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The Tories need to get over Thatcher Cosplaying Conservatives have no vision for the future

Which Thatcher would you vote for? Credit: Tom Stoddart/Getty

Which Thatcher would you vote for? Credit: Tom Stoddart/Getty


July 26, 2022   5 mins

Like so many political rivals, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are divided by a common ambition. Both want to cast themselves as the heir to Margaret Thatcher. To do that, they are erecting radically different accounts of Thatcherā€™s time in office, drawing on different parts of her record to teach different political lessons.Ā As they trade allegations of ā€œsocialismā€, ā€œfairytalesā€ and ā€œsomething-for-nothing economicsā€™, the two candidates are arguing not only about what they stand for, but about what Margaret Thatcher stood for ā€” and what ā€œThatcherismā€ might look like in the future.

Thatcher has a hold on the Conservative imagination that no other leader can match. It is hard to imagine a candidate turning up to a leadership debate dressed as Stanley Baldwin, or modulating their voice to sound like Alec Douglas-Home. Ambitious young Conservatives do not promise ā€œcommon-sense Majorismā€, or curate images of themselves posing as Harold Macmillan. Nor do they launch their campaigns at the birthplace of Sir Edward Heath, like pilgrims seeking blessing at the Church of the Nativity. Only Churchill matches Thatcherā€™s charismatic authority; yet his standing as a war leader makes him less useful in domestic political debates. There is little mileage in promising to run the economy like Winston Churchill, or to impose Churchillian discipline on public services.

For two candidates who grew up in the Thatcher era, and who lack strong public profiles of their own, the allure of the Iron Lady is obvious. Like Thorā€™s hammer, Thatcherā€™s handbag can bestow godlike powers on those deemed worthy to lift it. Yet her centrality to the current campaign also tells us something about the modern Conservative Party, at a time when its political direction has rarely felt less certain.

Thatcher has come to represent three things that are sorely lacking in her party today: intellectual clarity, political longevity, and electability. Like many late-term governments, the Conservative Party often feels like it is reacting to events, rather than shaping them. It is struggling to hold together a diverse electoral coalition, with very different understandings of what it means to be ā€œa Conservativeā€. It is about to elect its fourth leader in six years, and can smell defeat in the polls. In such a context, there is a particular allure to a Prime Minister who radiated ideological certainty, who set the agenda of British politics for a generation, and who won three general elections in a row. For a party that feels like it is lost in space, the gravitational pull of “Thatcherism” is hard to withstand. The challenge for Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak is to harness it to their purpose.

To do that, they are drawing on very different points in Thatcherite history. Perhaps curiously, as the younger of the two, Sunak seems more attracted to the early Thatcher. His Thatcher believed in ā€œsound moneyā€, ā€œbalancing the booksā€ and ā€œtackling inflationā€. She treated the national finances like a household budget, where you donā€™t spend more than you earn and you lie awake at night worrying about a rise in prices. This is the Thatcher who raised taxes during a recession, in the belief that short-term growth was less important than putting the economy back on a secure foundation.

For Liz Truss, it is not the prudent housewife that glitters in the imagination but the ā€œIron Ladyā€: the swashbuckling, pugnacious Thatcher who cut taxes, sent the fleet to the Falklands, defied the Soviet Union and, as one of her MPs famously put it, could not ā€œsee an institution without hitting it with her handbagā€. She seems drawn, in particular, to the later Thatcher: the Gloriana figure who strode the world-stage and boasted of unleashing entrepreneurialism. While Sunak sings what Spitting ImageĀ called the ā€œGrantham Anthemā€ ā€“ a hymn to ā€œhard workā€, ā€œfamily valuesā€ and attention to detail ā€” Trussā€™s outfits, speech patterns and Instagram posts evoke more heroic Thatcherite characteristics, such as resolution, determination and a willingness to stand up for Britain in the world.

