We in Scotland: Thatcherism in a Cold Climate

by David Torrance

Love her or hate her, there is no escaping the impact Margaret Thatcher had on post-war Scottish politics. The 1980s are indelibly marked as the Thatcher decade, and although her first visit to Scotland just days after becoming Conservative leader in 1975 was a success, her relationship with Scots quickly turned sour. She U-turned on a long-standing commitment to establish a Scottish Assembly, and on being elected Prime Minister in 1979 Scotland found itself disproportionately affected by the decline of heavy manufacturing—a phenomenon hastened by a new economic policy dubbed monetarism. Thatcher frequently espoused the free market values of Adam Smith in an attempt to win over Scotland, while harking back to the Victorian era in which enterprising Scots thrived at home and abroad. But instead of inspiring allegiance to her dismantling of the post-war consensus, Scotland seemingly resisted most aspects of what became known as Thatcherism. Industrial decline was followed by striking miners and teachers, while Thatcher's fight back following a disastrous result in Scotland at the 1987 general election backfired spectacularly. She was shown the red card at Hampden, snubbed by the Church of Scotland after her infamous ‘Sermon on the Mound’, and accused of ‘testing’ the controversial Poll Tax on hostile Scottish guinea pigs. Since she was ousted from power in 1990, biographers and historians have been busy reassessing Thatcher's legacy, but none have focused on that legacy in Scotland. David Torrance, whose first two books on the Scottish Office and George Younger touched on these themes, has now turned his meticulous research on one of the most tumultuous decades in Scotland's recent history. Did Margaret Thatcher really care about or understand Scotland? Why did Scots apparently reject her and Thatcherism? Torrance examines this curious dynamic and confronts many myths about Thatcherism and Scotland, most notably Ravenscraig and the Poll Tax.

Genres: Scotland, Politics

320 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2009

About the author

David Torrance is Devolution and Constitution Specialist at the House of Commons Library. He was formerly a freelance writer, broadcaster and journalist, reporting on the Scottish Parliament for STV, and contributing political commentary to a wide range of publications including The Scotsman, The Herald and The Times. He is the author of several books on Scottish politics, the best known being his unauthorised biographies of Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond. He is the author of Standing up for Scotland: Nationalist Unionism and Scottish Party Politics, 1884–2014 (Edinburgh University Press, 2020) and the editor of Ruth Davidson's Conservatives: The Scottish Tory Party, 2011–19 (Edinburgh University Press, 2020) and Whatever Happened to Tory Scotland (Edinburgh University Press, 2012).

Reviews

[Gavin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was amazed that this is the only book about her reception in Scotland. Growing up during Blair, Thatcher was still by far the most famous politician in Scotland; small children knew to hate her, to sing rhymes about one of her policies.

But actually our booklessness fits - we don't really analyse why she was a demon. Adults might mutter something about the poll tax or the shipyards or the Belgrano, but in general people don't think about what she actually did, they just follow the received wisdom that she was a bloodthirsty high-heid ogre who killed jobs for fun. 

(If Malcolm Rifkind is willing to write the foreword for your book, you'd be forgiven for inferring something about its slant - and indeed MR characterises the opposition as merely disliking a bossy English woman speaking down to them in RP. This is risible, and predictably risible.)

Torrance reports the month-by-month history. He's impatient with kneejerk anti-Thatcherism, the kind which forgets her relative electoral gains in '79 and '83, which ignores the global forces of deindustrialisation which Thatcher had relatively little power over (only unused power to slow and soften the effects). There's no Tories shyer than Scottish Tories, but they're there - 29% in the last election, back up to early Thatcher levels.

She repeatedly used Scotland as a policy testing ground, in what it's fair to call naked opportunism. (Little to lose by 1989, electorally.) She galvanised opposition and gave the country an Other to unite against. We threw eggs, rioted against regressive taxation, and drew funny satire - but bought our council houses off her, hoovered up our shares in BT and Steel, and mostly accepted her careerist world, disorganised labour. The poll tax finished her - but she still won, and all it cost her was a century of hatred.

After reading this I still don't know what the bottom line is.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very balanced and thorough account of Thatcher's premiership. Torrance concludes that Thatcher's personality jarred with Scottish sensibilities and, furthermore, she failed to grasp the constitutional question. However, overwhelmingly this is a text that resists the usual knee-jerk reaction that Thatcher 'hated' Scotland. Instead, the conclusion is that she so wanted to be liked in Scotland, but never was.

[Duncan Maccoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought that this book was absolutely brilliant. It sent shivers down my spine to read about events long since forgotten, but which may have shaped the future for Scotland. Torrance is one of these authors whose excellence with his research means that you are almost guaranteed a good read.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting book. I learned a lot about politics in the UK in the 80s and beyond. It was quite helpful to my understanding of the current political environment in Scotland.