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Britain's Tories: The end of an era?
March 17, 1997
Web posted at: 9:22 p.m. EST (0222 GMT)From Correspondent Richard Blystone
LONDON (CNN) -- Britain's Tory Party has been in power for so long that an entire generation of Britons -- one person in four -- has no memory at all of how things were before conservatives took office.
Margaret Thatcher stormed in and took the prime ministership 18 years ago with a mission to transform a limping economy and a society dozing amidst the comforts and constraints of the welfare state.
Thatcher policies jump-started capitalism
The Tories sold off state-owned industries by the dozen, urging the public to buy shares. Without state support, unprofitable mines, yards, factories and furnaces closed down.
Their war on inflation brought recession and unemployment. There were many innocent bystanders among the casualties, but Thatcher refused to alter course. Britain's mighty miners defied her, going on a strike in 1984 that would last more than a year -- but in the end, even they had to give in; Thatcher would not. A structure of hereditary jobs, and hereditary voting habits, collapsed during the Thatcher decade.
"Margaret Thatcher really did -- whatever else you say about her -- did what she claimed she was going to do: she broke the mold of British politics," said Daily Telegraph reporter Janet Daley.
"She suddenly said to people, 'Look, wherever you started from, you can get wherever you want. We'll let you out of this sort of social trap, and you take the ball and run with it.'"
The British economy was revolutionized under Thatcher rule: Today, there are a third fewer union members, 3 million more homeowners and three times as many stockholders as when she took office.
Conservatives downed by divisiveness
Nonetheless, Thatcher's strident constancy was her undoing. Her party turned against her in 1990, and John Major stepped in as prime minister to carry on her legacy without the drama.
His government, in the last six and a half years, has watched its Parliament majority leak away to nothing. It was drained by sleaze scandals and the mad cow crisis, and public confidence waned after the party failed to obscure or control deep party divisions over Britain's role in the European Union.
The conservatives are ridiculed for dithering leadership, and lack of vision -- a case of power fatigue that the polls say will soon be over.
Britons may be ready for a change
What has the United Kingdom to show for it all? Most people agree that today's Britons are tougher, harder working, and more alert, but also less gracious, less considerate and less secure. The new Briton has "a sense of 'what you own is what you are,'" said Hugo Young of The Guardian.
"But I also think what you see is a larger segment of society excluded from the mainstream, in effect, an underclass," Young said.
Ironically, the economy is the envy of the rest of Europe. London's deregulated financial district is booming, employment and investment are on the rise, inflation has been tamed, and strike fever is a thing of the past.
But the hundred-billion-dollar profits of privatization fail to show up in the country's decaying infrastructure, in the living scrap heap on the streets. While much of Britain is having a ball, the "feel-good factor" doesn't seem to extend to baling out the Tories.
"The British are very fair-minded," said Daley. "They always feel the other chap should be given a chance now and then."
In this case, of course, the other chap is the Labor Party, whose change in stance from socialist to center-left is the biggest threat to the conservatives, and the biggest tribute to their success.
Related stories:
- Long out of power, Labor tries a different tack - March 17, 1997
- British elections set for May 1 - March 17, 1997
- Britain may see first-ever televised campaign debate - March 16, 1997
- British ruling party loses parliamentary majority - December 7, 1996
- Britain's political turmoil grows - December 6, 1996
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