British people were duped by Thatcher, just as Americans were by RayGun. They set the ball rolling for neoliberalism and also unified the effort with opposition parties. The people who had faith in their governments at one time were convinced that their democratically elected representatives were somehow the enemy, along with anything the national government did.

They used very effective analogies to the kitchen table budgets of voters with that of the monopoly issuer of the currencies of both countries. As soon as "efficiency" became a priority for those governments the end results were easily predictable. The suffering in both countries is not an accident, but a feature that enables the wealthy to present a fear mongering alternative to not bending to their commands.