Editing Thatcherism (section)

== Criticism ==
[[File:Trends in UK income inequality 1979-2005-6.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Trends in UK income inequality, 1979–2006]]
Critics of Thatcherism claim that its successes were obtained only at the expense of great [[social cost]]s to the British population. There were nearly 3.3&nbsp;million unemployed in Britain in 1984, compared to 1.5&nbsp;million when she first came to power in 1979, though that figure had reverted to 1.6&nbsp;million by the end of 1990.

While credited with reviving Britain's economy, Thatcher also was blamed for spurring a doubling of the relative poverty rate. Britain's childhood-poverty rate in 1997 was the highest in Europe.<ref name="HALLEN" /> When she resigned in 1990, 28% of the children in Great Britain were considered to be below the [[poverty line]], a number that kept rising to reach a peak of nearly  30% during the government of Thatcher's successor, [[John Major]].<ref name="HALLEN">{{cite news |last1=Nelson |first1=Emily |last2=Whalen |first2=Jeanne |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116674870703357351 |title=With U.S. Methods, Britain Posts Gains in Fighting Poverty |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=22 December 2006 |access-date=18 October 2007}}</ref> During her government, Britain's [[Gini coefficient]] reflected this growing difference, going from 0.25 in 1979 to 0.34 in 1990, at about which value it remained for the next 20 years, under both Conservative and Labour governments.<ref>{{cite periodical |url=http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn33.pdf |last=Shephard |first=Andrew |title=Income Inequality under the Labour Government |magazine=Briefing Notes |number=33 |publisher=[[Institute for Fiscal Studies]] |date=March 2003 |access-date=18 October 2007 |page=4 |archive-date=26 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926033230/http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn33.pdf }}</ref>