The column inch and bits and byte generators are at work, furiously issuing eulogies and other guff about the life and times of Margaret Thatcher.
As somebody who lived in the UK during her period as Prime Minister, I am going to offer some thoughts of my own. (WARNING - I do not necessarily adhere to the maxim that one does not speak ill of the recently departed). This posting deals with the reasons why Margaret Thatcher was elected as Prime Minister in the first place.
Margaret Thatcher was initially elected to office as the result of a general perception that the UK was in crisis. The country had been staggering from one mini crisis to another since the 1960's. Growing up in the UK in the late 1960's, I read and heard the media obsessing over this weird thing called "the balance of payments". In an era of largely fixed exchange rates, it seemed that the UK's international standing was determined largely by whether we could balance the books. Failure to do so led to our having to be helped by the IMF, which included the (now infamous) devaluation of the Pound in an attempt to reduce budget deficits. These indications that all was not well with the economy were swept under the carpet, as blame was rapidly shifted to external agents such as "the Gnomes of Zurich". The UK was in decline, but, as is usual with countries in decline, most of the residents were happier living in Denial than trying to address the underlying issues.
Throughout the 1950's and 1960's, a lot of political power was wielded by trades unions, whose leaders, it seemed, were almost on a par with government ministers in their ability to impact the operation of the country. Some of the leaders seemed like honorable men with the interests of their members at heart, some of them, however, seemed to be venal and suffused with hubris. They all talked in cliches, especially their invocation of this weird construct of "the ordinary working man", an imaginary person who worked in a factory, voted Labour, and seemed to want to be paid more money for less work.
In the 1970's, as the country kept electing governments without a viable working majority, the malaise continued. During the second government of Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher was the Minister for Education, and by all accounts, was the highest-spending minister in the government, constantly demanding more money for Education. This was ironic in view of her later reputation, of which more later. After the Conservative Party lost office, Thatcher stood for the leadership, as Edward Heath stood aside. She was elected, and set about developing a much more hard-edged version of UK conservatism. Her authoritarian tendencies were soon on display, as she moved aside or out of office any supporters of Heath and what she saw as his wishy-washy approach to governance.
By 1979, the UK was mired once more in a recession, and that winter saw rolling power blackouts as industrial disputes in the power generation industry impacted the national grid. The then Labour Party Prime Minister, James Callaghan, then proceeded to execute what, with hindsight, was an act of political suicide, by attending a Commonwealth Prime Ministers summit held in Mustique. The sight of Callaghan and the other leaders sitting around fine tables, drinking off fine china and chatting under palm trees, and smiling for photo-ops in tropical splendor did not play well in the UK, and then Callaghan compounded the PR blunder by responding "I see no crisis" when he returned to the UK, to be greeted by journalists asking him whether he should have gone to Mustique at all in view of the events occurring at home.
On one level, Callaghan was correct. Rolling blackouts were not a national crisis. He was answering the question from his own personal experience as a World War II combat veteran. To him, the events were a pinprick compared to World War II. However, his smooth and somewhat condescending answer was proof to many people that the country was in crisis and the current leaders were in denial about it. Within a few months, the electorate in the UK gave the keys to Margaret Thatcher and said (in as many words). "you sort this mess out".
I am including this background because it is important for a fuller understanding of why and how Margaret Thatcher came to be elected in the first place, and it also provides context for an understanding of why, by 1991, a lot of people were highly pleased to be rid of her. Thatcher was elected as a crisis leader. Such leaders tend to have a clearly defined shelf life. They will be regarded as useful until the perceived crisis is over, after which time they will become a pain in the arse.