not yet dropped the second shoe of her regime which is to leave something behind her that will  noting that the Basic utilities such As Power water and transportation and social services such As hospitals and schools Are All in trouble he says. Ii she does t gel this right this place will be in enormous trouble five years alter she has gone because it will be in serious economic  one initiative sponsored by Thatcher that has International approval is privatization. The Selling off of publicly owned enterprises to private Commerce there Are now More stockholders in Britain than Trade Union members privatization is nearing its end says Madsen Pine. President of the Adam Smith Institute and at the end of it we will have a society in which government is smaller less significant less important in people s lives. My Earnest Hope is that in 10 years time it will not matter who is in charge of the government " the person in charge then could even be mrs Thatcher who would be celebrating her 20lh anniversary at no. 10 Downing St. At the ago of 73, still younger than president Reagan in his Linal year in the while House the stars and stripes Page 13