BY THE mid-Eighties, Mrs Thatcher’s monetarist policy had brought down interest rates and mortgages for an increasing number of homeowners.

This made for an attractive property market and boosted the sales of council homes, the tenants of which found ownership affordable for the first time – although the years of boom and bust, and fluctuating interest rates and repossessions, turned the dream sour for some.

Moneterism had the desired effect of curbing inflation, and the remaining British industries slowly became internationally competitive.

But social programmes came under attack with cuts in the National Health Service and in the budgets of local government.

By the 1987 election, in which Mrs Thatcher defeated the new Labour leader, Neil Kinnock, Conservative support was balanced between traditional upper-class Tory voters and the lower middle classes, including skilled workers whose standards of living had risen in many parts of the country, especially in the South-East.

But where there was success, Margaret Thatcher had also brought failure.

Scotland, Wales, and northern England became economic backwaters, their industrial bases in ruins, and an entire generation unemployed.

The new wealth that monetarism created – in the financial industry, property, and technology – led to a life of luxury among the newly rich and the “yuppie” classes.

The new wealth contrasted sharply with the loss of income experienced by many inner-city residents.

Towards the end of the Thatcher years, although great wealth had been amassed by certain sections of the population, house repossessions began to increase alarmingly and the spectre of homelessness became an everyday sight in the towns and cities of the UK.