When Blue Turned Red: The "New" in New Labour Was Skin-Deep: It Marked the Party's Capitulation to Thatcher, Writes Martin Jacques, Whose Magazine Marxism Today Coined the Term "Thatcherism"

Jacques, Martin, New Statesman (1996)

The 30th anniversary of Lady Thatcher's election in 1979--and the beginning of the era of Thatcherism--now looks very different from how it would have been viewed just a year ago. Indeed, one is reminded that Gordon Brown regarded an invitation to the Iron Lady for tea at No 10 as a means by which to lend authority and credibility to his premiership in its earliest days. Would he do so now? Perhaps. But that is mainly because the present Prime Minister is unable to shed his own Thatcherite clothes even though reality is dragging him kicking and screaming remorselessly in that direction. The 30th anniversary of the Thatcherite revolution is taking place at a time when the whole edifice of its assumptions, panaceas and policy prescriptions is crumbling in spectacular fashion. If Thatcherism has defined the zeitgeist of British politics for three decades, suddenly it now seems out of time. That is what historical turning points are about.

Margaret Thatcher was, from the outset, an unusual British political leader. As editor of Marxism Today--in whose pages the term …

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Publication information: Article title: When Blue Turned Red: The "New" in New Labour Was Skin-Deep: It Marked the Party's Capitulation to Thatcher, Writes Martin Jacques, Whose Magazine Marxism Today Coined the Term "Thatcherism". Contributors: Jacques, Martin - Author. Magazine title: New Statesman (1996). Volume: 138. Issue: 4938 Publication date: March 2, 2009. Page number: 10+. © Not available. COPYRIGHT 2009 Gale Group.

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