Neither of these visions is entirely false. They do, however, draw selectively on Thatcherā€™s time in power. Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister for 11 and a half years: a period that encompassed an enormous range of challenges and drew out different aspects of her personality. Periods of boom alternated with periods of bust, when revenues gushed in from North Sea oil or inflation neared 12%. A modest majority in the first term ballooned into the landslide majorities of the second and third, while the electoral base of the party shifted significantly across the decade. Subjects such as inflation, unemployment, the Cold War and European integration moved up and down the political agenda, while Thatcherā€™s own views evolved over time: most famously on Europe and the Single Market, but also on issues such as climate change and the law on homosexuality. As a consequence, her heirs have little choice but to pick selectively, as they seek to annex her legend to their own priorities.

This requires some careful forgetting. Neither Truss nor Sunak would wish to be associated with Thatcherā€™s views on homosexuality, single parents or the role of women in the home. In the age of Brexit, Thatcherā€™s enthusiasm for the Single Market has to be gently faded out, and there seems little interest in her short but significant period as an environmentalist. Rhetorically, at least, both Truss and Sunak remain committed to an interventionist, ā€œlevelling-upā€ conservatism that actively intervenes in the economy ā€” a doctrine that Thatcher would have found very alien.

Yet the construction of memory is as much a political exercise as a strictly historical undertaking. The question that exercises the two leadership candidates is not ā€œwhich version of Thatcher is correct?ā€, but ā€œwhich is most potent in the present situation?ā€ Which speaks most directly to contemporary problems? And which, crucially, is most alluring to Conservative party members?

If context is the test, it is the challenges of Thatcherā€™s early years ā€” the period invoked by Rishi Sunak ā€” that resonate most powerfully. Rising inflation, pressure on public-sector pay, an expansionist Russia and a squeeze on the cost of living would have been painfully familiar to the Thatcher of the first term. By contrast, neither candidate is likely to enjoy the revenues that poured in later in the decade from North Sea oil, privatisation and the ā€œBig Bangā€. Yet the destination to which modern Conservatives aspire ā€” a world of tax cuts, higher defence spending, and resistance to the EU ā€” may favour the Gloriana Thatcher conjured up by Truss.

Whether this is helpful to the party remains to be seen. Dressing up as Margaret Thatcher is a risk-free activity when it is Conservative Party members who are lining the cat-walk. It draws a more mixed reaction among the general population. Promising to ā€œrun the economy like Thatcherā€ is unlikely to inspire support among communities that did not share in the economic boom of the Eighties ā€” some of whom voted Conservative for the first time in 2019. For younger voters, in particular, the obsession with a figure who left office a third of a century ago risks looking like political cosplay: a narcotic reversion to the past by a party with no vision for the future. There are dangers in treating a party like a historical re-enactment society, or a political equivalent of the Sealed Knot.

Like so many political icons, however, Margaret Thatcher is no longer a purely historical figure. She has become a creature of myth; and the nature of myths and legends is that each generation tells its own version of the story. Even in her own lifetime, there were many Margaret Thatchers to choose from: the ā€œIron Ladyā€, the ā€œMilk-Snatcherā€, the prudent housewife, and ā€œthe Grocerā€™s Daughterā€. In death, as in life, the struggle for her memory will shape the destinies of Conservative politics. Thirty-five years after she promised to ā€œgo on and onā€, she would have wanted it no other way.


Robert SaundersĀ is a Reader in Modern British History at Queen Mary University and author of Yes to Europe!

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Andrew Horsman
Andrew Horsman
2 years ago

The choice isnā€™t between two Thatchers. Itā€™s not about free market liberalism versus One Nation paternalism, and itā€™s not about relations with the EU.

Itā€™s about who is most likely to be able to defend the interests of the people of the UK versus the interests of global corporations, represented by their trade union, known as the World Economic Forum which has ā€œpenetratedā€ (in the words of its head baron, Klaus Schwab) the cabinets of major world powers and international organisations.

Who will have the backbone to face down demands driven by the pharmaceutical wing of the union for more panicky, destructive ā€œlockdownsā€ and mandates that aim to bully people into intravenous use of their products, which are likely to be promoted by the captured World Health Organisation?

Who will be able stand up to the ā€œgreenā€ energy and transportation wing, and protect ordinary peopleā€™s ability to heat their homes and drive their cars?

Who will be able to resist the military and defence wingā€™s pernicious demands for escalation and prolongation of global conflicts and tensions?

