KINGSTON, Jamaica – Whatever your view, good or bad, of Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister (PM) who died on Monday, there is no gainsaying that she was a transformative figure whose influence transcended the United Kingdom (UK). Further, in our current circumstance, Baroness Thatcher, her politics, and the way she forced Britain to confront its economic demons have relevance for Jamaica. Indeed, there is more than a lesson or two that another female prime minister, our own Portia Simpson Miller, might learn from Mrs Thatcher, even though they are cut of different ideological cloth. By the time James Callaghan was defeated in a Commons confidence vote and Labour lost the election of March 1979, Britain was the sick man of Europe, with an economy dominated by state enterprises, shored up by subsidies, and with powerful trade unions that crimped labour market efficiency.
