Thatcherism is, by Thatcher's reckoning, only halfway completed. Upon coming to power in 1

979, she reduced income taxes(the top rate fell from 83 percent to 60 percent), raised the value added tax (a levy on goods and services)from 8 percent to 15 percent and sharply cut public spending. The money supply was throttled, and interest rates were allowed to soar. The strategy cooled in flation, but also threw a record number of British companies in to bankruptcy. and millions of workers out of jobs. Since 1979, when the downturn began, industrial production has slumped 8 percent.

There are some encouraging signs. Bank lending rates are now in the 10 percent range, down from 17 percent in 1980 and interest on mortgages has fallen from 15 percent to around 11 percent. Productivity is up, and the rate of wage hikes is down. But none of these signs of improving health is proof the rebound will persist. Many economists are bracing for a jump in joblessness to 3. 3 million this fall. Nevertheless, the prime minister is unlikely to resort to Keynesian pump priming even if her policies remain slow to work. At a critical time during her first term, when many in her cabinet were demanding a U-turn on economic policy, she uttered the now famous words: "The lady's not for turning. "

Thatcher not only has changed the course of British economic policy, but has altered the shape of the nation's politics, especially within the Conservative Party. Fading fast is the image of the Tories as the private preserve of landed gentlemen who went to the right schools, believe in moderation and carry a certain sense of nobleless oblige toward the lower classes. Thatcher has taken the party out of the hands of the gentry and turned it over to people like herself who have worked their way up in the world and who sometimes see a sense of social responsibility as an un- affordable luxury. She has forged an alliance between skilled workers and the middle class. Only unskilled workers have remained safely in the Labor camp, and theirs is a dwindling breed.

Thatcherism is ______.

A．Thatcher's economic experiment

B．the Aliance forged by Thatcher between skilled workers and the middle class

C．the toughness of Thatcher's personality and of her policies

D．the generalization of Thatcher's first term