Who will have the guts to face down the (largely East Asian-based) manufacturing wingā€™s demands for total market access for their products, at prices that drive out local producers and retailers?

Who will stand up to the agricultural wingā€™s demands to force small farmers out, and to make good, organically reared meat a luxury that most people can no longer regularly afford?

Who will try stop the tech wing from demolishing the minds of our children and adults alike with their addictive, manipulative, social media platforms and reality-distorting ā€œmetaversesā€?

And who will have the stature and confidence to rise above the nonsensical wokist identity politics, promoted by all factions of the union to distract and divide the population that they seek to corral and control?

James 0
James 0
2 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Horsman

And the answer is…. neither.

Albireo Double
Albireo Double
2 years ago
Reply to  James 0

Oh I’m not so sure. Let’s not forget that most people didn’t take Thatcher seriously when she was elected, either.
Being PM actually doesn’t call for megawatt intellectual brilliance. What it calls for is clarity of purpose, and the personal security and humility to surround yourself with the very best of advisors, and to know when to heed that advice, and when not to.
Finally, you need to be able to not give a damn about what others say or think about you, but to “let them howl” all they like – and stay focused on your goal.
I think it’s just possible that one of our contenders might have the necessary skills. I certainly hope so, or I think it is time to end the Tory party’s misery.

Last edited 2 years ago by Albireo Double
Colin Elliott
Colin Elliott
2 years ago
Reply to  Albireo Double

Rather than holding clarity of purpose and not letting criticism get to you, the modern politician uses ‘focus groups’, allowing intelligent actions to be replaced by short-term policies derived from ‘public opinion’, often influenced by what they saw on television earlier that day, and broadcast by people with even fewer principles and less research..

Jeanie K
Jeanie K
2 years ago
Reply to  Colin Elliott

Otherwise known as “Rule by Twitter”

Shelby Shaw
Shelby Shaw
2 years ago
Reply to  Jeanie K

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James 0
James 0
2 years ago
Reply to  Albireo Double

Neither Sunak nor Truss have those skills or any vision. Sunak is a paid up member of the plutocracy who wants to keep things as they going thank you very much, and Truss is one the weirdest people I’ve ever set eyes on, like a bad actor playing a barmy politician.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
2 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Horsman

Organic = famine. Ask a Sri Lankan.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
2 years ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

Yes, and that seems to be the plan.

james elliott
james elliott
2 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Horsman

Excellent, succinct summary of what the WEF is trying to do and openly acknowledges it is trying to do.

Shocking how many people do not want to see what they are doing.

Ben Dhonau
Ben Dhonau
2 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Horsman

and who will walk on water and clap their hands to introduce the millennium in a land running with milk and honey

Doug Cowx
Doug Cowx
2 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Horsman

Jeremy Corbyn or Bernie Sanders would have

Peter B
Peter B
2 years ago

Is this another of those “knocking Thatcher” articles by someone who still can’t get over how successful she was ? It certainly looks that way.
My feeling was that the Conservatives would never be re-elected [as a majority government] until Thatcher died – and it pretty much worked out that way. Only then could we start to come to a fair assessment of her legacy and achievements.
I don’t believe Robert Saunders has the slightest understanding of Thatcher’s achievements and appeal. She shared the same sort of no-BS, down to earth appeal that won the Red Wall seats in 2019. The reason she could never do this while in power was the legacy of having to clean up 20-30 years of financial and industrial complacency in a few short years – mainly a result of mass nationalisation, poor management and destructive trade unions. But I doubt that Red Wall voters would prefer modern Labour and Keir Starmer over Thatcher.

Dustin Needle
Dustin Needle
2 years ago
Reply to  Peter B

An entire article that manages to ignore the grass roots popularity of Kemi Badenoch, because to explain it would undermine this article which must have been mostly written 15 years ago. A ‘Nick Cohen’ article, by which I mean you create a false hypothesis and then pile in selective memory/’facts’ to support the falsehood. I hope this ‘historian’ doesn’t actually teach people for day job.

Last edited 2 years ago by Dustin Needle
Jennifer Johnson
Jennifer Johnson
2 years ago
Reply to  Dustin Needle

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Last edited 2 years ago by Jennifer Johnson
James 0
James 0
2 years ago
Reply to  Peter B

We arrived at a fair assessment of her legacy some time ago, and on the whole it isn’t good.

