Folk mythology isn't always based on underlying facts. Thatcher wasn't perfect but the decline in British manufacturing and mining had been happening long befor

Folk mythology isn't always based on underlying facts. Thatcher wasn't perfect but the decline in British manufacturing and mining had been happening long before - the graph of employment in British manufacturing is essentially a 45 degree downward slope from 1961 going back to the same (absolute) number of people in 1991 as were in employed in 1891. In the same way Thatcher didn't shut the largest number of pits. Britain was the "sick man of Europe" during the 70s, we got bailed out by the IMF in 1976 - unions gave us the Winter of Discontent. Far too many confrontational unions protected Spanish Practices and demanded unjustifiable pay increases which bankrupted companies - not to mention earned a dire reputation for quality. I see a lot more "worker solidarity" in things like German work councils than 70s British trade unions, they didn't seem to have any concept of creating a sustainable business and ultimately wanted everything nationalised in order to separate pay from profits.