Try reading the poverty and inequality figures already posted before commenting on standards of living "how you read them" because if you can just ignore those figures you're just persuing your own agenda without being open to a conflicting view.
I'd be interested to know how you explain that away before we move on.
As for the GDP figures under thatcher well they're very little different from the general trend upwards from 1955 onwards. My issue as shown with the inequality figures is that even a growing economy isn't necessarily an economy that's growing for everybody. The top few percentage getting massively rich isn't an economy that I consider to be growing in the right way. Another interesting stat for you (bearing in mind the massive success of Labours post-war economic strategy whatever people say about the Labour gov't of the late 70s): In the 31 years before Thatcher came to office the economy grew by about 150%; in the 31 years since, it's grown by little more than 100%.
The other thing to consider here with any discussion about GDP under Thatcher is the massive windfall her government had from North Sea Oil which at its peak must have accounted for well over 10% of the countrys GDP figure. Well we don't get that windfall anymore and it bloody shows what a **** up thatcherite economic policy is actually like without it.
So if you took that percentage out of the figures during those windfall years you'd get a more accurate picture.