Deregulating the financial sector, integration in the single market, de-unionising the workforce, privatising and selling off public assets… no thank you.

Still, well done for defending the Falklands. And for defeating that prat Scargill. But other than that I’m afraid history is not on her side.

Peter B
Peter B
2 years ago
Reply to  James 0

Just as well you’re not writing the history then. You couldn’t be more wrong.

Doug Cowx
Doug Cowx
2 years ago
Reply to  Peter B

Thatcher destroyed entire industries and the communities that supported them and replaced them with nothing
She destroyed the ‘one nation Tory party and the post war consensus’ no matter who got elected you governed in the interests of the entire country
40 years of neo liberalism have laid bare her legacy, remind us all how ‘trickle down economics’ doesn’t work

Christopher Chantrill
Christopher Chantrill
2 years ago

Eventually the Conservative Party has to follow the US Republican Party which is becoming the party of the Commoner,
Otherwise, what was the point of breaching Labour’s Red Wall?
Can I do you now, Sir?

Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
2 years ago

Which Thatcher would I vote for? Neither of them! Because MT was PM was I born and now my hair is going grey. That’s how fusty it is to still be jostling to be her “true heir”.
Boris somehow managed to combine apeing Churchill (or trying to, it was always a pointless endeavour) with being completely, utterly and totally sui generis. Sunak and Truss manage to combine apeing Thatcher with looking like complete tools.

Last edited 2 years ago by Katharine Eyre
Andrew Wise
Andrew Wise
2 years ago

Neither Truss nor Sunak would wish to be associated with Thatcherā€™s views on homosexuality, single parents or the role of women in the home. 

Really?… There’s a very strong parallel between Thatcher’s fears over schools teaching homosexuality and the current fears over schools teaching gender fluidity.
The early part of the debates were a lot about being “non Woke” – being seen to be woke did for Penny M
And as for the role of Women – one could suggest Thatcher was a fine role model for Women – the problem is other women thought she should be giving them a hand up & she was the ultimate “do it yourself and don’t expect others to do it for you”
There’s no such thing as society – its the power of the individual unleashed from the strictures of the state that matters…. (Not sure any of the candidates understand that though)

Julian Farrows
Julian Farrows
2 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Wise

I’m with you on that. This article raises a few interesting points too: https://www.thinkinghousewife.com/2009/07/why-we-must-discriminate/

Chelsea King
Chelsea King
2 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Wise

I was with you until you said “there’s no such thing as a society – only individuals”. How on earth can you call yourself a Conservative with that kind of mindset? Simple, it’s because you aren’t.

Conservatism is the oldest, and most natural, form of government; even tribes do it. I’d argue Conservatism is the true centre of politics, while Libertarianism is the right-wing. Conservatism is the protection of the society, and it’s people, by forming a group based upon shared characteristics, goals, values and ideas; it’s community based. It’s a mid-sized government, with an emphasis on the society being there to catch you as you fall but not there to coddle you, the importance of community, family, culture, keeping tradition alive for generations to come and thinking long-term. What you describe is Libertarianism, and that, my friend, is what got us here in this god-forsaken mess in the first place.

Last edited 2 years ago by Chelsea King
Andrew Wise
Andrew Wise
2 years ago
Reply to  Chelsea King

I was quoting Thatcher and in the context she said it I agree with her.
And where did you get the idea I’m a Conservative? – Is it just because the majority of the readers of Unherd are right of centre?

Last edited 2 years ago by Andrew Wise
Matt M
Matt M
2 years ago

Iā€™m old enough to remember the smell of defeat in the polls in 2015. Conservative majority was all but ruled out. William Hague asserted he would never see a Tory majority in his life time.

Peter B
Peter B
2 years ago
Reply to  Matt M

Another thing he got wrong then !

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
2 years ago
Reply to  Peter B

Yes, Hague gets everything wrong. And still The Times pays him good money to write for them on a regular basis.

Steve Murray
Steve Murray
2 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

Must be all that ale he claimed to have imbibed whilst working as a drayman in his youth, and “down with the lads”.

