Conclusion

Abstract

In the Introduction a number of questions were raised about the overall characteristics of public policy under Thatcher. To what extent has policy since 1979 been based on a coherent ideological platform from which policy reforms and initiatives have arisen? To what extent has the radicalism of rhetoric under Thatcher been matched by radicalism in actual policy? This leads to an overall assessment of the degree to which public policy since 1979 has constituted a departure from the pre-1979 period of the so-called ‘post-war consensus’.