Like many Brits alive at the time, I recall the amazingly fresh – for 1978 – billboards with the better pun: Labour Isn't Working. Romney is running with the message:
Labeled the poster of the century by the magazine Campaign, the image pointed to Britain's economic climate of rising unemployment, rising inflation, and a large and growing national debt. Those conditions and the public discontent throughout the country during that election and the parallels that Americans face today cannot be ignored. With unemployment rising from 3.6% in 1974 to 5.3% in 1979, the British knew there was a problem. Now, America faces 9.1% unemployment, record deficits, a soaring national debt, and millions of struggling families. One thing is clear – Obama isn't working, either.
One small detail worth adding is the unemployment rate that occurred after Thatcher imposed sharp spending cuts, and kept the pound strong. The chart below gives you an idea:
If unemployment was 5.3 percent in 1979 when Thatcher was elected, it was peaking at close to 12 percent as she sought re-election. It took until 1989 – a full decade – for the rate to bottom out again at around 6 percent. I'd argue some of the pain was vital, because so much of the British economy had become inefficient, over-staffed and stifled by union power and punitive taxation (try a top rate of 98 percent).
But if Romney is going to run on Thatcher's unemployment record, he might want to reassess.
The Dish 