Dustin Needle
Dustin Needle
2 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

A common trait amongst all our political failures across the past 25 years is that people are quite happy to pay them to speak. Must be the only industry that embraces failure.

JR Stoker
JR Stoker
2 years ago
Reply to  Matt M

2015? The year Cameron won a clear majority?

Matt M
Matt M
2 years ago
Reply to  JR Stoker

Quite!

M. Jamieson
M. Jamieson
2 years ago

I find it a little odd that so many people look to Thatcher to define conservatism to the degree they do. Thatcher, to me, was notable as someone who was in many ways opposed to real political and economic conservatism, and she was a divisive figure among conservatives of her era for just that reason. I’m not sure there has been any real conservatism on the table in the UK, or the US, since the Thatcher/Reagan era.

Colin Elliott
Colin Elliott
2 years ago

I find it tiresome when such candidates invoke Thatcher. Do they not have enough confidence in persuading us of their own worth?
It is similarly irksome when we are told what someone long dead would have approved of, or not, e.g. Churchill and our membership of the EU. It’s not strongly persuasive, implying a lack of more solid reasons.

James 0
James 0
2 years ago
Reply to  Colin Elliott

Yes, it’s a deeply vacuous and weird display, but it does tell us what they think of the voters: that we’re all a bunch of brainless clapping seals who will only respond to things we know and recognise. Though even by that metric it is flawed, as most voters probably can’t remember the Thatcher years!

A serious political party would find new ideas and craft new policies in line with their core values to meet the challenges of the moment. All this bunch are doing is some weird tribute act to a figure that most of the country either don’t remember or fell out of love with a long time ago.

Andrew Martin
Andrew Martin
2 years ago

I am not particularly concerned about Thatcher. I am concerned that this Government continues to sell off the family silver to all and sundry. Latest to go in a long list is a British satellite Company taken over by the French. What is it with the British psyche that we’re not happy unless a Johnny foreigner is running our businesses?

james elliott
james elliott
2 years ago

Sunak seems more attracted to the early Thatcher. His Thatcher believed in ā€œsound moneyā€, ā€œbalancing the booksā€ and ā€œtackling inflationā€.

This is patently absurd.

Sunak has been Chancellor of the Exchequer for the last few years and poured hundreds of billions into the entirely unnecesary black hole of ‘covid measures’

His claiming to be of the Thatcher school is akin to that demonic moron who governs New York telling an audience, “Jesus would want you get the vaccine…. yeah… yeah”

Will Will
Will Will
2 years ago

Second article by this guy that I have read and so far only good in parts.

Boris Kartoshkin
Boris Kartoshkin
2 years ago

I would agree that all political parties should get over cosplaying. But why to get over Great Brits like Thatcher or Churchill? I found, it will be wiser for Labours get over Marx, Mao and Corbyn.

Maureen Finucane
Maureen Finucane
2 years ago

Nobody has commented on how Liz Truss with her supposedly “deprived childhood” and missed educational opportunities in the eighties could have such regard for Thatcher who was in control during that decade.

M. M.
M. M.
2 years ago

Robert Saunders wrote, “… the two candidates are arguing not only about what they stand for, but about what Margaret Thatcher stood for ā€” and what ‘Thatcherism’ might look like in the future.”

Thatcher stood for pragmatism and realpolitik. Her attitude is epitomized by her assessment (of Mikhail Gorbachev): “I like Mr Gorbachev. We can do business together.” (See the reference.)

Ronald Reagan, like other non-populist conservatives, clung to conservative ideology. Thatcher convinced him to work with Gorbachev and, ultimately, freed Poland, Hungary, and other Eastern European countries from Russian enslavement.

Thatcher’s attitude and reasoning has utility today. The United States is undergoing rapid demographic change (due to its open borders). By 2040, Western culture will decline to the status of a minority culture, and this country will cease being a Western nation. Hispanic culture will become the dominant culture. (In California, Western culture is already rejected by most residents, and Hispanic culture dominates.)

The United States and the United Kingdom (and the rest of Europe) once had a close relationship due to a common Western culture, but by 2040, the United States will cease being a Western nation. If Thatcher were primer minister today, she would have recognized this fact and would have already begun distancing Great Britain from the United States.

