You are elected British PM in 1979..

[afleitch]

What would you have done differently?

[k-onmmunist]

Alot.

I would have wrote up a consitution, giving Britain a proportional representative system with direct democracy, and biannual elections. I would have privatised gas, rail, the Post Office, etc. I would have abolished income tax and slashed welfare spending. I would also have cut corporation tax drastically. Finally, I'd throw out the monarchy.

There's much more, but that's the basics.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Everything.

I can't really say what I would have done, but it's very easy for me to say what I wouldn't have done : savagely deregulating the entire economy, totally destroying the Labor Unions and reducing the public service to nothing.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Everything.

[opebo]

I'm not terribly up on every little thing what was happening in Britain in 1979 (though certainly a lot of good music was), but I wouldn't have changed the social democratic model much.  I'd have just waited out the oil crisis instead of using it as an excuse to kill poors.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Acted as if I'd been elected Speaker (i.e., act as if I didn't want the job. )

Thatcher did a good deal of much needed house cleaning, but I wouldn't have been as keen as she was on privatizing infrastructure.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

To quote the old witch herself "everything". But I think securing the (or at least some) money from North Sea oil for future generations rather than blowing it on tax cuts (as the government of the day did) or one-off increases in spending (as alternative governments might well have been tempted to do) seems like a reasonable place to start.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Acted as if I'd been elected Speaker (i.e., act as if I didn't want the job. )

Thatcher did a good deal of much needed house cleaning, but I wouldn't have been as keen as she was on privatizing infrastructure.

She was so keen because she was an ideologue and nothing more.

[minionofmidas]

British PMs are not elected, they are appointed by the Queen.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Acted as if I'd been elected Speaker (i.e., act as if I didn't want the job. )

Thatcher did a good deal of much needed house cleaning, but I wouldn't have been as keen as she was on privatizing infrastructure.

She was so keen because she was an ideologue and nothing more.

More complicated than that, actually.

[afleitch]

British PMs are not elected, they are appointed by the Queen.

Yes, but I thought the title was snappier than 'If you were the leader of the party that held a  majority in the House of Commons either by holding a majority of seats or having a coalition or other agreement to ensure that your party could govern and were formally appointed by the Queen as PM in 1979..'

[opebo]

Acted as if I'd been elected Speaker (i.e., act as if I didn't want the job. )

Thatcher did a good deal of much needed house cleaning, but I wouldn't have been as keen as she was on privatizing infrastructure.

She was so keen because she was an ideologue and nothing more.

More complicated than that, actually.

Well, more deeply rooted culturally and all that sort of thing, sure.  But the net result was the same - destruction out of spite, in addition to a workable agenda which benefited the class which was her constituency.

Similar to our right-wing 'ideologues' over here.

[Antonio the Sixth]

British PMs are not elected, they are appointed by the Queen.

Yes, but I thought the title was snappier than 'If you were the leader of the party that held a  majority in the House of Commons either by holding a majority of seats or having a coalition or other agreement to ensure that your party could govern and were formally appointed by the Queen as PM in 1979..'

You were right.

[minionofmidas]

British PMs are not elected, they are appointed by the Queen.

Yes, but I thought the title was snappier than 'If you were the leader of the party that held a  majority in the House of Commons either by holding a majority of seats or having a coalition or other agreement to ensure that your party could govern and were formally appointed by the Queen as PM in 1979..'

Eh. Either way the answer depends on "which party was that?"

[afleitch]

Thatcher in 3 easy pieces

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZzcfmlaPHg - Election
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD826-_x-z0&feature=related - Bust
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcGV_7clARY&feature=related - Boom

From Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain