6 - The Contradictions and Consequences of Thatcherism

Summary

One of the most interesting aspects of Thatcherism is its contradictory character, and the ways in which it yielded consequences that were incompatible with much of Conservatism more generally. Certainly, many of the socio-economic problems that have increasingly afflicted Britain since the 1990s can, in large part, be attributed to the cumulative or slow-burn consequences of Thatcherite policies, which were then consolidated by John Major's (1990‒97) and subsequent (post-2010) Conservative-led governments. As we noted in the previous chapter, the pursuit of economic neoliberalism and the fetishization of “the market” has continued apace long after the end of Thatcher's premiership, entrenching a British society in which individualism superseded collectivism, people were recast as consumers rather than citizens, and activities were judged primarily in terms of how profitable they were, how far the maximized shareholder values, or, most notably in the public sector, how much (economic) value they added (Dorey 2022).

Of course, the Conservatives were in opposition from 1997 to 2010, but the New Labour governments led by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown only marginally tempered some of the Thatcher–Major governments’ policies, but made no significant or sustained attempt at reversing them, nor did they evince any desire to do so. With the notable exception of the statutory minimum wage, which was introduced at the rate of ￡3.60 per hour, only 10 pence more than the CBI had proposed, but 90 pence less than the ￡4.50 proposed by the TUC, the Blair governments perpetuated, and thus further entrenched, neoliberalism by continuing with the rejection of nationalization and public ownership, pursuit of supply-side economics, marketization, consumerism and hyper-managerialism in education and the NHS, retention of legislative limits on trade union activity and veneration of labour market flexibility, the transformation of erstwhile citizens into customers and consumers, and the a priori premise that the interests of big business were synonymous with the interests of civil society; market mania maximus.

Even the 2008 global financial crisis failed to undermine the hegemony of neoliberalism, although some on the left hoped, and some on the right feared, that it might. On the contrary, the Conservative right immediately recast the 2008 crash as a crisis of social democracy occasioned by New Labour's allegedly excessive public spending.