Liz Truss is closer to Thatcher’s realpolitik than Rishi Sunak. Truss is the better heir to Thatcher’s legacy.

Get more info about this issue.

Steve Elliott
Steve Elliott
2 years ago
Reply to  M. M.

I don’t think Reagan or Thatcher had much to do with freeing East European countries. Those countries did it themselves.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Elliott

Actually I think they did have at least something to do with it. In standing up to the USSR, Reagan and Thatcher gave the people of eastern Europe a bit more courage and hope than they might otherwise have had.

Steve Elliott
Steve Elliott
2 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

America likes to take credit but those east european countries were all broke and didn’t know how to fix it. Their people were already demonstrating. The force for change came from within. Gorbachev was a key figure because he didn’t intervene.

CHARLES STANHOPE
CHARLES STANHOPE
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Elliott

Ronald Reagan ramping up US Defence spending, includingā€™Star Warsā€™ finished off the Soviet beast in no uncertain terms. ā€˜Theyā€™ just couldnā€™t afford to keep up and had to admit that their seventy year experiment in barbarism was at an end.
Had this not happened the ā€˜Helotsā€™ of Eastern Europe would never have freed themselves.

Peter B
Peter B
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Elliott

Then you are mistaken.
It took Reagan and Thatcher to break the will of the Russians. Ultimately the Russians were no longer able to brutally suppress their Eastern European satellites (or do I mean colonies ?). The Russians were killed off by their failure in Afghanistan (and US funded resistance), their inability to compete with advanced western technology (technical failings and inability to finance it) and the growing reach of international communications (in those days fax machines). That and the sclerotic nature of totalitarian regimes which promote and reward incompetence (nothing’s changed in Russia yet).
It took firm, steadfast leadership to do this.
You may not be grateful. The Eastern Europeans certainly are.

Jeanie K
Jeanie K
2 years ago
Reply to  Peter B

That and the sclerotic nature of totalitarian regimes which promote and reward incompetence (nothingā€™s changed in Russia yet)”
Since covid19 arrived, you could just as so be describing the UK and most of “the West”

Colin Elliott
Colin Elliott
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Elliott

Then why didn’t they do it sooner?

Steve Elliott
Steve Elliott
2 years ago
Reply to  Colin Elliott

I think they had tried earlier but it had to wait for Gorbachev who did not intervene when the communist regimes started to fold. In 1989 when the Berlin wall fell and those regimes crumbled America was mainly a bystander. George Bush had the good sense to watch and wait and not interfere. The Berlin wall didn’t come down because Reagan made a speech. The Germans took it down themselves. People were demonstrating across those countries and their leaders realised, probably reluctantly, that things had to change which it did. All that was internal.

Jeanie K
Jeanie K
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Elliott

nonsense

James 0
James 0
2 years ago
Reply to  M. M.

You seem to have it in for Hispanic people, which I find both odious and silly.

You do know Spanish-language culture derives ultimately from Spain, yes? Not Russia or China. Spain. And I can’t think of a more traditionally “Western” institution than the Catholic Church (which, incidentally, also had a not insignificant role in securing the freedom of Eastern Europe).

As an aside, I’d have thought there are many things “white” American conservatives (for that seems to be what you actually mean by “Western”) would admire about Hispanic culture: an emphasis on family, tradition, hard work, and being against abortion, to name but a few.

Peter B
Peter B
2 years ago
Reply to  M. M.

This is getting tiresome.
If you’ve got something new to say, please do.
But I think we’re all fed up with your Hispanic nonsense now (Have you actually been to California by the way ?).
But, if you’re that sure you’re onto something real, go ahead and write a proper article on it for UnHerd.

Dave Corby
Dave Corby
2 years ago
Reply to  M. M.

While other Western countries are undergoing a change in culture due to peoples who have no common ground at all, the USA is growing due to the Latinos who are generally God-fearing and hard-working, and who have strong family values.
Latinos that I talk to want to secure the border. Illegal immigration hurts us all. We all want a safe country and to live the original ‘American Dream.’
The USA will not ‘cease to be a Western nation’.

