WI: No Thatcherism

Let us imagine for a moment that Mrs Thatcher and none of the other monetarists in the Conservative Party ascend to power in the 1970s but rather the Heathite One Nation Faction remains firmly in control (use whatever POD you like), what does the Tory party look like now days without Thatcherism as it's guiding principle?
 
Pro European, and not as inclined toward the free market. In many ways, essentially similar to the CDU in Germany, except more socially liberal. Thatcherism of some kind would remain in the party, since FPTP means that many different strands of right wing thought come under the Tory big tent, but if One Nation Conservatism remains dominant, I could see them winning at least one more election than in OTL. Maybe they lose by less in 1997, and are able to return to power in 2005 (which is probably a blessing in disguise for Labour).
 
Maybe they lose by less in 1997, and are able to return to power in 2005 (which is probably a blessing in disguise for Labour).
I agree with most of your post, but what makes you think the conditions that made 2005 such a good election to lose will still be there with a POD decades earlier?
 
I agree with most of your post, but what makes you think the conditions that made 2005 such a good election to lose will still be there with a POD decades earlier?
It is a fair point, I dont really know much about the history of the finance sector, but I would say that from my basic understanding the crash of 2008 had at least some of its long term roots in the deregulation implemented by neoliberal leaders like Reagan and Thatcher. If you lost Thatcher, you might lose Reagan depending on the PoD, given the blow to there entire ideology. It is probably for someone more knowledgeable about the whole thing than me to say whether there still would have been some kind of crash without Thatcher in that five year time frame. One interesting economic consequence though which might play into this is the increased possibility that a strongly pro European Tory party could take Britain into the Euro, which would have its own important effects.
 

Minty_Fresh

Banned
Maybe the Thatcherites break away from the Tory Party and form an alliance with the Liberals.
Thatcherism only was able to function because free market economics and monetarism was married to the far more popular Conservative ideas like law and order, anti-communism, anti-union policies, and a stretch of social conservative beliefs. The Conservatives owed their popularity to those ideas, and some of the more modest monetarist reforms like the Home Ownership idea. The harsh medicine of early Thatcher was not popular.

The Liberals anyways weren't as market friendly as the Heathites by the late 1970s. Now, an earlier influence of the monetarists on the Liberals might bring something like this about. But I find it unlikely.

But make no mistake about it. Monetarism and the free market were not what sold Britain on the Tories. Law and Order, victory in the Falklands, a willingness to stand up to the unions (which really had become quite awful by '79) and above all else, the crippling stupidity of the Labour Party during the 80s, were what put and kept Thatcher in office. The Thatcherites were revolutionaries in a sense, but they looked positively bland compared to what was coming out of Labour and their friends in the trade unions at the time.
 
Last edited:
Pro European, and not as inclined toward the free market. In many ways, essentially similar to the CDU in Germany, except more socially liberal. Thatcherism of some kind would remain in the party, since FPTP means that many different strands of right wing thought come under the Tory big tent, but if One Nation Conservatism remains dominant, I could see them winning at least one more election than in OTL. Maybe they lose by less in 1997, and are able to return to power in 2005 (which is probably a blessing in disguise for Labour).

Out of curiosity what was/is One Nation Conservatism?
 
Out of curiosity what was/is One Nation Conservatism?
It is a form of Conservatism that advocates using the state to alleviate social problems, but more out of upper class paternalist obligations to the lower orders than because of socialist motivations. It was what the Tories advocated in response to Labours creation of the welfare state in 1945. You could say it is as to the post war consensus as Blair and Clinton were to the more free market orientated one that was established during the eighties.
 
It is a form of Conservatism that advocates using the state to alleviate social problems, but more out of upper class paternalist obligations to the lower orders than because of socialist motivations. It was what the Tories advocated in response to Labours creation of the welfare state in 1945. You could say it is as to the post war consensus as Blair and Clinton were to the more free market orientated one that was established during the eighties.

Intersting.
 
It is a form of Conservatism that advocates using the state to alleviate social problems, but more out of upper class paternalist obligations to the lower orders than because of socialist motivations. It was what the Tories advocated in response to Labours creation of the welfare state in 1945. You could say it is as to the post war consensus as Blair and Clinton were to the more free market orientated one that was established during the eighties.

You could even say that One Nation Conservatism goes back to Disraeli and concepts of Tory Democracy. Baldwin and Chamberlain are often considered One Nation Tories.
 
Top