To what extent do the UK’s major parties accept Thatcherite ideas and policies? Despite Margaret Thatcher being in office from May 1979 till November 1990, her policies can still be seen in effect today. The UK’s major parties, Labour and Conservatives, have taken into consideration her views and policies and adapted them to some extent. Some people can argue that the policies and ideas of Thatcher have “rubbed” off on the major parties; however others say these parties have changed their direction from Thatcher.
The Labour party have still seen Thatcher’s views as valid. For example, in 1997, when Tony Blair was elected as Prime Minister, he did not go around changing all her policies. This means that he agreed with some of the policies of Thatcher but adapted some of them. For example, Blair adapted Thatcher’s view on trade unions. Thatcher believed that trade unions should be minimised, whilst the New Labour adapted this and added that the rights of workers should still be protected by the law. This shows that the New Labour supported some of Thatcher’s views.
However, regarding some of Thatcher’s policies, they disagreed. For example regarding the EU, Blair disagreed. Thatcher wanted complete separation from the EU however, Blair welcomed the idea of the UK being in the centre of the EU. On the other hand, Labour have been seen to completely change Thatcher’s ideas. For example, the Labour party have different views on welfare than the New Right. The New Right believed that welfare and benefits created a dependency culture and were a deterrent from working as people would simply rely on benefits alone.
The Essay on To what extent are the Labour and Conservative parties undemocratic organisations?
or group by the majority of its members. By this definition Labour and Conservative are both democratic organisations because they have elements of policy formulation and MP election processes which are very democratic in nature as they involve a wide range of people within the party. However there are also undemocratic features about both these organisations such as one, or small group of people, ...
Whereas the New Labour believed that welfare and benefits should be used to motivate people to work and to take responsibility for one’s own prosperity. This shows that the New Labour have not followed the ideas of Thatcher exactly. However, some of Thatcher’s policies have been followed by Labour. One of Thatcher’s policies was privatisation of national industries. For example, in 1984, BT was privatised under Thatcher with over 50% of their shares sold to investors. Thatcher did this to because she thought that the process of privatising some industries would encourage competition and reduce prices.
Compared to the modern Conservative party, the ideas are similar. David Cameron has done this by privatising Royal Mail. However, it can be said that the extent to which Thatcher had privatised, David Cameron has not. On the other hand, Thatcher’s idea of a One Nation has been seen as fading away as David Cameron takes control over the Conservative Party. For example, Thatcher’s idea of rights and liberties were of a lower priority than order and security. Whereas David Cameron has done the opposite.
