Heroes: Back to the Future 

 

‘I wear this crown of shit 

Upon my liar’s chair’ 

 

If the traditions of the monarchy restrict us as a country, the myth of Thatcherism continues to drag us down.

It continues to cast a long shadow over the country, and her party. Whilst there is some logic in the Tories remaining starry-eyed given her electoral success, her influence goes further. Thatcher influenced the Labour party under Tony Blair, though this admiration was first tempered by Labour under Ed Miliband and even more under Jeremy Corbyn. Sir Keir Starmer’s praise for Mrs Thatcher is perhaps more about internal Labour politics than about the Thatcher. 

She is still seen as our ‘saviour’. In the 1970s, as we became the sick man of Europe, our saviour closed down industries and cut spending. Some still justify this on the basis that whilst it hurt, it worked. History tells a different story, the towns her policies decimated are still waiting to be levelled-up. Her emphasis on monetarism proved wrong, leaving a dismal legacy of greed and inequality. 
 

‘Her emphasis on monetarism proved wrong, leaving a dismal legacy of greed and inequality’

 
From the beginning of her time in government, the Tories have claimed that public spending ‘lay at the heart of Britain’s economic difficulties’. During her 11-years in power, while tax rates fell, especially for top earners, national insurance contributions and VAT rose. The result, as the economists Kevin Albertson and Paul Stepney observe, is that when she resigned as PM in 1990, central government took more of national income than it did in 1979. They also point out that in cash terms, the state spent more by the end of Thatcher’s time in Downing Street than it did at the start. Measured against GDP, the state did shrink in the late 1980s – but as soon as recession returned under her successor, John Major, it grew again. 

Another flagship policy was the property-owning democracy, which saw >1.5m council homes sold at a vast discount, and hardly any built to replace them. As a result, we now pay vast sums to landlords to house tenants. 

Then there was popular share ownership; despite all the privatisation share campaigns, individual ownership of shares slumped in the 1980s; today is less than half what it was in 1981. To say ‘that selling-off the family silver‘ wasn’t a successes you only need look to the water industry. 

Thatcherism didn’t deliver an economic miracle, only the illusion of one. Thatcher may have been a visionary leader, but did she engineer a sensational transformation? Discuss. One of her legacies is hyperbole, the use of grandiose terms such as ‘northern powerhouse’ or a ‘green new deal’ and talking of a ‘golden age’. What we have is a mature economy with an ageing population, grandiose terms simply mislead people and destroy politicians credibility. The truth is in peoples payslips and on their high streets. This is why the established  parties are losing credibility. As with the emperor’s new clothes people eventually wise-up, realise they have been conned, and become easy prey for the seductive nationalism of the hard-right. 
 

‘To say ‘that selling-off the family silver‘ wasn’t a successes you only need look to the water industry’

 
What we are seeing now are the last dregs of Thatcher’s ‘children’, each seemingly more unruly than the last. Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, came up with a compelling summary when he wrote: ‘I’ve never seen a bunch of people less well-equipped to run a country. 

Since 2010 there has been 5-successive Tory PM’s, all promised to deliver a better Britain, each ended in humiliating failure, leaving the majority worse off. The dominant theme of these years has been a persistent and abject inability to deliver stable and effective government. 

The latest incumbent has made illegal immigration his flagship policy and , as a result, he has surrounded himself with warring factions from within. Whilst, as the Labour leader, Kier Starmer, pointed-out at today’s PMQs, many people exist in genuine misery: 

‘Nearly 140,000 children are going to be homeless this Christmas, that is more than ever before, that is a shocking state of affairs and it should shame this government. Instead of more social housing, housebuilding is set to collapse. Instead of banning no-fault evictions, thousands of families are at risk of homelessness. Rather than indulge in his backbenchers swanning around in their factions and their star chambers pretending to be members of the mafia, when is he going to get a grip and focus on the country?’ 

The government has already squandered at least £290m on the Rwanda scheme that James Cleverly, the home secretary, regards as ‘batshit‘ crazy. So far the only people to be sent there are him and his two predecessors. If the government ever does manage to offshore immigrants there, the Home Office estimates there will be an additional bill of £169,000 per person removed.  
 

‘I’ve never seen a bunch of people less well-equipped to run a country’

 
The question this begs is, why do they pursue such utter madness? Perhaps they so distracted by their own infighting that they are no longer capable of any sane governing? Or, does their inability to deliver anything because of their repeated descents into ferocious recrimination? 

Whatever the reason, the endgame appears to be in sight, it seems inevitable that they will be buried under the crushing weight of their boundless incompetence. 

In many ways the vacuous conceit of Johnson encapsulates all that the party has become. The electoral success of recent Tory leaders, I believe, can be explained by the media support they enjoy. This seems to have allowed them to overcome all manner of errors as if they hadn’t happened. The simple fact that Johnson reportedly receives an annual fee of C.£1m from the Daily Mail for a weekly column speaks volumes for the papers and its readers principles. 

