There is a touch of confusion about Theresa May’s political posturing. The apparent lurch ‘to the left’ signified by her abandonment of Osbornomics (and, of course, Osborne himself) for soft Keynesianism sits uneasily with a commitment to hard Brexit. The homage paid to official anti-racism is at odds with her immigrant bashing. And her fabled competence, her ‘no […]
Posts Tagged ‘Thatcherism’
Is Thatcherite ideology working?
Dec 19th, 2014 by Jon Lansman.In a general election a great number of things will be said, but only a few or even one really matters and that will determine who wins. This 2015 election is in effect a referendum on Thatcherite ideology. Here is what Labour should be saying, but isn’t. Point 1: For 35 years since 1980 the […]
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The Thatcherite agenda lives on more for Blair than for Britain
Apr 16th, 2013 by Bryan Gould.The poll conducted by You-Gov Cambridge and published this week in The Guardian shows that the British are more ready than the Americans, French and Germans to affirm their continued belief in the values of fairness, compassion, and concern for others, and to look to their government to act in line with those values. The […]
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Was Blair the ideological child of Thatcher?
Apr 11th, 2013 by Andy Newman.To steal a joke from the late John Sullivan, Tony Blair’s tribute to Baroness Thatcher sounds like a eulogy to John the Baptist from Jesus. However, while it may be difficult for some on the left to accept, particularly those of us who ten years ago were fulminating against the crime of Blair’s war on Iraq, […]
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Mrs T – a depreciation
Apr 9th, 2013 by Ian Williams.The New York Times epithet machine used to describe Margaret Thatcher for American readers as “the prime minister who privatized the loss-making state industries.” Of course she did no such thing. The enterprises she sold off made huge profits for the Treasury. BP was, after all, the state-owned creation of Winston Churchill and kept a […]
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The fight against Thatcherism must go on
Apr 9th, 2013 by Carl Packman.Yesterday, at 12.02, the anarchist Ian Bone wrote on his blog “Thatcher died this morning”. Moments after it hit Twitter and Facebook, though, as always, it was taken with a pinch of salt. That was until the BBC and Sky broke the news on its airwaves – the former Prime Minister had died, this was […]
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Death of a class war enthusiast
Apr 9th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Thatcher was a deeply divisive figure, which is why she will be lionised in much of the South of the country and reviled in most of the North. In hard and difficult times the British people will rally to a unifier, whether Churchill in wartime or Attlee in constructing a peace that would not return […]
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Condolences where they’re due but let’s celebrate the death of Thatcherism when it comes
Apr 8th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.We’ll celebrate no-one’s death. Margaret Thatcher was a mother and grand-mother and we offer condolences to her family. But we’ll not suffer the hagiographies in silence, and the final end of Thatcherism, when it eventually comes, will indeed be a cause for celebration. For now, however, Thatcherism lives on still, under various names – the […]
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Doctors without qualifications: how Milton Friedman inspired coalition NHS reforms
Jan 18th, 2013 by David Osler.When you trust someone to wield a scalpel on the most sensitive parts of your anatomy – and such, dear reader, was my painful lot some 18 months ago – you cross your fingers and hope they are a properly trained surgeon. But according to the free market right, regressive attitudes like that hold back […]
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Ed Miliband: the impossibility of reinventing revisionism
Sep 16th, 2012 by David Osler.Listening to Labour leaders espouse whatever intellectual fad is currently doing the rounds on the other side of the Atlantic is nothing new for those of us who follow these things. The odds are that Ed Miliband’s advocacy of predistribution will be no longer lasting than Blair’s embrace of communitarianism or Brown’s support for progressive […]
