Brexit: will Boris Johnson reverse Thatcherism?

Financial Times ^ | 30.Jan.2020 | George Parker, Andy Brown

[Cronos]

...Mr Johnson recognises that the Brexit vote was for many people in what has been dubbed “left behind Britain” not so much a shout of defiance against the EU as a cry for help

...Mr Johnson is attempting to redefine his Conservative party and the country it governs. The party of Margaret Thatcher — whose 1980s reforms put rocket boosters under London and the financial services sector and spawned a global wave of privatisations that stretched from Latin America to Russia — is seen by many in the north, the midlands and Wales as ruthlessly in love with the free market but callous about its consequences.

Mr Johnson is trying to use Brexit to change that image by questioning the core ideas about state intervention in the economy and regional development which have been the party’s orthodoxy since the Thatcher years. He is promising to shift civil servants out of London, change Treasury rules to favour investment in the north, a £100bn boost to infrastructure and a nimbler state aid policy to help failing strategic industries. On Wednesday his government nationalised the Northern rail franchise after public anger over its poor performance.

...How far Mr Johnson will move away from the rigorous free market policies pursued by successive British governments, more or less continuously, since Thatcher came to power in 1979 remains unclear. She ended subsidies for struggling industries, such as steel and coal mining, and millions lost their jobs. Many towns, which grew up around a single industry, lost their main source of income and identity.

[Cronos]

The north of England has been hurting since the Thacher years

[FreedomPoster]

> He is promising to shift civil servants out of London

Trump was moving a big chunk of Interior/BLM to Kansas or Colorado I seem to recall. There was quite a lot of screaming and gnashing of teeth. I was cheering it on.

[ryderann]

I hope everyone has seen Nigel Farage’s farewell to the EU that’s on youtube. It was a Soleimani right up the ol’ windward passage. Don’t know how to link unfortunately.

[Deplorable American1776]

Interesting...

[Zhang Fei]

The basic function of government isn’t just to regulate the market. It’s also to build basic infrastructure. To the extent basic infrastructure was neglected, Thatcherism was not simply bad economics - it was bad politics.

[Socon-Econ]

Brexit with more socialism and environmental extrmism would be worse than no Brxit.

[Bayard]

I Sometimes wish that the entire capital of the US changed locations from DC every couple of years.

Its not just a few bad eggs in that city its an entire culture that has lost touch with the rest of the USA.

[FreedomPoster]

As I’ve been pointing out lately to Congressional term limits folks, the permanent bureaucracy / deep state is pretty obviously (after the last 3 years) a much bigger problem than lack of term limits.

[chrisser]

I Sometimes wish that the entire capital of the US changed locations from DC every couple of years.

Congress is only 500+ critters. Easy peasy to accommodate them in a different place every couple of years. As long as the rest of the swamp isn't in close proximity to the Congress, it probably is less important where they are.

After Trump's out of office, we could contract him to build an appropriately sized auditorium with adjoining office buildings and hotel every couple of years in the next host city prior to the Congress moving into it.

[Buckeye McFrog]

As in the U.S. the shackles were taken off of business and they were given their freedom.

They consequently scrooooooood the pooch. Alienated so many voters away from the centers of power that this strategy is no longer politically viable.

It’s sad, but they only have themselves to blame.

[AndyJackson]

Mr Johnson is trying to use Brexit to change that image by questioning the core ideas about state intervention in the economy

Yeah using state intervention to intervene and bring to a halt the intervention of the non-state EU bureaucracy interfering in the private affairs of the UK. This makes Boris a statist.

[Bayard]

Should spend time on a base in the arctic circle for the first location.....just saying...

[central_va]

Except this article is BS. Thacher would have been in favor of Brexit.

How far Mr Johnson will move away from the rigorous free market policies pursued by successive British governments

Yeah, riiiight..

[Boogieman]

Gee, can you imagine people from the interior managing the interior?

What is this country coming to?

[Empire_of_Liberty]

Thank you.

I thought I was in a time-warp, or something.

I seem to remember successors to Thatcher orating about how many and what style of car they were going to manufacture, that year.

Yeah, a real “free” market.

[SauronOfMordor]

A lot more could be accomplished by abolishing civil service, and thus allow a new president to clean house.

[Svartalfiar]

Congress is only 500+ critters. Easy peasy to accommodate them in a different place every couple of years. As long as the rest of the swamp isn't in close proximity to the Congress, it probably is less important where they are.

Why does Congress even need to be in DC that much? The initial Congresscritters only met for a couple months, spending the rest of their time back in their districts/states. They can easily plan 8-10 months of the year to be in session, consisting of two weeks in district, two weeks split between arguing and voting.

Side note though, they should be much bigger, with the House matching the population much better. Take a couple voting cycles to slowly grow and add seats, but they should be 4-8 times bigger than they are now. Based on the original 1rep:30Mpeople, we should have a good 10,000 Reps, not just 435.

[FreedomPoster]

The premise of an apolitical professional civil service has proven hugely false.

[Cronos]

true for the north.

in hindsight the overemphasis on financial services was a mistake.

however the uk in the 1970s was a heavily nationalised country and the quality of goods was terrible

[Cronos]

the way how businesses sold Britain’s crown jewels like cadbury, Tetley, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Jaguar etc. was astonishing