Bogey(wo)man

The myths of Thatcherism

The idea that Britain has, until these past few weeks, been under the ‘spell’ of Thatcherism, even that her so-called ideology unleashed a wave of ‘mental illness’ amongst a consumption-obsessed public shows the powerful grip that the bogeyman of Thatcherism still has on public debate. But that is all Thatcherism is today: a bogeyman, a dirty word uttered by liberal commentators to describe everything bad that has happened in British politics since 1979.

I am implacably opposed to everything Thatcher stood for, but the transformation of this woman into a uniquely powerful, ideologically driven maker of crises, who single-handedly turned Britain from a fair country into a place of ‘unbridled capitalism’  is built on historical ignorance, political cowardice, and a desperate desire to avoid at any cost a serious debate about capitalism itself.
Brendan O'Neill