Both in this budget and in the general economic policy of the government there seem to be plenty of echoes of 1980s policy. Here, as then, there were reductions in income tax for both the highest rate taxpayers and basic rate taxpayers. Here, as then, there were reductions in both eligibility for welfare benefits and the amount of benefits for certain classes of welfare applicants (Thatcher was actually more generous to the disabled than this government). Here, as then, there were reductions in taxes for business and corporations. Here, as then, there has been a very strict package of austerity measures driving down public expenditure to reduce debt, incidentally driving up unemployment significantly. Here, as then, there were measures to cut red tape for business, to deregulate and increase the flexibility of the labour force, now even to the point of encouraging people to work for nothing for a certain period. Here, as then, was the policy to purchase a Trident nuclear system even at a time of serious cuts in defence spending. Osborne has even revived the concept of Enterprise Zones first introduced by Thatcher over 30 years ago. Here, as then, are the policies to increase private participation in the public sector, then principally by privatising utilities, now by increased private provision in education, road transport and health. Extraordinarily, even after the greatest financial crisis in modern British history due in large part to the extensive deregulation in the financial services which was started by Thatcher in the 1980s, there is a refusal to admit that the enormous rise in public debt in recent years was due to the bailout of financial institutions, and not to excessive government expenditure. Consequently there is a reluctance to impose any kind of tough regulation on the financial services other than the feeble 'firewall' plans scheduled for implementation as far away as 2019.
It really does seem to be 'forward to the past'
It really does seem to be 'forward to the past'
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