Posted on 12/07/2003 3:10:11 AM PST by ejdrapes
THE legacy of the Iron Lady lives on. A study of social attitudes has concluded that Britain is more Thatcherite under new Labour than it ever was in the Tory heyday. The free-market, moralistic views of Baroness Thatcher — which split Britain down the middle when she was prime minister — are now more widely accepted in the mainstream as the country moves further to the right, the report says. Fewer people in Labour-ruled Britain are assessed as holding left-wing views today — on issues such as the redistribution of wealth or sympathy with those on benefits — than 13 years ago, when Thatcher was ousted by a party revolt. “Britain has moved closer to Mrs Thatcher’s views in recent years in a manner that did not happen during her premiership itself,” say the authors of the report, The Power to Persuade? A Tale of Two Prime Ministers. Tony Blair has spoken with admiration of Thatcher’s “emphasis on enterprise”, and the authors of the study, Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University and Dr Stephen Fisher of Oxford University, say attitudes have changed markedly since new Labour came to power in 1997. “Mr Blair’s tenure as prime minister has been marked by a shift in opinion — towards views more similar to those held by Mrs Thatcher. On two out of three measures — attitudes towards redistribution and views on benefit levels — Britain now looks like more of a Thatcherite country than it did at any time when Mrs Thatcher was prime minister.” The report, based on thousands of in-depth interviews conducted over 20 years, will be published this week by the National Centre for Social Research as part of the highly regarded British Social Attitudes report. The findings in the report show that, whereas 52% of people in 1990 thought unemployment benefits were too low, only 29% believe that to be the case now. In 1990, half the population thought the government should redistribute wealth from rich to poor, but now only 39% do so. The study also showed that whereas 24% of people in 1990 “disagreed that large numbers falsely claimed benefits”, the figure now is 14%, showing greater scepticism about the management of the benefits system. In addition, the proportion of those described as left-wing peaked at 64% in 1994, but is now down to 53%. Blair has sometimes been described as the true heir of Thatcherism, in contrast to the often shambolic Tories. The findings of the new study back up Thatcher’s assessment of Blair in an interview in The Sunday Times in 1995, when she said: “I see a lot of socialism behind Labour’s front bench, but not in Mr Blair. I think he genuinely has moved.” Labour has perpetuated Thatcherite causes such as home ownership, free enterprise, privatisation and curbs on unions which have also found popularity around the world. Curtice argues that Thatcherite views on the welfare state are also becoming more accepted. “It doesn’t follow that we are any more ruthless towards old people, ill people or children, but one of the things that does come out is we have less sympathy for the unemployed,” he said. Curtice added that one of the reasons Britain had become more right wing under Blair was that he had convinced large sections of the Labour party to throw off their old left attitudes. He said Britain had become more Thatcherite “primarily by changing the attitudes of those who were already Labour supporters”. According to the study, 78% of Labour supporters in 1990 held left-of-centre views compared with 71% in 1997 and 62% now. In 1990, 70% supported income redistribution compared with 58% in 1996 and 49% now, while 13 years ago 68% of Labour supporters thought unemployment benefits were too low, compared with 62% in 1996 and 36% now. Despite its growing acceptance among the general public, the steady movement to the right has alienated many high-profile traditional Labour supporters. John Mortimer, the left-wing barrister and author of the Rumpole books, said: “In my sphere — the law — the government has outraged civil rights, put people in prison without trial, is cutting down on juries and impressing the burden of proof on the defence. “These are things that not even Michael Howard would have dared to do.” He added: “It certainly isn’t a left-wing government. Left-wingers are now in the miserable position of having no one to vote for.” Others argue that while Labour has largely left Margaret Thatcher’s legacy intact, wider social changes are also responsible for the gradual shift to the right in British attitudes. David Butler, a politics specialist at Nuffield College, Oxford, said Labour had done little to undo the work of Thatcher, particularly in the area of labour legislation. He said: “Labour accepts the market and had to throw off an awful lot of old convictions to capture the sort of cautious vote that thought they couldn’t be trusted to run things.”Thatcherism is thriving under Blair
I see the triangulation that Clinton did to Newt bore fruit for Tony, a man of comparatively fine character. Clinton could have had much the same success if he wasn't base in every matter of personal and official conduct.
Many of these are the sorts of questions that no two people will ever completely agree on, of course but that said: Should you be pleased that you have a center-right government? Considering how much worse a Labour government could have been, I'd have to say yes. We'll never get 100% of the government policies we want, of course, so we should always be happy with what we get, regardless of which party is pushing them through.
Whether or not you should be upset about the Tories being out of power depends on how well they would govern if they did win. I don't know much about the current state of the Conservative Party, other than that it's in relative disarray. If they came into power tomorrow, what sort of platform would they put forth? Would they have enough of a majority to enact it? Etc.
How would you Republican party supporters feel about a Democratic administration that adopted all your pet policies?
Heh, to a certain extent we got some of this during the Clinton years once he realized he didn't have a chance in hell of getting reelected (and, later, of having his coveted "legacy") if he didn't move to the right. For much of Clinton's second term, I was relatively satisfied with his political policies. I certainly disliked his personal life, his staff, his wife, etc ... but Bob Dole didn't exactly run a campaign that indicated his policies would have been too radically different, so it was hard to get too worked up about the fact that Dole lost in '96.
How should liberals feel about the socialist agenda pushed through (or at least not actively opposed) by the Bush administration?
Well, IMHO almost none of the socialist agenda desired by the current angry left Democratic Party has been enacted (Bush pushing through some entitlements is hardly what they have in mind), so they have little to be happy about.
How conservative would the Democratic Party have to get before you vote for them?
This question is almost unanswerable, given that the current Democratic Party is SO far to the left - by American standards, anyway - that it will be a number of years before they'll even reappear on my political horizon. I can literally count on one hand the number of elected Democrats at the federal level that I consider centrist. The Clintonesque lust for power remains in the Democratic Party, but most of his policies have been abandoned for much harder left-wing positions.
How many social programs would the Republican Party have to introduce before you gave up on them in disgust?
Not that many, but despite the constant screechings of a certain subset of Freeperdom (most of whom are not Republicans in the first place) that continue to claim otherwise, I just don't see this happening to any meaningful extent. (Yes, we got prescription drugs for seniors, but the Realpolitik that many here refuse to accept is that seniors actually VOTE, and that entitlement was going to be enacted in some form no matter what. I'd rather it have happened under Republican rules, with Republicans getting the credit.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.