Mrs. Thatcher’s Dilemma

Is Margaret Thatcher still a Thatcherite? That’s the question. She says she is, her declared goals remain much the same, and her unyielding, unquestioning, kindergarten-teacher style hasn’t changed: but a fundamental shift does seem to have occurred in what her keenest supporters believed, not without reason, to be the very core of Thatcherism. Any real hope of reducing taxation by cutting public expenditure and rethinking the ubiquitous provisions of the welfare state has apparently been abandoned.

The Conservative Party manifesto on which Mrs. Thatcher won power in 1979 was quite explicit. “Any future government which sets out honestly to reduce inflation and taxation,” it said, “will have to make substantial economies, and there should be no doubt about our intention to do so.” Inflation has indeed been reduced very considerably, but taxation, far from coming down, has actually gone up, both absolutely and as a proportion of the national income. Mrs. Thatcher and her colleagues no longer talk of “cutting” public expenditure, only of “containing” it. Even containing it, they say, requires a constant effort. Tax cuts will have to come, if at all, from the surplus generated by economic growth.

AL

About the Author

Anthony Lejeune

Featured Tags

Manage following

Margaret Thatcher

Britain

British Conservative Party

Is Margaret Thatcher still a Thatcherite? That’s the question. She says she is, her declared goals remain much the same, and her unyielding, unquestioning, kindergarten-teacher style hasn’t changed: but a fundamental shift does seem to have occurred in what her keenest supporters believed, not without reason, to be the very core of Thatcherism. Any real hope of reducing taxation by cutting public expenditure and rethinking the ubiquitous provisions of the welfare state has apparently been abandoned.

The Conservative Party manifesto on which Mrs. Thatcher won power in 1979 was quite explicit. “Any future government which sets out honestly to reduce inflation and taxation,” it said, “will have to make substantial economies, and there should be no doubt about our intention to do so.” Inflation has indeed been reduced very considerably, but taxation, far from coming down, has actually gone up, both absolutely and as a proportion of the national income. Mrs. Thatcher and her colleagues no longer talk of “cutting” public expenditure, only of “containing” it. Even containing it, they say, requires a constant effort. Tax cuts will have to come, if at all, from the surplus generated by economic growth.