Thatcher's Approach to Government Power ...
By way of introduction - and for clarification, and candour - I should begin this by saying what prompts this thread. It has two basic 'causes'.
One ... FJ has long-since claimed to be 'Thatcherite', and, simultaneous to that, criticises me for being pro-'Big Government'. It's high time this issue was laid to rest, at least, to the extent it can be (or rather, will be 'allowed' to be .. ?).
Two ... I received a PM which prompted me to supply clarification about Margaret Thatcher. That PM sender has suggested that I post in thread-form what I sent in reply. So ... edited to be suitable for thread posting, I'm doing so. Here's what I had to say ....
Margaret Thatcher as Premier, on the one hand, wanted to promote self-reliance. This is because, in the true Capitalist spirit, she hated 'dependence cultures' ... of the type her opposition in the Labour Party wanted, where people became too reliant on State handouts and not nearly interested enough in bettering themselves, and others, through hard graft and the entrepreneurial spirit. She believed in that with a passion.
She also tried to spark renewed interest in the 'profit' concept, through activities of private business. She de-nationalised water, electricity, gas companies .. previously State owned, sold off, to be run by private Companies ... and then encouraged ordinary citizens to own shares in those Companies, so as to (a) buy into their profits, and (b) to encourage them to be pleased that such Companies would strive to succeed, on their OWN merits. HOWEVER .. she also understood that such Companies, since they provided essential services, needed to be regulated. Laws were passed guaranteeing that they had to work and thrive subject to strict standards.
Margaret Thatcher, though passionately believing in private enterprise and the striving of people to rely on themselves, also understood that the machinery of Big Government sometimes had to facilitate this. Nowhere was this clearer than in Trade Union circles .. who, during the winter of 1978-'79, were subjecting industries and services to wave after wave of crippling strikes. As she saw it (and, as was only TRUE ..) the Unions had freedoms which they were abusing, and in the abusing, were strangling our society's very ability to remain viable. Against this background, and with the general Public sick of strikes, she was elected into power with a landslide vote.
She did what she had to do. She passed laws curbing Union freedoms. They were swingeing. They were tough in the extreme, certainly by previous standards. She used Big Government powers to deal with the problem.
Margaret believed in private enterprise, but she also believed that there were times when Governmental powers had to step in to nudge things in the right direction. She did, strongly, believe in civic justice and even State-facilitated moral standards.
Here's an example --
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28
Reports said that nothing like it had been tried in a hundred years. But Margaret had no qualms about using legislation, or 'Big Government', to determine her standards of proper moral direction.Section 28 or Clause 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 caused the addition of Section 2A to the Local Government Act 1986, which affected England, Wales and Scotland. The amendment was enacted on 24 May 1988, and stated that a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".
She also believed in civic responsibility, that all people contributed to Society, so should take a form of collective responsibility. She passed a law to make mandatory the 'Community Charge', or later known (exclusively so, these days) as 'The Poll Tax'. Under it, every citizen of working age paid tax towards society, on an individual-by-individual basis, this paid to local Councils for the services they provided (e.g police, fire, ambulance services, waste collection ..). This was contrary to the older system, where households, AS households, paid that tax ... Margaret saw this as needing to be a person-by-person tax. Three household members of earning age ... so, three collections of tax ...
THAT measure was deeply unpopular here .. we actually had riots because of it. These days, we apply the older principle of one tax collection per household.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poll_Tax_Riots
Confirming the basis for the tax:The Poll Tax Riots were a series of riots in British towns and cities during protests against the poll tax (officially known as the "Community Charge"), introduced by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The largest protest occurred in central London on Saturday, 31 March 1990, shortly before the tax was due to come into force in England and Wales. The disorder in London arose from a morning demonstration which became a violent confrontation between the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), protesters and other activist demonstrators, which ended in rampaging and looting until 3a.m.
The Thatcher government had long promised to replace domestic rates, which were unpopular, especially among Conservative voters. They were seen by many as an unfair way of raising revenue for local councils. Levied on houses rather than people, the rates meant that someone living alone had to pay the same amount towards the cost of local services as a multi-person household living next door, even though the latter had a much larger combined income and were using more services. The proposed replacement was a flat-rate per capita Community Charge. The new Charge was widely called a "poll tax" and was introduced in Scotland in 1989 and in England and Wales a year later. The Charge proved extremely unpopular: while students and the unemployed only had to pay a small percentage, large families using a relatively small house saw their charges go up considerably, and the tax was thus accused of saving the rich money and moving the expenses onto the poor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Charge
Conservative Governments are, traditionally, 'anti tax'. They prefer to levy the minimum possible, instead believing that private enterprise can and should generate wealth, negating the need for great tax hikes. Nonetheless, Margaret had no qualms about raising taxes she saw as 'just'. The principle, and raising, of a poll tax was eminently fair in Margaret's view.The Community Charge (commonly known as the "poll tax") was a system of taxation introduced in replacement of domestic rates in Scotland from 1989, prior to its introduction in England and Wales from 1990. It provided for a single flat-rate per-capita tax on every adult, at a rate set by the local authority.
She DEregulated when she could, preferring to. But, she also REGULATED when she saw it as necessary. As a principle, she was no fan of Big Government. But, she also knew that it had its place, as something she might (and did) have to use to correct wrongs. She was idealistic, but would defer to pragmatism once the need for it was perceived.
Conservatives, certainly here in the UK, will willingly institute austerity programmes, and see it as responsible Conservative action and principle. To counter Labour's reckless spending, our Conservatives have embarked on an aggressive, Government-driven austerity programme ever since 2010, something you need Big Government powers to institute and maintain. They're still applying it, to an extent. But this thinking can be tracked back to Margaret Thatcher, a firm believer in economic realism, and awarding, and spending, only what you can afford. See ...
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/...garet-thatcher
State powers to apply overall monetary control ... Margaret Thatcher applied them unapologetically .. because she understood that, sometimes, only Governmental powers could serve to achieve what was needed.When she took office, Thatcher slashed public spending, taking on the "welfare state," and took a hard line on inflation, seeking to keep runaway prices under control. One result of this was skyrocketing unemployment. When she took office in 1979, Thatcher's Britain had an unemployment rate of just over 5 percent. In 1982, that rate would peak at nearly 12 percent.
It's a lesson that European nations in economic turmoil are learning again today: cutting spending can dramatically slow growth and take people off of payrolls. However, Thatcher remained unapologetic about her policies, even when Britons questioned her, famously telling parliament, "To those waiting with bated breath for that favorite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say: 'You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning,'"
I've posted recently that Margaret Thatcher abolished the Greater London Council. It's widely accepted that she did so because she hated the political direction it had taken. She considered it right to act so autocratically because it was in the public interest to do so ... another example of a Big Government intervention.
Margaret genuinely believed in private enterprise and in 'minimal' Government ... BUT ... knew that there had to be times when only Big Government would serve to right wrongs, when the application of corrective power had to be undertaken. This she always did without any apology at all.
An overview ....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...onomic-record/
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Originally Posted by Perianne
Nevertheless you haven't disputed the fact and truth of my post. Now on to shred your other ridiculous claim as I've done frequently before.
