As Thatcher anticipated, her monetarist approach to the economy caused a short-term worsening of economic conditions as a means of eventually resolving the problems of both rising unemployment and of inflation. “Yes, the medicine is harsh,” she acknowledged, “but the patient requires it in order to live…We did not seek election and win in order to manage the decline of a great nation.” As she also anticipated, by 1981 the worst economic news was beginning to pass and Thatcher’s political hand strengthened. That September, in a bid to assert her control of the government, Thatcher had a very
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