A guest post by G.A.
At the next UK General Election it looks like the biggest threat to Scottish Independence supporting parties will come from Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, but when Starmer praised Thatcher recently, and said how he admired how she “delivered meaningful change”, he may have just lost a great deal of votes. From people who remember (or know, by reading their history) quite what changes Thatcher wrought.
Starmer is actually peddling myths about one of the most destructive Prime Ministers in political history, whose policies we are still paying for. Certainly no one can dispute that Thatcher made a lot of ‘meaningful changes’….which resulted in …unemployment soaring, industries collapsing, important public assets being privatised, trade union power being eroded, and a HUGE increase in inequality.
… even in the last 14 years, while people’s standard of living has remained static or reduced, the number of billionaires in the UK has gone from 15 to 170.
The 1970s saw a time when inequality was at a historical low, but from Thatcher onwards that inequality has risen dramatically. That was set in train by Thatcher. It’s an illustration of this that even in the last 14 years, while people’s standard of living has remained static or reduced, the number of billionaires in the UK has gone from 15 to 170.
One of the myths being peddled is that she unleashed entrepreneurialism. The opposite is true… witness that rather than “dragging Britain out of its stupor” (a quote from Starmer) UK economic growth was actually lower in the 80s than in the 70s. Thatcher was PM for the entire decade of the 80s. She was not an entrepreneur, she was an asset stripper. Even the old guard of her own party said as much, with Harold MacMillan famously saying that she was “selling off the family silver”…. by privatising public assets like Energy, Water, the Post Office and many more. The classic ones were Energy and Water.
Even the old guard of her own party said as much, with Harold MacMillan famously saying that she was “selling off the family silver”….
When the recent Energy crisis hit, France for example capped increases at 4% while here prices doubled. That’s what privatisation delivers…the largest ever transfer of wealth from the many to the few. What was once a collective asset owned by us all, is now a cash cow for speculative investment capital.
The same is true of the Water companies, who have raised bills, sold off assets, failed to invest in infrastructure, paid themselves handsomely, and dumped sewage into our rivers and seas.
Deregulating the Financial sector resulted in it going bust in spectacular fashion in 2008.
So for Starmer to embrace Thatcher as “an agent of change ” is deeply offensive (and I have been Labour by instinct and background and upbringing all my life). Instead of praising Thatcher he should be puncturing the myth of Thatcher, not perpetuating it.
Let’s hope that enough voters will see through this calamitous ‘Tory lite’ Labour party, and see that the only way for Scotland to flourish is Independence. It is our last and only chance to ensure a successful future for our children and grandchildren and all future generations.
Life as a Sandwich Filling 