Her reign mean't more heartache for the bus: Farewell Mrs.Thatcher:

Bus wise I know it had all been going downhill since the start of mass car ownership in the mid-Fifties but there was still a lot to enjoy and believe in during the the Eighties. The likes of Mrs Thatcher believed her upwardly mobile party followers were more minded towards the car and money spent on roads was investment whilst public transport was subsidy. So not only did the bus making division of BL become starved of investment, soon the aggressive cut-throat effects of  Deregulation and the bargain basement sale of assets such as London Buses, The National Bus Company and of course the railways create that mixture of muddled over complicated infrastructure and the rise of those expensive to use big business monopolies we enjoy today that got their toe-holds when that lady sold off so much of the nation's silver. Of course London Transport is best remembered for buses like the much missed Routemaster like RM 2126 from 1965, but during the Seventies and Eighties the trusted and reliable Leyland Leopard became the normal choice for NBC coach fleets like 1980 City of Oxford BBW 20V seen on a commuter service to Wallingford.