@Patricia Yeah: Thatcher was a nasty, bigoted, homophobic shitbag (I remember the whole Clause 28 mess—prefiguring today's anti-trans clampdown, only about LGBT in general—and also her resistance to AIDS mitigation). But Thatcher had simpler tools for waging class warfare. And there was still a semi-functional welfare state in those days (propped up by stolen-from-Scotland North Sea oil revenue).