open Democracy News Analysis - The anti-Thatcher moment, Tom Griffin - Comments

steve brockbank on "The anti-Thatcher moment"

steve brockbank — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:07:22 +0000

It was the end of the Keynesian consensus due to the crisis of 1960s and the 1970s which if you depersonalize 'Thatcherism' produces the neo-liberal reformation which we've been living through for the past few decades....As far as I can see this is a question of a change in the liberal consensus. From Keynes to neo-liberalism to ???

The ground, the new consensus is available to grab.

Chrissy on "The anti-Thatcher moment"

Chrissy — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:46:11 +0000

Thatcherism would have got nowhere without Reaganism!

Much as Little Britainers like to make out otherwise, it was the election of Reagan in 1980 that made the difference and provided a huge knock-on effect. It was in America that the nightmare began. In Britain, Thatcher would have been re-elected in 1983 on the back of the Falklands Factor, but heaven alone knows what things would have been like by 1987 without Reagan.

The anti-Thatcher moment, Tom Griffin

Tom Griffin — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:54:08 +0000

Tom Griffin (London, OK): The Wall Street Journal suggested last week that Barack Obama was the 'Anti-Thatcher'.

In the Independent today, Steve Richards offers deeper reasons why that title might be a realistic aspiration for today's politicians. The nationalisation of Northern Rock in Britain, and of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the USA, have shown the limits of Thatcherite market fundamentalism, he argues:

Over the next few weeks, during the party conference season, you will read and hear a lot about who is up and who is down in British politics. When I come to think of it, you will read much on the theme in this column. But the long-term future belongs to the politician and party that come to terms with the ending of one global era and the beginning of another, one in which a new relationship will be required between governments and markets, subtler than the flawed models from either the 1970s or the 1980s.

Richards' point is not a narrowly partisan one. If his 1970s-in-reverse analogy is correct it could be a future Conservative government which has to face up to this challenge, just as it was Jim Callaghan's Labour government which began the shift towards Thatcherism at the behest of the IMF.