Posts Tagged ‘Tories’
Thatcher and Enoch Powell.
And never satisfies.
Yesterday on Question Time Charles Moore, the author of the soon-to-be published updated biography of Margaret Thatcher, spoke vociferously in defence of her memory and legacy.
He practically foamed with anger at those who ‘disrespected’ her with protests and Death Parties.
Charles Moore combines a boundless admiration for Thatcher with warm feelings towards one of Thatcher’s major influences, Enoch Powell.
Writing of the later Moore said last year,
Powell’s passion was a virtue as well, because political leaders should be able to feel and to dramatise the history that makes a nation what it is.
His commitment to the British nation state, and above all to the Parliament which embodied it, made him pay relentless attention to the visceral issues which lay behind the questions of the day. “Enoch was right”, taxi drivers always used to say 25 years ago.
They meant, right about the dangers of mass immigration. Some of them were racists, but I don’t think most were. They had a pride in the identity of their nation and a fear when they felt it threatened. Powell spoke to these feelings, and although his language was inflammatory, he was right to raise the subject.
If you were around in the 1970s it was not necessary to see the connection between Thatcher and Powell, even after Powell had been forced out of the Conservative Party.
One could simply feel the strong bond.
But if proof were needed Thatcher later said this – on Powell’s views on immigration.
In an interview for Today shortly after her departure from office in 1991, Margaret Thatcher said that Powell had “made a valid argument, if in sometimes regrettable terms.” (Wikipedia)
In more detailed terms the connection is described as follows.
“The former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, based many of her defining policies along the lines of Enoch Powell’s rhetoric. There are not a great many differences; although Margaret Thatcher did make attempts to curtail immigration, it was not to the extent that Powell had proposed in 1968. Thatcher also intended to greatly reduce the power of the welfare state and national assistance, which Powell had not been so enthusiastic about.”
Andrew Gamble was to call Thatcherism the politics of the “Free Market and the Strong State” .
It was this ideological debt to Powell as well as the New Right that he referred to.
People were forced to be free on the market, and if they didn’t like it they would be stamped on.
Richard Seymour’s Obituary of Thatcher is well worth reading on these links.
When admirers of Thatcher talk of how ‘vicious’ the 1970s left was, and had tasteless and hateful those holding Thatcher death parties are, look at the poem of her hero above.
Its stench is hard to forget.
Ben Gummer Ipswich MP to Consecrate Shrine to Baroness Thatcher.
Lady Lane, The Beautiful Site for New Shrine to Baroness Thatcher.
Ben Gummer Ipswich MP (Con), Minister for Ipswich, Mayor of Ipswich and leader of the National Amalgamated Associated Operatives for Bankers* gives an alternative view in this guest post on Tendance Coatesy.
Thatcher was the most truly great PMs in this country’s history.
I met her several times over the years – the last time was at the funeral of Ted Heath – and she always had time for me.
She did more to form modern Britain than any other person. She reversed decline and gave the nation a most significant endowment, a renewed spirit of confidence, enterprise and endeavour.
I would like to add that Baroness Thatcher inspired me to go into politics.
As a lad, taking pot shots at some ne’er-do-well peasants on the Suffolk Estates of my father (now Baron Deben), I played my part in that spirit of endeavour and enterprise.
The people of Ipswich owe a lot to her work.
The closure of the Ransomes and Rapier in 1987 and the clearing of the Engineering firms, and other industry based at the head of the River Orwell paved the way for today’s much-needed Neptune Marina.
Without this reversal of decline would the much-loved Bistro On The Quay be there?
That is why, with a committee of local figures, we have formed the Lady Lane Shrine group.
A historic site, dedicated to our Lady, will become the destination for new pilgrimages.
This time in Baroness Thatcher’s Honour.
The young folk begging in the gutters of Ipswich and sleeping in doorways will find great consolation in this.
Gifts and tributes to the former PM can be placed at my Central Ipswich Office.
We are pleased to have received the sponsorship of Wonga Dot Com.
*From Ben’s Blog, latest post:
Three Cheers for the Bankers 29th March 2013.
My post a few weeks ago included a letter from City UK, which lobbies on behalf of the financial services sector. It is a clever outfit, because despite its name it works hard to represent companies and employees working outside London in other financial centres across the country. And they know how to lobby: with the letter came a factsheet on my constituency. Frankly, in the case of Ipswich they don’t need to do any explaining – the numbers speak for themselves.
There are two things to note here. First, that of all places in Britain we should be the last to indulge in ‘banker bashing’. There are a few in London who give this sector a bad name but in the main people working in financial services are very normal: they might even be your neighbour or the person who you sat next to on the bus this morning.
Secondly, this sector produces enormous amounts of wealth – the better part of £1 billion in Ipswich alone. Without it, we would not be able to afford Ipswich Hospital or your local primary school or the roads, not perfect as they all may be.
Ex-Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher dies, aged 87, a Nation Mourns.
British Mourning for Thatcher (Photo courtesy of the Daily Mail).
No attempt at ethical or social seduction can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
The BBC has just reported,
Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has died “peacefully” at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke, her family has announced.
David Cameron called her a “great Briton” and the Queen spoke of her sadness at the death.
Work Programme a “failure” at 3,5% Job Rate.
Mr 3,5%, Ian Duncan Smith.
The BBC has just reported on the dismal failure of the Work Programme,
Official figures showed only 3.53% of people found a job for six months or more – missing the 5.5% target.
Ministers said it was “early days” and the programme was succeeding in getting people off benefits and into work.
The figures, which cover the 13 months from June 2011 to July 2012, showed 3.53% of people were still in employment six months after joining the Work Programme.
The Department for Work and Pensions had told providers they should get 5.5% of people on the programme into sustained employment.
Faced with this poor result Employment minister Mark Hoban took a stand of stout denial.
He said: “It’s still early days, but already thousands of lives are being transformed.”
Indeed they have.
Hundreds and hundreds of posts and comments on Ipswich Unemployed Action have described the incompetence, the bullying, the downright cheating, used by companies operating the Work Programme.
For those on the Programme their lives are have changed – for the worse.
The New Statesman comments,
But by any measure (including the government’s), this is a bad start for what David Cameron hailed as “the biggest back-to-work programme since the 1930s”.
Meanwhile the rats are leaving the sinking ship.
We learn that as as from 31 October this year David Blunkett is no longer an adviser for A4E.
A Letter from Ben Gummer (MP, Ipswich) to this Blog – no this is not made up.
Dear Andrew,
Catching up on your blog today I saw the article about FIND.
You’ll be horrified to know that I agree with you, at least in part: the need for food banks is indeed an indictment of our welfare system.
However, and here you will be pleased to know, we diverge: it is not to do with Tory reforms but more to do with inheritance. The multiplicity of benefits available; the appalling bureaucracy that surrounds their administration; the poor training of many staff: all of this means that some people are not served as quickly or as efficiently as they should. It is not the fault of anyone in particular – it is the result of the accretive nature that our benefits system and the way it has developed over successive governments.
I hope that the Universal Credit, which will bring almost all benefits together and will work in “real time”, will sort much of this out. It is a massive project, however, and will take five years to be completed. In the meantime I will have to continue to do battle with the various agencies that administer benefits on behalf of the many people who come to me in the hope of some help in wading through the mire.
Yours,
Ben
——————————————
Ben Gummer
Member of Parliament for Ipswich
9 Fore Street
Ipswich
Suffolk IP4 1JW
01473 232 883
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA
+44 (0) 20 7960 7090
I merely point out to Comrade Ben that there is still a camp of the homeless about five hundred metres from the above address (the Ipswich one).
What is being done to help these people?
