Reply #35: Thatcher moved the party way to the right!!! [View All]

[LeftishBrit]

Thatcher's immediate predecessors, e.g. Heath and Macmillan, were probably more like Democrats in the United States - they were to the right of our Labourites, but accepted the Welfare State, and were opposed to radical changes toward left or right. Thatcher pushed the party into a right-wing crusade, and pushed out most of the more moderate people, or even those who just thought for themselves occasionally. She labelled the moderates as 'Wets'; and for a long time the Wets (like, in a different way, the socialists) did not know how to fight this new phenomenon. In the end it was an obscure, ultra-Wet Tory backbencher called Meyer who announced the 'stalking-horse' candidacy against Thatcher, which finally led to her resignation and replacement by John Major. By that time, it was too late to save the party from domination by far-right-wingers and foolish nonentities. Unfortunately, this did not only affect the Tories - the political centre had changed, and Labour also moved to the right. Blair is probably to the right of Heath, Macmillan et al. He is obviously influenced to some degree by Thatcherism, and is described by some as "Thatcher's illegitimate son".

I think Portillo moved a bit to the left after he had accepted a challenge from a working-class single mother in Merseyside to change places with her for a week, and try living on her wages for that time while doing two low-paid part-time jobs and looking after her four children. He apparently discovered that it wasn't quite as easy as he'd thought! Perhaps all MPs should be required to do something like that.