by Ian Stewart

For the past week those of us who remember the 1980s have been in our own ways reliving them. It has been neither a pleasant nor edifying spectacle to watch friends and family tear lumps off each other over the legacy of the frail old woman who died at the Ritz. Facebook accounts are now covered in the detritus of real life as well as online friendships wrecked by casual or bombastic posts that reopened the wounds long thought healed.

To watch a crowd of idiots vandalise my local cinema – which by the way was showing the excellent Spirit of ’45 – and then break the windows of the bastion of Thatcherism that is Brixton’s Banardos shop defied all logic. I mean, Foxtons – I understand that, but Banardos? Please explain?

I still cannot forgive or forget Mrs Thatcher and her government – not for the miners, nor for Corby, nor for letting the free market rip in such a way that highly skilled industrial jobs in my home town were butchered (Lowestoft men built the Virgin Atlantic Challenger that won the blue riband – using state of the art plasma welding – then were left on the scrapheap). I doubt that Germany, Holland or Norway would have done the same. Eastern Coachworks shut down, north sea oil and gas money frittered away, leaving behind an economy reliant on food processing plants and moving away as the only serious option if you have ambition.

What I also cannot forgive is the fact that ever since 1990, every single succeeding government has attempted not to alter the Thatcher consensus, but simply to give it a “human face”. Up until the great crash Major, Blair and Brown had all seemingly achieved this – balancing social spending with deregulation, further privatisation and tax cuts for the rich.

Yes, that’s’ right – Blair and Brown – our two last Labour premiers. We could and should have done more to challenge the consensus of the 1980s. The expensive and inefficient railways could have been taken back into public ownership with little fuss at the end of each franchise, saving us billions in bailing out private companies.

We could have diffused the time-bomb of MPs expenses that a mid-80s compromise left us with. We should have effectively regulated the financial sector, and made steps to promote mutualisation. We should have built more council homes, and we should not have embraced PFI.

We could, and definitely should, have been less than “extremely relaxed” at the very wealthy becoming the “filthy rich” (thanks Mandy), and according them privileges that would make a robber baron blush.

Nowadays of course, the “human face” stuff is all but forgotten – it is so much easier to wage an open war on the poor and defenceless, especially if HM opposition decides to abstain rather than actually oppose you. “Austerity” – what a fantastic catch all term for privatising misery whilst leaving “socialism for the rich” intact.

So forgive me, if I don’t party with the ghouls on Wednesday, you see Thatcherism is still alive and well. In fact it is kicking the teeth out of what is left of our welfare state. If you must commemorate her death, then emulate the Durham miners and remember the strike, or go watch Ken Loach’s latest film, or listen to Elvis Costello.

In fact please do anything other than boo her ridiculous cortege and get your face in the papers as some kind of immature fool. Instead why not sign up for the Peoples’ Assembly, or join a union or work within Labour to rebuild a real alternative, whilst regaining our party’s soul.

Ian Stewart is a Labour party member and blogs athttp://clemthegem.wordpress.com/

Tags: 1980s, Ian Stewart, Margaret Thatcher, miners, neo-liberals