Dear Editor,
Margaret Thatcher personified the brutal attacks on the working class continued by the coalition today. Across three terms of Tory office with Thatcher at the helm, neo liberalism found its way into the centre ground of mainstream UK politics, where it remains today. She was a firm believer in finance capital, a dominant strand of contemporary Tory ideology. The iron lady led an enduring project which brought the unions to its knees: closed the mines, de-industrialised many parts of the country including our own region, cut public services, sold off council housing, shut hospitals, and presided over mass youth unemployment.
The first Thatcher administration in 1979, saw a degree of privatisation as a means to reduce public spending debt, by selling off profitable public sector companies such as British Aerospace and Cable &Wireless. As we moved through the 80′s, the Tories saw privatisation as a way of making large companies more competitive on the European market. Thus following the teachings of the right wing economist Hayek, we saw the sale of Jaguar, BT, British Gas et al.
During her third term of office, 1987, Thatcher became even more aggressive, BP, Rolls Royce, BA, even infrastructural staples such as water and electricity found their way onto the ‘free’ market. When she was finally booted out after the poll tax fiasco, Michael Heseltine continued in her wake by finally selling off British Coal before the New Labour landslide election victory. ‘Things Can Only Get Better’, their election song, and we all believed that there was no other way for the country to go except up.
Across her term in office, Thatcher had weakened the unions to such a point that they had little influence on the incoming Labour Party. New Labour continued with their own brand of Thatcherism under the auspices of Private Finance Initiatives (PFI). The first in their campaign of privatisation and outsourcing were the NHS and London underground. A move that saw the NHS fall into a fiscal crises because of the high returns paid out to PFI investors. Post Blair, Brown only ever nationalised a string of banks to save neo liberal capitalism, but failed to re-nationalise any of our industries which would have seen the return of decent pay and full employment.
The coalition government have unveiled the spin of PFI and reverted back to good old fashioned privatisation. They take credit for the sale of, Northern Rock, Royal Mail, The Probation Service, Highways and education to name but a few. And as we heard last week, our NHS is now out to private tender.
Privatisation is supposed to allow the free market un-fetid opportunity to an industry whereby the business class move in and maximize profit. It’s supposed to encourage private investment to make ailing industry profitable. And yet, businesses sit on 750bn and refuse to invest. This is because businesses know that the global economy is stagnant, and they wouldn’t see a return on their investment. All the while, the Tory led coalition government make further cuts and dole out more of our industries and services to private tender. They do this knowing full well that it won’t increase national prosperity; they do this simply because they believe in whittling the state away down to its smallest form.
National industry offered a job for life. Industry was subject to central government control, people before profit. Young people left school to find a decent apprenticeship awaiting them which led to a decent paying job and standard of living. The young standing in the dole queue today has hit 1,000,000. A return to national industry might frustrate a few entrepreneurs, who need people to work long hours for next to nothing in a punt to see if their idea can get off the ground. But I’m interested in the needs of the many, offering the vast majority of ordinary working people secure employment for decent pay. We didn’t get that from Thatcher, or New Labour, the Labour Party are making some reconcilable noises, let’s hope they break from Thatcher’s legacy.
Warren Saunders
Newton Aycliffe
