In 1979, she had run on the slogan “Labor isn’t working,” but by 1982, the number of unemployed had doubled under her watch, as had the inflation rate.16 She had tried to take on one of the most powerful unions in the country, the coal miners, and had failed. After three years in office, Thatcher saw her personal approval rating drop to only 25 percent—lower than George W. Bush at his lowest point and lower than any British prime minister in the history of opinion polls. Approval for her government as a whole had sunk to 18 percent.
