THE THATCHER LEGACY PART ONE



“Her legacy is public division, private selfishness and a cult of greed that together shackle the human spirit.” Guardian editorial 09.04.13

 
Thatcher with Pinochet
My mother always said you should not speak ill of the dead. For my part I always thought the dead indifferent to criticism, the living on the other hand can sometimes receive psychic wounding. So should anyone experience offence at what I am about to write they can go take refuge in the page after page of eulogies in the newspapers feeding the Thatcher legend, or simply not read on.

Some basic facts:-

The financial crash of 2008 was a direct result of the Thatcher legacy of deregulation of the financial market, an ideology swallowed whole by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, this created casino capitalism, with an inbuilt assurance from the government that no matter how irresponsible the market behaved it would be protected. We all live with the consequences

The assault on the trade union movement that she initiated has led to a decline in working conditions, employment rights, terms and conditions and a decline in life chances for the children of the poor and marginalized  The suffering she inflicted on mining communities should never be forgotten.

The cult of ‘greed is good’ that she initiated has left the whole of society culturally impoverished and divided in a way not seen since the turn of the 19th century. Even in the 1930’s human solidarity provided a more solid framework of resistance to poverty. Thatcher’s tactics of divide and rule sought to break down these bonds of human solidarity and communal support, the whole of society has became more squalid and impoverished as a result.

Her support of apartheid South Africa, constantly seeking to dilute sanctions, and damage resistance to the South African racist ideology, provided invaluable cover to this vile regime and played a role in delaying its demise.  It is difficult to explain this other than being rooted in an innate racism.

Her much acclaimed opposition to tyranny was restricted purely to the Communist Bloc; she was indifferent to racism and offered succor to South American tyrannies in Chile and apartheid South Africa.

I will leave it for others to laud her for the things she called correctly, but one thing is worth remembering, she never enjoyed the support of the majority of the British people.



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