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More radical than Thatcher?

dust1n

Zindīq
The coalition is trying to push through quicker and more vigorous reforms than attempted by either Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair in their first terms, Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister and senior Tory responsible for the party's transition into government, said today.


There has been criticism that David Cameron risks overloading the Whitehall machine, and storing up political trouble, by quickly pursuing radical reforms on so many fronts simultaneously.


But Maude, in a Guardian interview, said: "If you look at the last transitions of governments and the way they came in, I would say one of the things that Thatcher regretted was not pushing ahead vigorously enough, and quickly enough, in terms of reform. The big reforming Thatcher governments were not until 1983 and 1987.


"Similarly, the Blair government did not just waste its first 100 days – it wasted its first five years. By contrast we have prepared very carefully. So we are well equipped to hit the ground running"


A member of the cabinet's "star chamber" on spending, Maude defended plans for a vast efficiency drive, including redundancies in Whitehall, saying it was the best way to ultimately protect frontline public services.


He said he wanted to unleash a new wave of public sector entrepreneurs willing to take over public services as co-ops or mutuals. He also pointed to the 60,000 responses to the Treasury's call for suggestions on how to make government more efficient as proof that there is a thirst to take charge of public services.


Maude, seen as one of the first modernisers of the Tory party, positively embraced the coalition with the Liberal Democrats, saying: "For a government facing a national crisis, to be a broad-based government is a huge advantage."


He said the preparatory work he had undertaken for a majority Conservative government "had to be adapted for coalition purposes, but nonetheless we came in with a huge overlap between what we wanted to do and what the Lib Dems wanted to do. Obviously we had thought a lot more about it."


...


Coalition is more radical than Thatcher government, says senior Tory minister | Politics | The Guardian




Just wondering what you Brit's thought about this.
 

Yerda

Veteran Member
I'm relieved that we finally have a government showing Ireland the respect it deserves. It would have been nice if we could have stopped short of adopting the economic policies that have got Ireland in such a state though. Is anyone recovering as badly from the recession?
 

Wessexman

Member
Cameron's an interesting figure. I largely agree with Peter Hitchen's assessment of the "Cameron delusion", Cameron is not really much cop as a "conservative". If he was he'd roll back EU power over Britain and reestablish our borders with Europe.

I'm a raging reactionary, more traditionalist than Joseph De Maistre, so I've never had much love for Thatcherism or neoliberalism, which are based on classical liberalism and not traditional conservatism.
 
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