By now, Margaret Thatcher has been Prime Minister for 3 years. The UK was in deep recession caused by the government’s policies of spending cuts and pursuance of monetarism to reduce inflation. Furthermore, in order to curtail Union Power, the government saw that not only there was a need to reform labour laws, but also made a concerted effort to move from a manufacturing economy to a services economy. As a result unemployment rose from 5.3% in 1979 and peaked at 11.9% in 1984 (over 3 million people out of work). The government determination to break union power culminated in the confrontations with and the breaking of the miners’ strike in 1984. The North-South divide has now sharpened, as the North suffered mass unemployment and many people moved south seeking better opportunities. That included me as I moved from Manchester to London becoming a systems analyst in the burgeoning IT industry.
1982 is however remembered for the Falklands war as a result of Argentina invading the Falklands Islands. As ever, young men lives were lost. In the fighting that followed, 655 Argentine and 255 British servicemen lost their lives. Political leaders play for high stakes in war games. The losers – the Argentine junta -were immediately removed from power, while Margaret Thatcher basked in the glory of victory. For me there was one honourable politician and that was Lord Carrington. He was Foreign Secretary when the Falkland Islands were invaded. He took full responsibility for the complacency and failures in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to foresee this development and resigned. Ministerial resignations in such circumstances are rare.
In the Middle East, after a relative lull in mid 1970s, things were looking ominous. The western media suddenly turned against the west old ally, the Shah of Iran. This in my experience is a cue for a regime change. This same western media behaviour, we will later witness with regards to removing Saddam Hussain and Muammar Gaddafi from power. The Shah fled Iran and Ayatollah Khomeini assumed power in Feb 1979. With Saddam becoming Iraq’s president in July 1979, it was inevitable that these two characters will clash taking both nations down with them. The Iraq-Iran war started in Sep 1980. It was to go on for 8 years with a massive loss of life and enormous economic damage. Neither country kept, nor is willing to publish authenticated causality figures. It is however estimated that 300,000 Iraqis and 600,000 Iranians were killed. The economic damage is thought to be well in excess of $500 billion on either side. There was no doubt no willingness on the part of Western or Middle Eastern countries to mediate to put an end to this senseless war. But I guess they were happy to see these two countries, with great human and economic potential slowly destroy each other.
Was there at the end of the war any advantage? None whatsoever, both parties went back to the old borders. The futility of war!