"The winter of discontent was a low point for England."

"The "winter of discontent", a great phrase which has been used to fool an entire generation into thinking that life before Thatcher was absolutely awful. Shakespeare was a great phrase maker, but he didn't cvonbtrol what people would use his phrases for a few centuries downtye line. That phrase has been used to con people for decades.

In fact it the time before Thatcher was a great deal better in all kinds of ways than it subesequently became, and stayed. What the "winter of discotent" actually refers to is that there were some strikes, and that some public services for periods of days or weeks went down to the kind of level that a few years later became commonplace, as services were cut to the bone; the damage and inconveniance caused by strikes pales into insignifcance compared to the damage caused as unemployment soared into the millions and whole communities were devastated.

As for the Falklands/Malvinas - there wouldn't have been any war at all if she hadn't cut back on the token naval support provided out there, which was taken by the Generals in Argentina as a green light for sending in the troops. Was that sheer stupidity on her government's part? . Or was it an intentional false signal designed to lure the Generals into providing her with a war that won her an election landslide?

Council House sales? The way that they were imposed, and the restructions on councils usingteh money to replenish their hosuing stock it had the long term effect of robbing young people in the future of any possibility of renting good housing for a reasonable amount. It needn't have been done that way, but the intention was never to extend choice, but to narrow it by destroying public housing.
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However I've always felt that focusing the anger on Thatcher is a mistake. The people to blame were the people who backed her - never a majority, but a sizeable enough minority in a distorted electoral system to give her absolute power.