To What Extent Have the Conservative Party Abandoned Thatcherism (25)
To what extent have the Conservative Party abandoned Thatcherism (25) – SujanMargaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister of Britain for nearly eleven and a half years, her flair and the policies she believed in eventually became known as Thatcherism. Two of the biggest priorities of Thatcherism is to reduce the states control over in the economy and a strong belief in individualism. There was no room for ‘slackers’ under Thatcherism as each and every person should be fully responsible for their own wellbeing and being providers for their family members. Thatcher also believed very much in the free market, privatization and very importantly cuts in direct taxation. Cameron’s conservative’s follows suit in terms of him also believing that the free market is the solution to solve economic problems, Thatcherism still lingers in today’s Tories through a willingness to tax the rich as lightly as possible, due to these people being the wealth creators for the rest of society and could play a key part in initiating the multiplier effect.
Something that could suggest that Thatcherism has been abandoned is the fact that the current conservative party do believe in a society, whereas Thatcher did not and she believed there was only individuals and she does not believe in benefits and people have a duty to just go about their lives without state interference. On the other hand, Cameron believes in the ‘big society’, which represents liberalism, empowerment to the society, freedom for the people and responsibility towards the society. Also, you could argue Thatcherism is homophobic and would not work in today’s society and to combat this Cameron drew away the illegality of the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools and most of the Tories voted against gay adoption, but Cameron strengthened legal status of homosexuals by treating them more equal. Thatcherism saw crime and order as a matter of personal responsibility, whereas now the party do accent some crime has social causes but it believes its best to respond by state and voluntary organisations and target the root cause of the crime. Environmental problems was not a huge priority under Thatcher, but now under more scrutiny by the EU there is more concern about the environment then there previously was. Thatcherites were very traditional in their beliefs and views of the constitution and political system, however now conservatives accept that constitutional reform is essential and that the political system needs a good deal of democratic renewal Although, tax cuts are part of modern conservatism they believed that it should only be fully undertaken when the economic conditions are favourable.