Under Johnson, many newspapers, rather than holding the government to account, dedicated both time and effort to the production, dissemination and normalisation of the lies and fabrications produced by the Johnson political machine. 

The media has continually supported populist politicians. Initially it was Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, who, through his ownership of Mediaset had his own publicity machine. Today we have Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, Narendra Modi in India, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, most recently Giorgia Meloni in Italy and Javier Milei in Argentina. All have exploited the international rebellion against liberal democracy, and sought to replace it with their own domestic versions of ultra-nationalism. 

Missing from this list is Donald Trump, the populist Johnson most resembles. Aside from equally preposterous hairdos, both displayed an oafishness that belied the danger of their message and intentions. 
 

‘Missing from this list is Donald Trump, the populist Johnson most resembles. Aside from equally preposterous hairdos, both displayed an oafishness that belied the danger of their message and intentions’

 
In many was they are the ‘creations of celebrity media culture’, bought about the fact that since the GFC, fact and fiction had merged in contemporary discourse. The media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, who as long ago as the late 1970’s played a supporting role in the ascent of Thatcher, still plays a key role in defining the political narrative in the UK. 

The gamechanger was Covid which exposed the fantasies of populists. Angela Merkel noted in a speech to the European parliament in July 2020: ‘This pandemic cannot be fought with lies and disinformation, and neither can it with hatred and agitation. Fact-denying populism is being shown its limits. In a democracy, facts and transparency are needed.’ 

Johnson and Trump disagreed. They offered nothing but throw-away soundbites, both completely lacked the moral seriousness to cope with a pandemic. Whilst Johnson wasn’t as absurd as Trump in his comments about the pandemic, his flippant nature was exposed, leaving him sounding both cold-blooded and macabre. 

Populism flourished as a result of the growing gap between a morally bankrupt political system and the rest of us. The wealth gap that expanded under Thatcherism and flourished post the GFC reflects the gap between a new class of super-rich and increasingly impoverished voters. As a result, British politics has become a playground for hedge fund managers, property developers and foreign oligarchs, with Johnson the public manifestation of their power and influence. 
 

‘British politics has become a playground for hedge fund managers, property developers and foreign oligarchs’

 
This pernicious influence was highlighted by the large number of Tory donors who won government contracts in irregular circumstances during Covid. 

Unfortunately, populists continue to flourish. Immigration has shown how split the Tory party remains. Suella Braverman is virtually auditioning to become leader, meaning that the party will be the British equivalent of France’s National Rally or Germany’s AfD. 

If there is one story that highlights the devastation wrought on the country by 13-yrs of Tory misgovernment it is this ….. 
 

‘he has no compassion, nor the ability to communicate’

 
During this weeks PMQs, Starmer started talking about named families and individuals affected by homelessness and asked Sunak about an 11-year-old boy whose letter to Santa requested a forever home, and no new toys, ‘just my old toys out of storage‘. It was heartbreaking.  

There was no easy reply available for Sunak, but he should at least have engaged emotionally, rather than just hammering away about a vote in the Lords. 

There is, however, an easy conclusion; he has no compassion, nor the ability to communicate. 
 

‘Anyone who had a heart 

Would take me in his arms and love me, too’ 

 
Philip’s preamble requires no comment, possibly other that agreement with just how gloomy things appear from many angles:

‘This became increasingly difficult to write as it is depressing at what should be a joyous time of the year. The story of the poor little fella at the end has no place in a modern society, or should have no place. The fact that it does reflects poorly on all of us.

The entire free-market neoliberalism project from Thatcher onward has taken society backwards. These are stories from Dickensian England, where the few flourished and the majority suffered.

Privatisation was, we were told, going to provide numerous benefits, and, for the few it did.

Take Thames Water, the privatised Water Utility which, I read, is likely to default on a £190mm loan in April. According to the CEO it’s broke because the Government won’t let it impose 40% price increases on customers to pay for the massive infrastructure investments it failed to make during its decades as a private company.

Typically, he made no mention of the hundreds of millions it has paid in dividends to its owners. Or the fact it utterly failed to invest in water infrastructure, because it was allowed to pump untreated waste into our rivers.

It doesn’t get mentioned in parliament, much of the media ignores it, or tries to avoid reporting it. No one asks what the regulator is, or was doing.

The government simply turns a blind eye to anything it doesn’t want to see, prioritising a senseless policy that the Supreme Court has already ruled to be illegal.

Immigration is pure populism, throwing the masses some red meat, whilst all around them burns.

Really, things have to change, instead of which we regress to the hate-filled, unequal 1930s.

Lyrically, we open with ”Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails, which I dedicate to successive Tory PMs.

To finish I could think of nothing more appropriate than “Anyone Who Had a Heart”, a song written by Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (lyrics) for Dionne Warwick in 1963. Rishi and the Tories clearly don’t have one! Enjoy.

@coldwarsteve

 
 

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

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