...on
The Meaning of Margaret. Interesting reading in this month's Prospect Magazine.
"One of Margaret Thatcher's young ideologues from the 1980s — and now a senior Conservative thinker — reflects on where Thatcherism came from and why he is no longer a Thatcherite". As the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Conservative victory approaches David Willetts explains his rejection of Thatcherism, "rejection" isnt' my word but that of James Crabtree on Prospect's
First Draft blog, he goes on to add: "
But, in this essay, he has produced not just an insider’s portrait of his old boss, but also a balanced, and thoughtful justification for Cameron’s post-Thatcherite project."
And could this May 1st be a real red flag day for Labour. As the Evening Standard gives a good precis of a very
bad week we see that it has just
got worse as Mandy the Business Secretary tells senior civil servants to
"embrace the Tories as soon as possible to make the transition a success"
2 comments:
Span I posed a response to this but it seems to have gone missing.
I was responding to the article and your posts, I think Mrs T lost the vote because she came across as not being sympathetic - she may well have regretted many things but her PR machine let her down. Of course she was right about the difference between welfare and social security, one of the great sadnesses of the system is that generations of the same family have grown up not regarding social security as a safety net but seeing it as a manner of lifestyle - either through choice of not.
She failed on the 'greed is good' ticket because the wealth distribution she hoped to create didn't work - no additional charitable donations is one thing but the failure of the 'new rich' to move money away from education and health was a bigger failure of the times - the situation in health hasn't changed at all, in education it has but that is because of a failure of the current system not because of disposable income. It's also worth noting that more children are being taken out of private schools because parents can't afford the fees - so there wasn't even a legacy of saving money from the Thatcher years, everybody put more money into property. Now she may not be personally to blame for that but as PM she is the one who takes the plaudits and the brickbats.
Didn't see another message Paul. With what you say above I agree entirely. This of course enables me to lay into Brown without being a hypocrite! ;-)
6 - 2 eh, no defence in sight!
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