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Originally Posted by Cyfr
I didn't realise you were refering to then.
...the previous socialist government had wrecked the economy, was keeping millions of people in work when there was no profit to be made...
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I know this is thread drift but CYFR...
I am not a fan of old labour at all but I do feel there was more to it than blaming Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan.
McMillan's (Tory) economic outlook was similar to Wilsons (Lab) in it's primary aim was high employment, something voters in the 60's wanted from governments. The union movement gained strength from both parties in power during that period.
Heath (Tory) in 70 tried but failed to manage the economy and realign the social contract (workers/unions and business) more in favour of business. Thats when Britain had the 3 day week, power cuts and strikes (under the Tories).
Wilson was re-elected in 74 but the 60's politics had been replaced by 70's realism. In 76 Wilson resigned and the social contract was over. Callaghan introduced monatarism in 76, (not Thatcher in 79) ending the social contract, curbing union power, imposing wage restraint, controlled the money supply resulting in high unemployment and which resulted in the waves on industrial action you see nostalgically in old news film.
There is a strong argument that the Callaghan government had the balance right (between fiscal and monetary policy) and that Thatcher just carried on Callaghans economic policy but to an extreme (she did). However the mood of the country wasn't for Labour's tougher economic monetarist policies exemplified in the Satchi much vaunted poster; 'Labour isn't working' (with a photo of long line of unemployed). The Thatcher victory was ironic as we ended up with 5million unemployed but the same policies, just more extreme.
To suggest that Thatcher cured Britains ill's is just a convenient rewrite. And to suggest Britain isnt the 'sick man of europe' now thanks to Thatcher (and knock the French and Germans) is double think. You can't on the one hand reject everything French or German and say we have got it right in Britain with low unemployment, restrictived union legislation, free markets, control of money supply, and then blame Blair for Britain supposedly now being 'sick under Labour'.
Besides, French people and German people (without a dose of Thatcherism) still maintain a higher standard of living than British people, so where's does that leave the argument?
One irony is political yo-yoing going on. McMillans fiscal, pro union, high emloyment, Tory govt tells us "we have never had it so good" Callaghans Labour, monetist, high unemmployment, anti union govt and we are told 'we have never had it so bad'. And now Cameron is coming back to no tax cuts and better investment in public services as a priority.