Conservatism vs. Labour Essay

Another difference in views is the way in which households in Britain are taxed. The Conservatives believe that income taxes should be lower in some households. However, the labour party believes that the more that you earn the more you should be taxed. The last difference that I will be comparing is the way in which each party view families. The Conservative Party has a very traditional view on family which is a mother, father and two children whereas the Labour Party is more accepting of single parent households.

But has the Conservative party actually abandoned Thatcherism? Considering the points displayed in this essay, I have come to the conclusion that Cameron’s ‘progressive’ party may not so adverse to Thatcherism at all. The most important issues over specific reforms raised by the current Conservative Government seem to be highly influenced by the ideas of Thatcher. What is essential to point out is that times have evolved since the Thatcher timeframe and the Conservatives have had to evolve along with these times and adapt their attitudes to gain support from the electorate who view the ‘Iron Lady’s’ concepts as out of date. As to any argument, there are two sides to the story; let us remember that Cameron’s Government has only had the chance

As stated by Holmes, in the 1980s, there was a lot of chaos in the party as Margaret Thatcher had moved the party to the extreme right amongst other things, making her members of parliament keen to replace her. She was replaced by John Major in 1990 who won four successive elections. Between 1900 and 2000, the conservatives were in power two-third of the time. The period in time when they were not in power, was in 1997 were they lost the election and also in 2001.At that point time, the conservative leaders were (William Hague and Iain Duncan smith) who struggled to win back votes of the people. The policies that were left by Margret Thatcher were not favoured by the people. In 2003, Michael Howard (right winger) revived the conservatives but the conservatives were defeated by the liberal democrat party in the 2005 general election. (Holmes pg276-277)

One area in which Major faced criticism from his own party was on his policy of taxation, which has been pointed out as a break in continuity from the Thatcher years. The hugely unpopular poll tax was, rightly, one of the first casualties of the Major administration. His self-styled 'compassionate conservatism' was at odds with the die-hard Thatcherite elements of the party. Direct taxation was raised by £10.3bn , although he did introduce a reduced rate of 20p for a small number of taxpayers in an attempt to widen the tax base and spread the burden more thinly. There was an increase in 'stealth taxation' for example extending the range of VAT to previously zero-rated items and in fact raising the standard rate of Vat from 15 to 17.5%; perhaps the appropriate step in a recession, but at odds with the Thatcher legacy when, in the early 1980s recession, she cut tax. This in fact is one of the areas in which he drew strong criticism from those in the Conservative Party who wished to see him stick a little more faithfully to the Thatcher line.

Margaret Thatcher introduced right wing ideas which sought to break away from the post war Keynesian consensus on state welfare (Scott-Samuel et al, 2014 pg 54). The conservative shifted to ideas of free market economics and the advocated for responsibility of the individual families for their own welfare and moral traditional values. Privatization and marketization was introduced into utilities such as water, electricity and gas. There was encouragement of free market ideas in health care and massive cuts on social welfare and reductions in state pensions.

History has shown us how monopolizing corporations reigned in the nineteenth century. In the present day, we can attribute the Industrial Revolution for creating the higher standard of living expected from our daily lives. This being true, there was an excessive and, too many times, an atrocious, expense paid in human misery to attain this customary way of living. Throughout the gilded age railroads were being constructed, Industrialization was climbing, the population of United States was growing histrionically and corporate industries were becoming chiefly dominant. The Industrialization era is known for being notorious for its corruption and corporate supremacy. Not until the Labor movement did people start to contest and it was not until

Such an anti-collectivist momentum was plainly noticeable in the New Right’s political agenda. When Margaret Thatcher took up her office as Prime Minister, the situation she had to deal with proved to be more complicated than expected. Furthermore, criticisms of various kinds came from almost every stratum of the society. Firstly, economists claimed not only that the budget intended to cover the welfare state was disproportionately high, but also that the government could have distributed those resources better, for instance, to fund other productive sectors.

The increase in the investment rate did however hold significance for the level of inflation during the period which was attributed to the shortage in the labour market. Sargent argues that the higher levels of investment, fig 7, in new machinery led to a greater requirement of labour than was released through the scrapping of old equipment and the growth of the labour market, leading to wage push inflation. The period of 1952-1963 saw chronic rises in, prices as illustrated in fig 4 and though the threat of inflation was of significant concern in the implementation of policies the conservative government never really managed to control the rate of increases. There were consecutive attempts to bring the level of inflation down with the government maintaining a current account surplus throughout the period. Many of the policies were still deemed as having too high of an inflationary risk, such as the expansionary policies of 1952-1955 where tax cuts were offered during a period where the economy was overheating suffering chronic inflation.