M. M.
M. M.
2 years ago
Reply to  Dave Corby

Hispanic culture is quite different from Western culture.

For example, Hispanics expect, demand, and receive preferential treatment.

Hispanics commit murder at 3 times and 6 times the rate at which Americans of European ancestry or Asian ancestry, respectively, commit murder. Get more info about this issue.

Hispanics refuse to assimilate into Western society. They deliberately refuse to study English to the same extent to which Asian-Americans study English.

According to a report by NPR, “students whose home language was Spanish were considerably less likely to reach [English] proficiency than any other subgroup. And, on the extreme end, Spanish speakers were almost half as likely as Chinese speakers to cross the proficiency threshold. … It’s no surprise that researchers studying this trend in the past have used income-based controls ā€” such as whether a child qualifies for free or reduced lunch. Those researchers have still found Spanish speakers lagging [their peers (in other ethnic groups) with similar economic status].” Get more info about this issue.

Consequently, Hispanics are over-represented among students who fail a literacy test for employment as a teacher in elementary and secondary schools. Under pressure from Hispanic organizations, the Board of Regents of New York terminated the use of the literacy test. Get more info about this issue.

M. Jamieson
M. Jamieson
2 years ago
Reply to  M. M.

“Hispanic” which is to say, Spanish speaking? Last time I looked Spain was part o the west, and I’m not sure what else you’d call the Spanish speaking countries of Central and South America if not “western”.

Julian Farrows
Julian Farrows
2 years ago
Reply to  M. M.

I live in an area with a lot of Hispanics. They are very honest and hard-working, doing many of the lousy jobs Americans will no longer do. There are criminal elements, but every culture has some. California is a little different. It’s full of nutcases that seem intent on destroying all vestiges of Western culture, but that seems to be an educated liberal woman kind of thing.

AC Harper
AC Harper
2 years ago

The Conservative Party is always going to hark back to the best bits of the past. It’s in their political nature.
Should the candidates for PM hark back to Blair instead?

Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
2 years ago
Reply to  AC Harper

Please God, no.

Peter B
Peter B
2 years ago
Reply to  AC Harper

Labour candidates certainly should ! A certain vote loser for them now.

Nigel Watson
Nigel Watson
2 years ago

According to Ayn Rand, a society running a mixed economy is a society that’s committing slow-motion suicide. Over my lifetime ((I’m 57) I’ve seen the UK move more and more towards central planning (technocracy) and further away from free market capitalism. The consensus was that Thatcher rolled back the frontiers of the state. However, in my view, she didn’t do nearly enough, e.g. in cash terms, government spending rose during her tenure. This splurge was used to pay welfare benefits and it was finance from taxes levied on N Sea oil extraction. She should have used this tax windfall to cut income tax more radically.
All societies have to resolve the problem of scarcity, brought on by the combination of limited resources unable to fully satisfy unlimited wants. The #NewWorldOrder / #GreatReset whatever it’s called this week is just a new name for technocracy. In this type of system, bureaucrats decide what’s going to be produced. They also decide on the production methods to be used, and finally, which groups in society will get a chance to consume, and who will go without. That’s a lot of power, isn’t it? The ONLY alternative to #technocracy is #freemarket #capitalism, where consumers & producers call all the shots. How many know this? Answer, virtually nobody, because real (free market) economics isn’t taught in 11-16 schools. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyY38-fSYPw&t=190s

M. Jamieson
M. Jamieson
2 years ago
Reply to  Nigel Watson

What did Ayn Rand ever do that we should think she had a clue about how to manage a national economy?

Peter B
Peter B
2 years ago

It is not the Tories who “need to get over Thatcher”. It is the ignorant and deluded commentators like Robert Saunders with their fantasy historical views and pushing their ideological agenda (not helped by the fact that they didn’t live through the period and have no real understanding of what happened and why).

Judy Johnson
Judy Johnson
2 years ago

We still have a shortage of welfare houses because when Thatcher sold the houses they were not replaced.
I wonder if this is because she did not realise how intelligent she was and when others did not achieve as much she thought they were simply not trying hard enough. Neither of our candidates are as intelligent nor as clever as she was.