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For Thatcher and the Tories who must govern without her, the downturn in the British economy is seen as a serious threat in the general election. It is expected that the Tories will call the election as late as possible, which could mean the spring of 1992. But the inflation rate, now running at 10.9%, is slackening, and the pound, linked to the E.C.'s Exchange Rate Mechanism, is strong. The next Prime Minister may be able to lower interest rates and even spend more money in the social areas Thatcher was accused of neglecting so badly -- education and health services.
Above all, Britons can expect some relief from the hated poll tax, a local levy instituted by Thatcher to replace the property tax. It is a flat tax on everyone in a local community, regardless of each person's income; the amount is decided by the local community, based on its financial needs. Thatcher fervently believed the old tax should be dumped because it affected only property owners, but the new assessment exacted the same amount from rich and poor alike. Nothing except perhaps Thatcher's personality provoked so much anti-Conservative sentiment among voters. The poor were as angry as the middle-class homeowners who found poll-tax bills several times higher than the previous property taxes. In various ways, the candidates made clear they were ready to make necessary changes. Foreign investment may grow even faster, encouraged by the prospect that with a new Conservative government joining the movement toward a united Europe, Britain would benefit more from the worldwide recovery predicted in 1992.
A day after Thatcher announced she was stepping down, public attention was already focusing on the government to come. Even as Britons mourned or celebrated the end of her reign, Thatcher was making plans to move out of 10 Downing Street and into a five-bedroom Georgian-style house in the leafy south London suburb of Dulwich. She will continue to represent her constituency of Finchley, in northwest London, and will undoubtedly continue to berate the opposition in the House of Commons, albeit from the back benches. That politics is a cruel business, Thatcher understood. She neither gave nor expected quarter. As Neville Cole, a London accountant, put it, "It will be strange to say Mrs. Thatcher and not mean the Prime Minister." Now everyone must get used to it, and a good number may come to rue it.