2011 - The Year of Discontent?

The Legacy of Thatcher

Those of us born during or before the 1960s will long remember the impact of the Conservative Governments of 1979 to 1997. In particular the "reign" from 1979 to 1990 is characterised by one word, Thatcher. For those of us who eschewed the benefits of public bodies, public industries and the safety net of the welfare state, that word brings with it a whole story. That story is one where public enterprise was rolled back and sold off. That story is one where the welfare net had large holes slashed into it. That story was one where unemployment in the UK reached three and half million. That story was one where the trade union movement was castrated. That story was one where we became poll tax guinea pigs a year ahead of England, when the Government of the time couldn't muster one Member of Parliament in Scotland.

That period in history brought with it a new language. The politics of the time became "Thatcherism". The offspring when grew up during these years became known as "Thatcher's Children" because by then, they had absorbed the gimme gimme gimme culture. It is the most negative spin on Thatcherism, the notion that she encouraged a climate of selfish, uncaring greed.

If we thought the Labour Government of 1997 to 2010 would reverse this moral decline we were mistaken. Privatisations continued, and were even taken into realms undreamed of by the previous administration. Private cash was brought into the public services like health and education in a way never previously countenanced by the Labour party.

And, of course, any suggestion there was an alternative to a free market economy was entirely off the agenda. There was therefore no longer any credible socialist vote available to the electorate.

It is probably true to say, therefore, that Thatcherism entered the DNA of Britain - both politically and socially. So, to that extent, we are probably all Thatcher's children and grandchildren.

A New Civil Unrest

In the wake of last year’s student protests, a new era of civil unrest may be upon us. Those protests may be the start of a campaign of demonstrations, with other groups planning marches against job losses and the government’s £81billion cuts.

The Trades Union Congress has a large demo scheduled for March, just before the start of the new financial year in April, when many people will start feeling the impact of the cuts. ‘We’re concerned the impact of the expenditure cuts is going to be devastating,’ says Brendan Barber, director general of the TUC. ‘Certainly, we’ll see more demonstrations of public anger. In some areas, there’ll be difficult disputes. There could be strikes.’

Will we see anything on the scale of the landmark poll tax riots of the early 1990s?

The Humble Banker

Both David Cameron and Nick Clegg have pledged to put fairness at the heart of the coalition government. Yet the banking crisis has been a crisis for everyone except the banks who caused it, and people across Britain are facing severe cuts while bailed-out financial institutions are seen to have got off lightly and continue to award themselves huge bonus payments.

Yesterday, at the Treasury Select Committee, someone muttered another B-word, in a kind of furious admiration. The man dubbed “the unacceptable face of British banking” was explaining that the time for bankers’ remorse was over. Even the shorthand typist stopped chewing her gum. Like most people, she missed that period when the Banks stopped paying themselves enormous amounts of money and said sorry to the world for plunging it into financial crisis. RED, as he is apparently known at Barclays – short for Robert Edward Diamond Jnr – barely broke from a monotonous drawl, as if trying to bore the committee into submission. Flashing whitened teeth and a discreet tan, he toyed throughout with a bulldog clip that he crushed at times between his fingers. An ardent Chelsea fan, RED makes John Terry look badly paid. Now worth around £100million, he received £23million in 2006, £18million in 2007, £17.5million in 2008 and a mere £8million in 2009.

No wonder he thinks the time for humility is over!

Luckily for Mr Diamond the Coalition is already backing away from its pledge to tackle city bonuses. Instead, they’ll insist banks start lending money to small businesses. “We want to lend to small businesses,” RED said. Brilliant. So, the government’s going to let them off in return for doing something they were already doing. All in all, it was a despicable performance. At just after 1pm, Andrea Leadsom MP summed up the “marathon” two and a half hours meeting.

“You’ve given us nothing,” she said.