What Would Mrs. Thatcher Have Made of This Man?
In our our discussion on Uncommon Knowledge this week, Claire, you argue that Margaret Thatcher achieved changed British politics profoundly, achieving a permanent victory. What would the Iron Lady have made of the election last week of the leftist Ed Miliband as the new leader of the Labour Party?
Googling around this morning, here’s what I’ve been able to find out about the 40-year old Mr. Miliband:
- Ed Miliband’s principal opponent in the leadership contest was his older brother, the former Foreign Secretary David Miliband. David stood unambiguously for continuing the New Labour policies of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown—in a word, for the “third way,” the centrist attempt to support the welfare state while also standing for economic growth. Young Ed stood instead for a move back to the left.
- How far to the left? Not all the way back to the position of Michael Foot, who, as leader of the Labour Party during Mrs. Thatcher’s first years in office, continued to call for state ownership of all means of production. But still. Ed Miliband wants higher taxes. He demonstrates particular animosity to the City, London’s financial district, calling for a new transactions tax and insisting on making permanent the tax on bonuses, which former Prime Minister Gordon Brown enacted as a one-time tax during the financial crisis.
- Ed Miliband’s intellectual pedigree traces back to the hard left. His father, Ralph, was a Marxist theorist. After attending Oxford, Ed studied at the London School of Economics, an institution that retains a fundamentally statist outlook
- Although he won with support of the trade unions, his experience of the working class—or, for that matter, of work itself, as most understand the term—is nugatory. After graduating from Oxford and the London School of Economics, he worked briefly in television, then became a speechwriter for Harriet Harman, a leading figure in the Labour Party. Miliband has remained in government and politics ever since. Unmarried, he lives with a partner, by whom he has one child.
Miliband represents, then, a pure artifact of what Tony Blair used to call “cool Britannia.” Untouched by physical labor, lacking any experience whatsoever of business, completely uninterested in the military.
What would Mrs. Thatcher have made of this man? She was serious. He? Miliband may prove me wrong, but he certainly appears an utter lightweight. Does his election suggest that the Britain she strove to create—free, proud, and, once again, a power in world affairs—has simply…evanesced?
Claire?
- Comment (9)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
Comments :
Aug '10
Re: What Would Mrs. Thatcher Have Made of This Man?
How does Miliband feel about Manic Street Preachers ?
Re: What Would Mrs. Thatcher Have Made of This Man?
As Blair was to Clinton, Milliband is Obama.
Aug '10
Re: What Would Mrs. Thatcher Have Made of This Man?
Guess it's absurd to, but instructive: Chamberlain to Roosevelt
Re: What Would Mrs. Thatcher Have Made of This Man?
By the way, really enjoying your Uncommon Knowledge interview with Claire. Incisive, articulate and extraordinarily attractive... and she's pretty good too. No, seriously, it's great. U.K. is the best interview show on television--and should be on television.
Re: What Would Mrs. Thatcher Have Made of This Man?
Ah, Drew, I thank you. (And your check is in the mail.)
May '10
Re: What Would Mrs. Thatcher Have Made of This Man?
A nice analogy. As the left loses the center it reverts to type. And this fellow Millibrand does resemble his American counterpart in his lack of "heft".
But surely the American right can do better than a David Cameron? Or is it that as the left settles into better definition, we are still waiting for the "new conservative" to emerge? Someone who can weave together all the various strands of conservatism, and bring in the new Tea Party movement?
As for the original question, "What would Mrs. Thatcher have made of this man?", I suspect she would have recognized his sort from well off, and would have deflected him with little effort. She did battle with much more significant lefties.
Jul '10
Re: What Would Mrs. Thatcher Have Made of This Man?
my interest is Scotland, where some 70% of workers are employed by the Government; and the Government is, of course, subsidized by the English part of the archipelago.
And what I have noticed is that the Scottish Government/Bureaucracy has slipped into the place once occupied by the Lairds/Landowners. The difference is, the Lairds were capable of making decisions and risking their wealth on projects like canals. The Socialist Bureaucrats/Intelligentsia have coasted along throughout the 20th century doing nothing much but putting more and more people on welfare. Campbeltown, once a great ocean trading centre, is a good example of this. And then there is the Clyde, whose great shipbuilding industry was killed off after WWII (when acolytes of the Webbs, the Fabian Socialists took over Parliament.)
And now, anti-semitism is flourishing in the land of Churchill and Thatcher.
Edited on Sep 27, 2010 at 2:12pmAug '10
Re: What Would Mrs. Thatcher Have Made of This Man?
In a column in the Guardian today, demanding a return to a society of "fairness" and an increase in regulatory agencies etc., there was the following sentence:
"Open competitive markets that deny monopoly and offer proportional returns to productive entrepreneurs are the handmaidens of genuine wealth creation; monopoly and market rigging that reward the incumbent and unproductive are its enemies."
The fact that the Guardian is arguing for "wealth creation" at all is a sign that Thatcher's legacy is still present.
Aug '10
Re: What Would Mrs. Thatcher Have Made of This Man?
heathermc: my interest is Scotland, where some 70% of workers are employed by the Government [...] · Sep 27 at 1:44pm
Edited on Sep 27 at 02:12 pm
70% seems fabulous, impossible.
This press release (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2010/03/17102455) claims public sector employment at 24.8%, high, but not so different from the US, for example.
Where does the 70% figure come from? Are there state owned businesses that don't fall under the rubric of public sector?