People are first and foremost influenced by self-interest. I know trade unionists who suddenly supported Thatcher because they could get their council house at a discount. People I worked with binged on the various discounted share options the government peddled - free money. One of my biggest gripes with Thatcher is that with the privatisations and with North Sea Oil they really did sell off the family silver for political gain. It's (to me at least) a tragedy that the UK did not establish a Sovereign Wealth Fund.