‘The Goddam Middle Class’

After you have been in England for a few days you notice with a sense of relief that the protracted Washington conflict between those who seek and those who resist an incremental victory for socialism does not really apply over there. As I wondered why this should be so, on a recent visit, the metaphor of infectious disease kept occurring to me. The British have had socialism. They caught a bad dose of it. They saw Arthur Scargill, the miners’ leader, seeking the support of Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan despot; and they have seen Labour Party members and trade-union delegations openly appealing to Moscow. In Britain they went far beyond our muffled, anodyne rhetoric the “expansion” of civil rights, “sensitivity” to the poor, and so on. The British had the naked fist of power, arm and hammer, shaken right in their faces. Margaret Thatcher won that round, and you sense at least a temporary immunity from the socialist germs.

The great question of the day in Britain is: Will Thatcherism prevail? At first sight this may also seem to be a Left/Right conflict, but in fact it is not. The Left of course fiercely opposes Mrs. Thatcher and everything she stands for: individual liberty, self-reliance, the replacement of socialist privilege by the rule of law. But a sizable segment of the Tory Party also opposes her, preferring the maintenance of Tory privilege to the encroachment of the market economy. Arrayed against Mrs. Thatcher are powerful forces, both gentrified and unionized. On her side is the middle class and those who aspire to join it. They have a powerful, if disembodied, ally: market forces.

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Tom Bethell

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Britain

Margaret Thatcher

British Conservative Party

After you have been in England for a few days you notice with a sense of relief that the protracted Washington conflict between those who seek and those who resist an incremental victory for socialism does not really apply over there. As I wondered why this should be so, on a recent visit, the metaphor of infectious disease kept occurring to me. The British have had socialism. They caught a bad dose of it. They saw Arthur Scargill, the miners’ leader, seeking the support of Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan despot; and they have seen Labour Party members and trade-union delegations openly appealing to Moscow. In Britain they went far beyond our muffled, anodyne rhetoric the “expansion” of civil rights, “sensitivity” to the poor, and so on. The British had the naked fist of power, arm and hammer, shaken right in their faces. Margaret Thatcher won that round, and you sense at least a temporary immunity from the socialist germs.

The great question of the day in Britain is: Will Thatcherism prevail? At first sight this may also seem to be a Left/Right conflict, but in fact it is not. The Left of course fiercely opposes Mrs. Thatcher and everything she stands for: individual liberty, self-reliance, the replacement of socialist privilege by the rule of law. But a sizable segment of the Tory Party also opposes her, preferring the maintenance of Tory privilege to the encroachment of the market economy. Arrayed against Mrs. Thatcher are powerful forces, both gentrified and unionized. On her side is the middle class and those who aspire to join it. They have a powerful, if disembodied, ally: market forces.