Thatcher inherited a country in a deep recession, politically and economically unstable, with an almost-bankrupt government and rising inflation and unemployment (Shwayder, 2013). She chose to battle this threat by attacking the seemingly indomitable trade unions and by privatizing institutions that were traditionally state-run, such as housing projects and public transit. Her policies reduced inflation and interest rates but pushed up unemployment to between 3.6 and 5 million, stunting Britain’s manufacturing output (Lakhani, 2013). Thatcher undoubtedly shattered some deeply held beliefs when she led the male dominated Conservative party to victory in the 1979 general election. However, the glass ceiling still remains firm.

The term “Science” originated from French basically meaning “knowledge”. By that definition, Politics certainly is a Science. Politics is empirical; it evaluates both quantitative and qualitative data. While many contest that Political Science is not a science because of the general inability to fully quantify things such as human decision and public opinion, significant portions also deal with demographics, voting patterns, and the economy.

Thatcher sought to dismantle the post war or democratic consensus due to her contempt for Socialism and the welfare state mentality (Veldman, 150). She believed that it produced a ‘dependency culture’ in which people had no incentives to work and were too dependent on government provided services (Jones, 26/35). By reducing local governments responsibilities, it limited its role in economic and social intervention (Veldman, 98-9, 101). This was the result of her belief in free markets and competition driven enterprises—believing competition to produce increased efficiency. To achieve her goals in dismantling the post war consensus, Thatcher began taking steps to limit/undermine the power of Local

The new Conservative Government differed significantly from the Conservative Governments that had been in power throughout the ‘Butskellism’ era. Butskellism is an acronym derived from the cross party consensus on state welfare and housing that had dominated since the 1950s (Alcock, May & Wright, 2012). The Conservatives New Right ideology was one that advocated privatisation, managerialism and competitive markets. The ideology supported the sale and privatisation of National commodities such as British Steel, British Telecom, and other utilities such as water, gas, and electric (Bochel, 2012). Housing did not escape the Conservative Governments goal of complete privatisation; according to Legislation.gov.uk (2015), in August 1980, chapter 51 of the Housing Act 1980 incorporated the right to buy scheme. As supported by Baldock et al (2012), the right to buy refers to a housing policy that supported the compulsory sale of council

Thatcher government followed a set of policy objectives. These objectives supported the rearrangement of the social process, overthrow of working-class solidarities and politics privatization. (Lovenduski 31). According to Bulpitt (1986) the main function of Thatcherisms was to “...legitimize policies that have been determined largely on the basis of pragmatic considerations.” (Bulpitt 4/1). For many scholars Thatcherism is more than only a style of leadership. Thatcherism is a political platform this platform puts emphasis on free markets, the individual, tax cuts and the restraint of government in private economy, and last but not

Margret Thatcher was the Prime Minister in the United Kingdom between 1979 to 1990. Although other people may be of the opinion that her policy reforms were of good intents to Britain, a critical analysis from a neutral viewpoint may reveal the opposite. As Goodwin puts it, Thatcher`s policies towards the European integration were pragmatic in practice, but aggressive in tone . The policies were characterized by public articulation that was thought to be of best interests to the United Kingdom. Generally, Thatcher`s policies were implemented after the claim that they would promote small states, free markets, privatization, cut taxes and lower inflation2. However, a more indepth analysis can reveal how the policies resulted in mass unemployment, social housing crisis, privatization, reduced powers of trade unions, poverty and inequality and poll tax. As it will be shown by the evidence presented herein, Thatcher’s policies did more damage than good to the interests of Britain. The following are the various negative consequences that resulted from the implementation of Thatcher’s policies.

Privatisation was often done very successfully and many of the companies that were privatised survived and some provided better services - as an example, in 1984 the privatisation of British Telecom (BT) occurred. Waiting lists for telephones decreased and then disappeared, and faults were generally fixed quicker after it become a private company. These successes Conservative government claimed that "despite the family silver being sold, at least the new owners are keeping it well polished." Part of the Thatcher governments economic policy was the large changes in taxation, where people generally had to pay less income tax on their earnings. This targets the Black market and helps eliminate it through the decrease of the unemployment cycle. This means that overall the Government is likely to gain more tax as more people will be employed in tax earning employment rather than through cash in hand. This shows that the source is correct in its claim that these were very important factors in the change in Britain 's economic policy, which makes the source more useful to a study into her economic policies.