| budget surpluses three years running - Britain repaid debt, 1987 -> 90 |
| National Debt: 47% of GDP -> 28% |
| state spending: 45% of GDP -> 39% |
| the Civil Service: 732,000 -> 565,000 |
| corporation tax: 52% -> 35%; the small firms' rate: 42% -> 25% |
| personal tax allowances: up more than 25% in real terms |
| higher rates of income tax: nine -> one |
| death duties: fourteen rates -> one |
| exchange controls scrapped after 40 years |
| 40+ nationalised businesses privatised — 600,000 employees moved to the private sector |
| the 33 big state industries: took £500m from taxpayers in 1980 -> paid £8.4bn to the exchequer by 1987 |
| British Steel: world-record loss-maker (1980/81) -> £733m profit (1989/90) |
| BT, 1984: the largest share offer the world had ever seen |
| "Tell Sid" broke the record again in 1986 |
| British Airways: nationalised loss-maker -> profitable, private, "world's favourite airline" |
| the Channel Tunnel: launched -> entirely privately financed |
| the Falklands liberated in 74 days |
| Fontainebleau, 1984: billions returned to Britain every year until BREXIT |
| backed Gorbachev early, stood with Reagan, and won the Cold War |
| three consecutive election victories and the longest-serving PM of the twentieth century |