‘Blaming Thatcherism and Blairism wont develop serious politics’

Scottish commentator Gerry Hassan continues to challenge the orthodox views of Scottish politics in his weekly writing and i would recommend his articles if you've not read them, however much of what he says also applies to Wales and the UK as his latest column for the Scotsman where he challenges the root of the UK’s economic and political crisis.

From a Welsh perspective his latest article is particularly relevant as 99% of Welsh politics continues to revolve around what happened in Wales during Thatcherism and the 1980’s, as if history started then.   

Gerry writes ‘Blaming Thatcherism and New Labour for our disappointments and defeats is a displacement activity. Believing the 1980s were the source of all that went wrong with Britain is the equivalent to the Norman Tebbit view of Britain, which saw our moral standards and behaviour weaken due to ‘the funk’ and ‘fudge’ of the 1960s. That was an equally preposterous view rightly ridiculed.

Thatcherism and New Labour did not emerge from nowhere. Their seeds took root in the nature of British culture, individualism, the nature of the state and political economy.

Why did Thatcherism find it so easy to find a coherence and political voice in the 1970s and overturn the post-war consensus? Why did New Labour find it so painless to thrash the last remains of British social democracy and govern from the viewpoint of the dominant class?  The answer cannot be found just in the last 30 years, but in the 300 years since the beginning of the industrial revolution.

One-dimensional history, blaming all our sins on Thatcherism and Blairism might make some feel good and catch a soundbite, but it won’t develop a serious politics which can get us out of this mess and address the long-term problems and challenges of the British economy and society.

British capitalism has developed in a dynamic, dysfunctional direction which is increasingly about serving the needs of the short-term, self-interested, self-rewarding global class of buccaneers, asset strippers and vulgarians.

It has been a revolution from above which has remade much of our society, our relationships and aspirations. But it has also at critical points won popular support in the 1980s or under Blair, and we have to recognise this.

Only then and by confronting the deep roots of this current crisis and its apologists can we hope to begin to articulate a different kind of society: one based on long-term interests, proper banking and investment, and support for industry. Such change will require what is in effect a very different kind of British capitalism and the breakup of the current broken political system which has shown itself the equivalent of the ‘rotten boroughs’ of pre-democratic times.'

The full article is HERE and I believe if Welsh politics is to develop beyond the blame game and name calling so ably portrayed by our politicians this week, we need our own Gerry Hassan ready to challenge the orthodox views and political elites in Wales.

Any source