I trust that everyone won't be annoyed by the length of this post.
For those who have no memory of Britain pre 1979 it's hard to understand the strong "us" and "them" feelings that existed between workers and management during the 1970s. It also needs to remembered that, unlike today, Britain still had a substantial [if not very profitable] heavy industrial complex. The opening of the film "The Full Monty" shows what Sheffield used to be like. The Meadowhall site was once home to a huge steel foundry, now it's a shopping mall. In the NE the change began even earlier with the Metro Centre opening in Gateshead in 1983. Living in the NE during the late 1970s and early 1980s I also remember the steel town of Consett just before it "died". Now its only claim to fame is that it is the home of Phileas Fogg crisps! The same went for Wallsend and Sunderland where orders dropped as South Korea took over as one of the main ship-building and steel producing countries.
In 1979 Thatcher [rather like Blair in 1997] seemed like a ray of hope to some. She appealed in many ways, firstly she was a novelty, being the first female leader of a major political party, secondly she spoke in language people could understand. She used her "just a housewife" image to talk about balancing the books, budgets, and not spending more than you earn, all very popular at a time when Britain was regularly going to the IMF for bail-outs. However, it was her attitude toward the Unions that really caught the mood of sections of the public who were fed up with years of chaos caused [so they were told] by greedy, power-hungry workers. The press supported her with Murdoch sharing her views on Unions [in 1986 he moved everything to Wapping and thousands of print workers lost their jobs].
A combination of luck [the Falklands] and new technology [computers were just starting to be used in the early 1980s] and her faith in "letting the City police itself" [aided by Reagan's policies in the US] saw her re-election in 1983 and the subsequent rise in jobs in the SE. Canny teenagers found they could work the money markets and earn hitherto undreamed of salaries.
The divide between the impoverished North and the wealthy South East began to become apparent in the mid 1980s and there were plenty who questioned the morality of her policies. However, just when she was being reviled once again for her callous attitudes the Unions, unwittingly, came to her rescue. In 1984 Scargill gave her the opportunity to smash, once and for all, the most powerful Union in this country and at the same time foster the belief in "the enemy within". Her consistent refusal to support sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa allowed South African coal to be imported and keep the power stations running throughout 1984-85. Scargill was a fool but he was right about one thing, the closure of so-called "less economic" mines opened the way to the privatisation of Britain's coal and power industries.
In my opinion if Thatcher had not had the almost unconditional support of the Press and a great deal of luck I don't think some people would remember her today as such a "great" leader.