Thatcher

I like Lady Thatcher. She is quite frankly the lady who saved the country from the doom of the 1970s. I don't agree with everything she did. She should have restored Grammar Schools and done more to solve the energy problems that the UK had. But her economic prowess overshadows all this. Britain was great under her. However, can we all stop trying to be her please.

I am writing this today because I saw David Willetts trying to say that this Government is 'more ambitious than Thatcher's' so 'we must stick to our economic and policy programme'. This isn't a very good comparison.

David Willetts is trying to make an economic comparison to Thatcher to try show that the government's economic model is on the right path. Mrs Thatcher didn't have a debt problem though. Government spending did need to be cut (like after every time Labour gets into power) but the problem in the 1970s was inflation and economic stagnation. This involved tax cuts as well as the government cuts to get things going again in the UK. And this worked. Notice though, that despite the government cutting more than Thatcher, its spending it all again so there are no net cuts the moment a. Also where are the mass tax cuts? Taxation under the Coalition is up except for the lowest earners. So is this government better economically than Margaret Thatcher's? Of course not.

The word Thatcher seems to be thrown around a lot by Government ministers. David Cameron himself is always at it. Apparently he is the 'heir to Thatcher' as well as to Blair. Of course no one is buying this, but can we stop please. It's quite clear that Dave and co. want to placate the 'Right' of the Tory party and they think this is done by mentioning the one word silver bullet of Thatcher. It's not, you need to tackle the debt to get the Party's support.

Also on Dave being the 'son of Thatcher' why would you want to describe yourself like that. You're your own person, not someone else. Every situation is different and needs a different solution. Everybody is a different person and has different attributes that may make you a successful leader. Please don't pretend to be Thatcher or anyone else, it's not true.

So if you're reading Dave, I know you won't change your economic course, but please introduce a Thatcher cliché/swear box to No.10 and every other government department. I'm sick of Margaret Thatcher being used as a shield to your policies or a way to get you more liked by the Party.