18th April 2010Cameron Has Lost His Memory

Don’t be sucked in. Cameron’s talk of the Big Society sounds very nice, although many voters have told him that actually they’re rather too busy with their work and families to spend time running the local school as well. His line, which he says Samantha came up with, “There is such a thing as Society, it’s just not the same thing as the State”, is very pithy too and I’m sure has a great deal of appeal for Tory modernisers. Today he added to his plethora of pith, “Life is We, not Me” and finally, for me, the straw met the camel and the camel was undone.

How dare he? How dare he imply that mutualism is a Tory invention, that our culture of self-interest, individualism and consumerism is not the direct consequence both of Thatcher’s policies and her philosophy? She did say “There’s no such thing as Society” and boy did she mean it and her party lapped it up. She meant it and she put it into practice with abandon, ripping the heart out of working Britain and its communities. She destroyed British manufacturing, deconstructed the unions, privatised social housing and deregulated finance. She was the architect of the “I’m alright Jack, stuff the rest of you” attitude that allowed finance to explode into the Eighties culture of flashy excess, while millions found themselves on the dole and without an affordable home.

In destroying the unions, she took away the local social and political structures that supported communities across the country and were the entry point for working people into Parliament as representatives of their communities (and now the Tories have the gall to equate Unite’s involvement with the Labour Party to Lord Ashcroft’s!). How we regret that now, as we complain about our political elite, those who walk straight from their Oxbridge and Russell Group universities into political roles and then seats with the major parties and whom the electorate regards as out of touch with their own day to day experiences. Why are we then surprised that the electorate lacks interest in the political process?

Thatcher’s legacy of privatisation, deregulation and anti-communitarianism touches all aspects of our political and social environment. To hear another Tory leader telling us to buck up and be nice to each other for a change is a little bit rich.

Don’t fall for it, the prospect of a new Tory government is terrifying. We can’t allow it to happen.