So much of what Thatcher achieved is now taken for granted, but the free market ideas and reforming zeal she embodied are needed now more than ever, says Emma Revell
Margaret Thatcher is, to put it mildly, a divisive figure. Even a decade after her death and more than 30 years after she left Downing Street as Prime Minister, it is hard to think of a figure in recent British history who invokes a more intense response – among supporters and opponents alike. Conservatives aspiring to any level of prominence inevitably find themselves invoking her policies, her name, and, on occasion, her outfits.
For my employer, the Centre for Policy Studies, she occupies a more totemic position still. In 1974, Thatcher founded our think tank, alongside her friend and ally Sir Keith Joseph, to ‘think the unthinkable’. Many years later she would remark that ‘the Centre for Policy Studies was where our conservative revolution began.’ Together with Alfred Sherman and others, they set out the guiding principles for the work we have done and continue to do in making the case for free markets and individual liberty – what became the core of the Thatcherite agenda.
It can be hard today to appreciate the scale of that revolution, because so much of it is taken for granted. The fact that the state doesn’t own airlines, phone networks or travel agents. The moderation of the power of the trade unions. The return of sound money. The fact you can actually take your money with you when you travel abroad. And there have been more ideas from us in the 50 years since. Transforming literacy via the teaching of phonics. Increasing the thresholds for income tax and National Insurance. Full expensing for businesses.
But it’s hard to avoid the conclusion – even just by looking at the apocalyptic polls that are pouring out daily – that Thatcherism, or economically liberal Conservatism, faces enormous challenges. The Labour Party is overwhelmingly likely to form the next government, and the size of the state, and state spending, seem inevitably set to rise even further than they have done in the wake of the pandemic. Meanwhile, the implosion of the Truss government casts a long shadow over the arguments for lower taxes and economic freedom.
That makes it an even more appropriate moment to publish Conservative Revolution, a book bringing together leading voices from the Conservative movement and the organisation’s history to share their experiences. Although certainly not our intention when the work was commissioned over a year ago, it is fitting that the book is being published during a general election campaign – a time where policies and the principles behind them are put under the spotlight.
In the book Charles Moore, Thatcher’s authorised biographer, talks about the role of the Centre for Policy Studies in developing her thinking, and indeed the importance of avoiding intellectual stagnation in the first place. ‘Rethinks are great,’ he told CPS Director Robert Colvile. ‘You must have them, but they frighten people.’
Sir Graham Brady, who worked at the CPS prior to entering Parliament and is stepping down at this election after an eventful 14 years as 1922 Committee Chairman, reflects on the CPS as the home of Thatcherism as a ‘seamless garment’ – thinking which linked economic freedom with personal liberty. The Centre for Policy Studies, he argues, is ‘needed now just as much as it was in 1974. The challenge is the same.’
Indeed, while much has changed since the 1970s, it is worth reflecting on how much is once again the same. The Labour Party are in the ascendancy – and as Professor Niall Ferguson notes in his contribution, they really do believe in big government, higher public spending, and raising taxes. Even under the Conservatives, the tax burden has risen to its highest in decades. And the sense of public sector malaise is palpable: ‘Politicians pull levers but things got worse’, as Rachel Wolf notes in the book.
That does not mean there is no hope for free market ideas. Indeed, the history of the 1970s offers a blueprint. With the support of the CPS and others, Thatcher revived first the Conservatives and then country in the 1980s, laying the foundations for multiple decades of rapidly rising living standards. This involved reviving London as a financial powerhouse, boosting home ownership across the country and creating a generation with a real stake in Britain’s prosperity. That sounds like a pretty good recipe for our prosperity today – and something that is desperately needed.
Emma Revell is external affairs director at the Centre for Policy Studies