(The probably belongs in Chat rather than post-1900)
Yes, despite Thatcher's motto of "there is no alternative" there were alternatives, both from the right and from the left. It was the general wisdom in 1977-1978 that whoever won the next election would likely remain in power for another term or two due to the benefits of North Sea Oil. In 1979-87 oil contributed £62billion to the treasury. Thatcher used this money for Nigel Lawson's tax cuts, had Labour been in power this would likely have been invested into public services.
Some of the changes that happened in the 1980s probably were inevitable, it was clear that the generation of powerful moderate union leaders stretching from Bevin to Gormley had come to an end, and from the late 60s onwards the attitude of many younger shop stewards was more militant and short termist. Had In Place of Strife been implemented things would have been different, but alas, Wilson backed down. Trade Union reform was inevitable.
Its hard to see how even a Labour government - unless it was led by someone like Benn - would have objected to returning things like Pickfords or Thomas Cook to private hands, British Airways too would probably have been de-nationalised.
Whats equally interesting, and something ive drafted the beginnings of a TL on a few times, if what if the Conservatives had been in office in the 1980s under a Willie Whitelaw, perhaps being succeeded by Michael Heseltine. This would have meant trade union reform and privatisation would have been on the books, but the profits of privatisation - particularly if Heseltine was PM - would likely have been re-invested into infrastructure and urban redevelopment rather than being blown away on one-off tax cuts in 1986-88. Heseltine's ideas in the late 80s were a blend of corporatism and economic liberalism, not quite social market economics but not a hard dose of Thatcherism either. Both Blairism and Cameronism can both really be traced back to Heseltine. He wanted a high speed rail line linking north and south, which is now finally being built 30 years later, he wanted devolution to the metropolitan regions, which finally happened under Cameron, and he wanted to use public-private partnerships to help fund infrastructure projects, which as PFI was adopted under Blair. So i think Heseltinism does offer some alternative of what might have happened without Thatcher.
