<P> As Prime Minister, Thatcher focused on rejecting the mild liberalism of the post-war consensus that tolerated or encouraged nationalisation, strong labour unions, heavy regulation, high taxes, and a generous welfare state . She did not challenge the National Health Service, and supported the Cold War policies of the consensus, but otherwise tried to dismantle and delegitimise it . To replace the old post-war consensus, she built a right - wing political ideology that became known as Thatcherism, based on social and economic ideas from British and American intellectuals such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman . Thatcher believed that too much socially democratic - oriented government policy was leading to a long - term decline in the British economy . As a result, her government pursued a programme of economic liberalism, adopting a free - market approach to public services based on the sale of publicly owned industries and utilities, as well as a reduction in trade union power . She held the belief that the existing trend of unions was bringing economic progress to a standstill by enforcing "wildcat" strikes, keeping wages artificially high and forcing unprofitable industries to stay open . </P> <P> One of Thatcher's largest and most successful policies assisted council house tenants in public housing to purchase their homes at favourable rates . The "Right to Buy" had emerged in the late - 1940s but was too great a challenge to the Post-War Consensus to win Conservative endorsement . Thatcher from her earliest days in politics favoured the idea because it would lead to a "property - owning democracy", an important idea that had emerged in the 1920s . Some local Conservative - run councils enacted profitable local sales schemes during the late - 1960s . By the 1970s, many working - class people had ample incomes to afford to buy homes, and eagerly adopted Thatcher's invitation to purchase their homes at a sizable discount . The new owners were more likely to vote Conservative, as Thatcher had hoped . </P> <P> Thatcher led the Conservatives to two further electoral victories with landslide majorities in 1983 and 1987 . She was greatly admired by her supporters for her leadership in the Falklands War of 1982--which coincided with a dramatic boost in her popularity--and for policies such as giving the right to council house tenants to buy their council house at a discount on market value . She was also deeply unpopular in certain sections of society due to high unemployment, which reached its highest level since the 1930s, peaking at over 3,000,000 people following her economic reforms, and her response to the miners' strike . Unemployment had doubled between 1979 and 1982, largely due to Thatcher's monetarist battle against inflation . At the time of the 1979 general election, inflation had been at 9% or under for the previous year, having decreased under Callaghan, then increased to over 20% in the first two years of the Thatcher ministry, but it had fallen again to 5.8% by the start of 1983 (it continued to be under 7% until 1990). The British economy benefitted in the first Thatcher ministry by tax income from North Sea oil coming on stream . </P> <P> The period of unpopularity of the Conservatives in the early - 1980s coincided with a crisis in the Labour Party which then formed the main opposition . The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was established in 1981 and consisted of more than twenty breakaway Labour MPs, who quickly formed the SDP - Liberal Alliance with the Liberal Party . By the turn of 1982, the SDP - Liberal Alliance was ahead of the Conservatives in the opinion polls, but victory in the Falklands War in June that year, along with the recovering British economy, saw the Conservatives returning quickly to the top of the opinion polls and winning the 1983 general election with a landslide majority, due to a split opposition vote . </P>

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