ABSTRACT
For many years Britain had struggled against the view, which it was hard to refute, of a former great power in decline, withdrawing from its international commitments and falling behind economically. Few would have been confident, after the recourse to the IMF of 1976 and then the deep recession from which the country was only starting to emerge, of a reversal in economic fortunes. Many would wonder whether the country could, or should, be revived through an impressive demonstration of military prowess. This was not a means by which productivity could be raised, infrastructure restored, or public services improved. Yet, with all these qualifications, Britain’s allies could applaud the same sort of stubbornness in the British character for which many had been grateful 40 years earlier, which led to taking on dictatorships and challenging aggression. After all that had been said about the softening effect of the consumer culture, a western country had shown that it had the mental, as well as physical, toughness to take risks and accept casualties. ‘The lesson of the Falklands’, observed Mrs Thatcher, speaking at Cheltenham on 3 July, a few weeks after the ‘great victory’, was:
that Britain has not changed and that this nation still has those sterling qualities which shine throughout history. This generation can match their fathers and grandfathers in ability, courage in resolution.
