It Ended on an Issue of Substance : Thatcher’s Policy Was Always to Do What She Thought Was Right

All of a sudden it was closing time for the former shopkeeper’s daughter.

It was no doubt sad for her that it had to end at all, as no ending could possibly do justice to the run of 11-plus years that had been her premiership. But at least the end arrived on the pivot of an issue of great substance: the role of relatively tiny Great Britain in the future of a great and strengthening Europe.

That’s the satisfying part--the realization that her stepping down was not the product of the kind of silly, trivial fluff of an indiscretion that so often fells other, lesser Western politicians. There was never the slightest question on that score--no personal misconduct or disgrace to detract from the overwhelming dignity and courage and force of character that she showed from the very beginning, when in 1979 she became Britain’s first woman prime minister.

It was her forthright but increasingly unpopular--and unrealistic--stand on Europe that ultimately did her in. It was not her only political problem--she had angered many with her stubborn imposition of the poll tax. But it was the latest turn of events to suggest that perhaps her time had come to an end.

Thatcher had dug her heels in and was gazing backwards at history as if with enraptured nostalgia, while European nations were moving into the future with the courage of their convictions, if not with any sure idea of the final destination.

Her nationalistic stand--combined with the prickly sinews of her unperturbable and often unmovable political persona--began to unravel the longest-running British premiership in the 20th Century.

In Europe the announcement was greeted with poorly disguised elation, of course. Her ferocious battles left a bad taste with Europeans that her successor will want to erase. “I think she has been part of history for some time,” said an uncharitable Volker Ruehe, secretary-general of German Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s Christian Democratic Union.

For America, her departure is a loss because she fought harder than anyone to position Britain as the one ally closest to Washington, no matter what issue might arise.

Fortunately, none of her likely successors seems the type to want to put much distance between London and Washington. And the announcement Thursday that the British forces’ contribution in the Gulf would rise to 30,000 was probably meant as a message for George Bush as much as Saddam Hussein.

But a huge, colorful, important era in Western political history is over. Margaret Thatcher was no cipher, no colorless “Yes, Minister,” no groveling “Yes Man.” She had her enemies because she made them. But she knew her mind, she did what she thought was best for Britain, and above all she was never, ever in doubt.