Abstract
From the outset the Thatcher Government intended to be different. ‘Our country’s decline is not inevitable’, proclaimed the 1979 manifesto. ‘We in the Conservative party think we can reverse it.’ The Thatcherites wanted their government to be different, not merely from the social democracy of the 1970s but from postwar Conservatism as well. There was a crusading mood and a belief that old ways and old values had to be challenged.
The comfortable illusions that accompanied our gradual decline have been shattered. The nation has woken up to the reality of the need to earn its place in the world.
[Margaret Thatcher, speech to the Institute of Directors (1983)]
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Notes and references
See Anthony King, ‘Margaret Thatcher: the Style of a Prime Minister’, in The British Prime Minister (London: Macmillan, 1985);
Philip Norton and Arthur Aughey, Conservatives and Conservatism (London: Temple Smith, 1987);
Dennis Kavanagh, Thatcherism and British Politics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987); and
Martin Burch, ‘Mrs. Thatcher’s Approach to Leadership in Government’, Parliamentary Affairs, 36:4 (1983).
See Doreen Massey, ‘The Contours of Victory’, Marxism Today 27:7 (July 1983) pp. 16–19; and
‘Heartlands of Defeat’, Marxism Today, 31:7 (July 1987) pp. 18–23. For psephological analysis of the Conservative vote see
Dunleavy and Husbands, British Democracy at the Crossroads (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1985);
R. Rose and I. McAllister, Voters Begin to Choose (London: Sage, 1986);
A. Heath et al., How Britain Votes (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1985).
The term comes from Peter Glotz. See Andrew Gamble, ‘The Great Divide’, Marxism Today, 31:3 (March 1987) pp. 12–19.
R. Jowell et al. (eds) British Social Attitudes: the 1985 Report (London: Gower, 1985). The most recent, the 1987 report, appears to confirm that the broad trends away from Thatcherite values identified in the earlier surveys are continuing. John Curtice argues, however, that this trend is less important for voting decisions than the level of ‘economic optimism’ which most voters now feel. See ‘Interim Report: Party Politics’, in British Sodai Attitudes: the 1987 Report (London: Gower, 1987).
Knighthoods were given to loyal Thatcherite tabloid editors like Larry Lamb and David English. For an analysis of the press see J. Curran and J. Seaton, Power Without Responsibility (London: Methuen, 1985).
See Colin Leys, ‘Thatcherism and Manufacturing’, and the 1985 report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords set up to examine the results of the run-down of manufacturing on the British balance of payments. For a summary of its conclusions see Lord Aldington, ‘Britain’s Manufacturing Industry’, Royal Bank of Scotland Review, 151 (1986) pp. 3–13. See also the different views collected in David Coates and John Hillard (eds) The Economic Revival of Modern Britain: The Debate between Left and Right (London: Edward Elgar, 1987).
See Scott Lash and John Urry, The End of Organised Capitalism (Cambridge: Polity, 1987); and Henk Overbeek, Global Capitalism and Britain’s Decline.
See Stephen Blank, ‘The Politics of Foreign Economic Policy’, International Organisation, 31:4 (1977) pp. 673–722. See also
Joel Krieger, Reagan, Thatcher, and the politics of Decline (Cambridge: Polity, 1986).
Hugo Radice, ‘The National Economy: a Keynesian myth?’ Capital and Class, 22 (1984) pp. 111–40.
For assessments of the Thatcher Government’s economic record see C. F. Pratten, ‘Mrs. Thatcher’s Economic Legacy’, in K. Minogue and M. Biddiss (eds) Thatcherism: Personality and Politics (London: Macmillan, 1987);
Peter Riddell, The Thatcher Government (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985); and
Grahame Thompson, The Conservatives’ Economic Policy (London: Croom Helm, 1986).
See Colin Leys, ‘Thatcherism and Manufacturing’, New Left Review, 151 (1985) pp. 5–25.
Perry Anderson, ‘The figures of descent’, New Left Review, 161 (1987), pp. 20–77.
Sir John Hoskyns as reported in the Daily Telegraph, 27 July 1986.
Antonio Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1971) p. 161.
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© 1988 Andrew Gamble
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Gamble, A. (1988). Politics, class and ideology. In: The Free Economy and the Strong State. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19438-4_7
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