DBWI: Thatcher lives

samcster94

Banned
In OTL, Thatcher was killed by an IRA bombing in Brighton in 1984. Britain did not react well to it, although it obviously stayed a democracy. What would have happened if she had lived, including in Ulster?
 
There probably would have been a lot less British support for the subsequent US bombing of Libya, which of course was done on the pretext that Qaddafi had helped the IRA. God only knows how Qadaffi would have responded had he survived that.
 
I'm inclined to doubt that the settlement with the miners would have happened- it was controversial when Heseltine did it and he was always far more inclined to compromise than Thatcher. I'm also expecting privatisation to be deeper than OTL- maybe even touching the NHS, although that might not turn out any better than when Fox tried it.

On the bright side, the paranoia and repressive security policies of the late 80's and early 90's might be avoided and Thatcher might be easier for Labour to beat in 1987 (yes, I know about '83 and '79 but both of those elections took place in quite extraordinary circumstances. For all that she's been deified by the right since she died, I'm not convinced she could win an ordinary election)
 
There probably would have been a lot less British support for the subsequent US bombing of Libya, which of course was done on the pretext that Qaddafi had helped the IRA. God only knows how Qadaffi would have responded had he survived that.

Perhaps we would have avoided a decade of entanglements in the Middle East.
 
I doubt she'd have signed the Single European Act. Can you imagine what the Union of Europe would look like if the UK wasn't an integral member?
 
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