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To What Extent Was Thatcher's New Right Vision Made Into A Reality?

1525 Words7 Pages

To what extent was Thatcher’s New Right vision made into a reality? Margaret Thatcher’s parliamentary dominance from 1979-1900 created a wave of controversy due to her New Right ideologies, defined as right-wing ideas that focused on the autonomy of individuals and economic privatisation. This essay will firstly discuss the emergence of Thatcher’s New Right, then follow a debate-like discourse to question how well these ideologies were brought to life. To support each argument, examples of social and economic policies will be referenced throughout. According to Alcock, 2022, p.69, Thatcher and her predecessor Edward Heath, 1970-1974, believed in a free-market economy which encourages the development of independent markets. Similarly, their …show more content…

However, contextual factors were supporting her- after the Labour Government’s (1974-1979) initial aim to privatise companies and cut public expenditure (Alcock, 2022), the 1978-1979 Winter of Discontent strikes annihilated Labour’s chance of re-election. Partnered with the secondary impacts of Britain’s war, such as recessions, social stability deteriorated. This suggests radical reform could have been a necessity- yet whether it should have been from the New Right or New Left is …show more content…

From this, it is assumed that the New Right works to maintain class division- those who are able to survive on an independent business likely have pre-established cultural and economic capital. Opposed from the working class, who have no choice but to stay working for a new class of entrepreneurs. Further evidence of this stems from the Poll Tax Riots of the late 1980’s- as an incentive for the EAS’s, income tax was reduced. To counteract this, the Poll Tax resorted to becoming a fixed-rate nationally, instead of based upon the worth of one’s house. This is evidence of the general public refusing to accept the New Right’s ideologies, as the policy was scrapped one year later- Thatcher was not able to bring their ideologies to life without the general consensus’

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