Thatcher's style of leadership and ideology Flashcards
What did Thatcher describe herself as when she came into politics?
A conviction politician - campaigning on fundamental values rather than representing an existing consensus.
What did Thatcher deem responsible for Britain’s ills?
The post-war consensus.
When was Thatcher’s style as a conviction politician enhanced?
At the 1981 party conference – ‘You turn if you want to – the lady’s not for turning’.
- Also a sly criticism of the Heathites who had U-turned in 1972.
What did the ‘New Right’s’ analysis of the economic decline reject?
They rejected Keynsian economics (government intervention) in favour of monetarism and free-market economics.
What did Thatcherites view Britain’s economic decline as the result of? What other decline did this link to?
- Thatcherites viewed Britain’s economic decline as the result of the failures of successive post-war governments
- Its supporters also identified a moral decline linked to this consensus.
Why was the free-market moral to Thatcherites?
It encouraged individuals to take responsibility for their own actions. And this was equally as true in personal decisions as much as in economic ones.
What did Conservative MP Norman Tebbit believe?
‘The trigger of today’s outburst of crime and violence lies in the era and attitudes of the post-war funk which gave birth to the “Permissive Society” which in turn generated today’s violent society’.
What did Thatcherites put a great deal of emphasis on?
Order in society. They saw the family as the bulwark of this.
What did Thatcher famously say about families?
“Who is society? There is no such thing as that! There are individual men and women and there are families’.
- Therefore, to Thatcherites, threats to the family were serious because they were threats to order in society.
