Dancing with Dogma: Thatcherite Britain in the Eighties

Ian Gilmour delivers a coup-de-grace to any sort of credibility Margaret Thatcher has post-Pinochet. She is shown to be dogmatic and narrow minded - and the mud sticks. Gilmour relentlessly chips away at the lies and half-truths of the Thatcher years - leaving the bare bones of failed policies and missed chances. Thatcherism is exposed as a historical anomaly - with no basis in the Conservative party of the UK but more in common with the US republican party. History has shown this book to be correct in a lot of it's assertions, particulary where it states that Thatcherism in fact never had a hold on the hearts of the majority of the British public - a fact born out by the speedy marginalisation of her since then. This book is one to make British right wingers squirm - and quite justifiably so. It is time to set the record straight, without the help of the Murdoch press.

Entertaining but oh, the benefit of hindsight (2/3 people found this helpful)

Sir Ian Gilmour was one of the most prominent critics of the early years of Thatcherism. A memeber of her first cabinet and self-styled 'Wet' Conservative, he penned this missive in the twilight of the Thatcher era. A staunch Conservative of the older,patrician type, Gilmour believed that Thatcherism 'will be seen as an aberration in the long distinguished history of the Tory party'

That this book is entertaining is not in doubt, a highly educated man, Gilmour dissects the follies of some aspects of econmic policy initiatives (the maniacal commitment to a bastardised form of monetarist theory) with vim and considerable cogency. This he proceeds to so with virtually every aspect of her rule. Crime, Welfare, foreign policy and unemployment all come in for attack from his pen.

What does irritate however, is the rather vacuous nature of the philosophy underlying this work. Gilmour is committed to what he calls 'One-Nation' Toryism. In reality this seems to involve appeasing extreme left-wing lobby groups with as much good grace as possible, accepting a rather marxist look on the triumph of socialism as being inevitable. Thatcher, by contrast saw her role as rolling back the left-wing tide, a task which she undertook as vigorously as she could. That is not to deny that errors were made, but to argue that to have followed Gilmour's prescriptions would have left Britain mired in the rather depressing condition it was during much of the 1970's.

Nevertheless, this book is very useful for the researcher both of political history, and poltical philosophy - seeing the outlook of those Conservatives that preceded Thatcher and who are now an almost extinct breed - a sad day for politics and the country

Dancing with Dogma: Thatcherite Britain in the Eighties

Ian Gilmour

Reader Reviews:

A demolition of Thatcherite dogma (3/5 people found this helpful)

Entertaining but oh, the benefit of hindsight (2/3 people found this helpful)

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