Bury the tHatchet?

The very dreary drama on the BBC based on the rise of the New Right in Britain has coincided it appears with an anniversary of some kind, maybe 30 years since Maggie pushed into Number 10? It is difficult to get a feel for how the New Right changed Britain for better/worse without having known politics before and after. The lynchpin of her legacy was the monetarist doctrine of privatisation. This was not a creation of her own, oh no, the origins of this movement as a political tool can be traced back to Hitler’s Germany. Although all privatisations are unique, there are some interesting parallels to be drawn between the New Right and the Far Right. It was a mass selling-off of public utilities in Germany in the 1930s that is remarkably similar to Thatcher’s revolution in the 1980s, and the continuation under New Labour: the handling of public services became a private concern. It is important in analysis of the parallels to elucidate the intentions of Thatcher’s elites (companies) and those of Nazi Germany, but clearly there are benefits when channelling relations between business and government for greater state control of the economy: to increase savings in bank accounts. This demonstrates Hitler’s mastery of political economy. He knew that privatisation could lead to a very well defined politics of power, and a strong section of alliances with major industrialists.
In the same way, the centrality of private sales was core to the popularity of the Conservatives in the 1980s. The results of this movement have been highly criticised, particularly when pensions were reduced as they became inflation-indexed rather than wage-indexed. Railways have not improved since contracting out, and it is terrifying that Labour want to put the hands of the very efficient Royal Mail into private ownership. What is clear, is that Thatcher’s legacy is entrenched, but it is now being questioned for its quality more than ever. Whereas Hitler wanted politicised economic governance of instrumental hue, the New Right have given business their own special powers, of which the consumer has not seen consistent benefit or return.