Only a few years ago Mrs Thatcher dominated British politics more completely than any other recent British politician. She seemed bent on imposing on British society and economy a thoroughgoing transformation, brooking no opposition, braving all contention and division. However, already in her last years in office the much-touted ‘economic miracle’ seemed to have evaporated as familiar problems of inflation and recession, and newer ones of social and infrastructural neglect, came into view. Despite her unequalled political success, the otherwise enigmatic John Major gave one clear signal in prudently distancing himself from her legacy from the beginning, at the risk of appearing—especially in contrast—directionless. The mainstream media, which had provided indispensable ballast to Thatcherism in its heyday, turned from narrow neoliberal verities to the view that government had an important role to play in economic, infrastructural as well as social arenas—that not all solutions could be found in the market. If this were not enough to mark the advent of a definitively post-Thatcherite era, the aftermath of Thatcherism brought the sober realization that, despite its tumult and contention, it may have had a less profound historical impact than its stridently proclaimed ambitions had led most to believe.