To What Extent Is the Modern Conservative Party Influenced by Thatcherite Principles

To what extent is the modern Conservative Party influenced by “Thatcherite” principles?

Ever since Thatcher revolutionized politics, her ideas have been incorporated into every government’s manifesto since. Her ideas were relatively authoritarian and very conservative for the time; she proposed ideas in terms of economic policy such as privatization, low taxes and deregulation of the market and also encouraged national patriotism, as well as placing a greater emphasis on law and order. It is a matter debate as to how far Cameron’s modern Conservative party incorporates these ideas into his government.

Economically David Cameron would be seen to have been influenced heavily by Thatcherite thinking. His policies such as privatization of companies like the Royal Mail are similar to what Thatcher introduced as during her time in office she privatized companies such as British Telecom and British Gas. As well as this Cameron also introduced welfare cuts that Thatcher also brought in, as she believed benefits brought with them a “culture of dependency”. David Cameron also employed another Thatcherite policy to cut the deficit; instead of increasing taxes, he introduced spending cuts. This is very similar to what Thatcher did as she believed in taxing people as little as possible and in order to get the country out of recession when she was in power she made a lot of cuts especially to the public sector. These fiscal policies show that Thatcher and Cameron share a common mind-set that people should be able to keep what they earn and with enough hard work, one should be rewarded.

Cameron would also be considered a Thatcherite in the way he views the role of big government. Both he and Thatcher believe that the state should do less and the people do more to help each other. This was known as the Big Society in David Cameron’s manifesto and Thatcher often talked about “rolling back the state”. Both him and Thatcher were also euro sceptical; Thatcher in her time wanted more power to be transferred from the EU to Britain and Cameron is proposing an IN or OUT referendum that suggests he is not happy with Europe’s influence in Britain. These policies show that both Thatcher and Cameron wanted to devolve and give more power to local government.

Lastly Cameron would be considered a Thatcherite in his defence policy. He outlined in his 2015 manifesto that he would renew trident that would take up most of the military budget. This is very similar to Thatcher who was the Prime Minister who started the Trident programme and worked alongside Reagan to increase nuclear capabilities. This shows that both Cameron and Thatcher were committed to updating nuclear power even if it was not an immediate need

However in some cases Cameron is not particularly Thatcherite. For example regarding the NHS, Cameron is a lot more committed to health spending than Thatcher who probably wanted to privatize it but was unable to gain the support to do so. Cameron pledged in 2011 to increase real health spending and keep GP surgeries open on the weekend. From this it is clear that Thatcher and Cameron’s views differ as Cameron is committed to the NHS and Thatcher is not.