Cameron’s government is Thatcherism unleashed

By Darrell Goodliffe

Greg Barker has landed himself and the government in a little bit of hot water today with his comment that this government is making cut’s that Margaret Thatcher could “only dream of”. I would be tempted to reply that Thatcher could only dream of these kind of cuts because, except at the very end with the poll tax, she had more common sense than this government.

This is not to say what she did was right – society still bears the scars of her vicious attacks on whole communities – but it is to say that even she was not as dementedly ideological as the current crew in Downing Street. That is the real issue with this government – it simply isn’t Thatcherism but is rather Thatcherism Unleashed. It’s the Iron Lady’s callousness released from the constraints of pragmatic realpolitik and buttressed by an ideology so far detached from reality it might as well live on the moon.

Electoral success in the 80s for the Conservatives was based on a coalition between aspirational working class voters and middle-class voters. Since 40% of the electorate is enough to maintain a winning streak – and since the opposition was divided – catering to the needs of these voters was more than enough to win election after election. However, the crucial thing to remember is that neither part of this equation has the means to survive totally independently in a law-of-the-jungle market free-for-all. It still does depend on public services to some degree, either directly for a job or more indirectly for healthcare provision, for example. So, Thatcher would never have dreamed of the full-frontal assault on the public sector this government is making because it would have shattered the electoral bloc that sustained her government.

This government, however, has no such scruples and is turning on precisely the kind of voters that Thatcher so successfully courted. Look at the NHS Reforms for example, even the Daily Mail isn’t convinced and for good reason, its readers can’t all afford the privilege of private health care – especially with incomes falling and inflation rising. I am not surprised therefore that Cameron was reportedly ambushed by the 1922 Committee. These blue-eyed boys and girls are Thatcher’s children and are firmly on the middle-class as opposed to the aristocratic wing of the Conservative Party. Cameron isn’t a Thatcherite at all really (or if he is its only in the sense in that he is what Thatcher would have been had she had blue-blood in the aristocratic sense of the term). The different material and social origins of Thatcherism and Cameronism explain to us the real differences in both form and substance.

Cameron and his cabinet of millionaires (including those from the Liberal Democrats like Huhne and Clegg who are from essentially the same social set) have not a single clue what its like to even partially depend on public services either culturally or materially. Thatcher did have an inclination that at the very least it mattered to her electoral base and therefore really should to her. In some senses then, it’s a mistake for Labour to continually invoke the political ghost of the Iron Lady. No doubt it does excite strongly negative feelings towards the Conservatives in Labour’s core support but it also disarms us somewhat in addressing ourselves to the enemy we face. This government isn’t Thatcherite, it would be bad enough if it was, it’s so much more dangerous than all that…