\ufeffHow far has the Modern Conservative Party departed from the Thatcherite agenda? Comparing Margaret Thatcher\u2019s \u201cThere is No Such Thing as Society\u201d versus Cameron\u2019s \u201cBig Society\u201d<\/p>\n
Executive summary<\/p>\n
This essay argues that Modern Conservative Party, particularly its new Prime Minister, David Cameron has not totally departed from its predecessor, Margaret Thatcher. Though Cameron explained that his \u201cBig Society\u201d to be totally different from Thatcher\u2019s \u201cthere is no such thing as society\u201d as it acknowledges the societal ties that makes society interdependent, this paper is in the opinion that such political pronouncement was just to parry the criticism associated with Thatcher\u2019s \u201cNew Right\u201d. The departure of Cameron\u2019s \u201cBig Society\u201d from Thatcher\u2019s \u201cNew Right\u201d is more on the semantics because many of the principles of its predecessor remain the same.<\/p>\n
First, Thatcher\u2019s \u201cthere is no such thing as society\u201d did not mean the dissolution of social ties that composed society. She herself clarified that the original intent of the statement was distorted beyond recognition. What she meant by \u201cthere is no such thing as society\u201d is to diminish dependency on welfare and to encourage individual members of society to help themselves. In effect, it lessens the burden on public expenditures which contributed to the inflation that beset UK\u2019s economy. Thatcher may have just put it in the wrong way but the intent and purpose of her statement was to strengthen industry by enabling society\u2019s individual members. In effect, Cameron\u2019s \u201cBig Society\u201d is just the same with Thatcherism when it intends cut back public expenditures (though explaining that he is just returning it to 2007 level). It only differs in a way that it encouraged public engagement and volunteerism and by putting up a Big Society fund of \u00a3200M to enhance societal capability (Channel4.com 2011).<\/p>\n
With regard to the economy, Cameron also adopts the free market system which is precisely what Thatcher asserted despite public criticism during her time. Cameron\u2019s economic policy pronouncements also do not subscribe to Keynesian inflationary measure of pump priming the economy through increased public expenditure. It is only his method that differs from Thatcher because he intends to cut public expenditure which Thatcher was opulent during her term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\ufeffHow far has the Modern Conservative Party departed from the Thatcherite agenda? Comparing Margaret Thatcher\u2019s \u201cThere is No Such Thing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n