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Thursday, May 28, 2015

The Queen’s Speech - and the Ghost of Margaret Thatcher roars with approval


My new column for Sputnik International:

Margaret Thatcher may have died in 2013, but the Queen's Speech shows that Thatcherism lives on - and is indeed in rude health in David Cameron's Britain.
Despite the early mention of the phrase 'One Nation' and the claims that it was a Queen's Speech for 'working people', the legislative program of the new Conservative government announced on Wednesday owed far more to Mrs Thatcher, and her neoliberal and neoconservative ideology, than it did to Harold Macmillan. Once again Cameron has shown that he's the man who talks like a 'center-ground' moderate but whose polices are actually quite extreme. Consider the key proposals:

You can read the whole piece here:

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Once again another fantastic piece! I was on my way to work this morning discussing several of these same points admittedly a lot less eloquently!!! The "full employment" seems to me nothing but a ruse as it's linked with people whom work 30 hours or less will pay no tax on minimum wage so therefore these same people bottom of the wage pile won't want more than 30 hours But......the jobs will still require being staffed full-time and that's where the magic happens in my eyes in so far as dangle the 30 hour minimum wage tax free which really is a penalty to those who seek longer hours but it isn't viable financially then this releases another 30 hour minimum wage opening without having to create another job at all and in the meantime get people into these poorly paid jobs and of benefits Saving government spending!!! Thatcher would be over the moon indeed! Excuse my ramblings as I lack your obvious talent in explaining these issues but once again a great article of the highest quality! Also I'm waiting with baited breath this latest FIFA scandal which smells of the cold war rather than corruption!!!

Neil Clark said...

Thanks del- much appreciated! Yes- the devil of this Queen's Speech really is in the detail isn't it?