But the problem was far more than simply economic. An unholy mixture of trade union power (beer and sandwiches in Downing Street) and trade union anarchy (the winter of discontent of 1978-79, with bodies unburied, rubbish on the streets and hospitals in chaos) had once again raised the question, first asked during the 1974 miners' strike, of whether a chronically strike-prone Britain had become ungovernable. The country was viewed with pity abroad and mired in an all-pervasive defeatism at home. It was a dismal and daunting time.

This was the national crisis from which sprang, in the words of Andrew Marr (no closet Tory), in his History of Modern Britain, "the most extraordinary and nation-changing premiership of modern British history". What was the nature of that premiership? What were its achievements? And has the world changed so much over the past 30 years that its values and its analysis are no longer relevant?

"Thatcherism" can probably best be described as a constellation of values and beliefs, a mixture of the rule of law, sound money, free markets, financial discipline, firm control of public spending, lower tax rates, patriotism or nationalism (the distinction is largely in the eye of the beholder), Victorian values (of the Samuel Smiles self-help variety), privatisation and a dash of populism. These were held not only by Margaret Thatcher herself, the degree of warmth depending on the extent to which she saw them as a moral rather than simply as an economic (or political) imperative, but also by her closest colleagues.

But the contribution of her strong and decisive leadership, particularly in the difficult early years, was vital. What we were clearly not was a bunch of laisser-faire (or for that matter, monetarist) ideologues. It was much more complex than that, although I make no apology for the fact that we did have firm ideas and a clear sense of direction.