Thatcherism

The NHS is on the verge of collapse with paperwork and red tape piling up, leaving doctors and nurses less time to care for patients. Bureaucracy has existed since the establishment of the NHS in 1948 and attempts to reform this have gone in vain. The NHS promises to provide up to date services yet this is not always seen. In this essay, I will illustrate Friedrich von Hayek’s ideas of free markets and apply it to the issue of bureaucracy within the NHS. Hayek’s thesis was that socialism eventually leads to totalitarianism (Gamble, 1996a). We see this progressing into reality from recent reports. Government reports have released data, stating doctors spend around 10 hours a week, collating and reading data, which is more than 25% of doctors’ working hours. 1/3 of this data wasn’t useful in providing care for patients and ¼ of bureaucratic demands came from national bodies such as NHS trusts (Donnelly, 2013). In Hayek’s terms this is considered to be inferior due to the NHS being a political organisation of bureaucracy (where the government is the ultimate decision maker) rather than economic markets (Gamble, 1996b). The bureaucratic system is therefore restrictive, time consuming and cost inefficient. The population is rapidly increasing, people are living longer, and it only makes sense that public spending is likely to go under more strain in the future. Money used for bureaucratic demands could alternatively be used for private health care, creating free markets, leading…

Thatcherism describes the conviction, politics, economic, social policy and political style of the British conservative’s politician Margaret Thatcher, who was the leader of her party from 1975-1990. Post -Thatcher, the leaders after her remained true to her policies until 2005, when Cameron took over. When he took over as leader of the Conservatives, he had promised the party that he will suggest new reforms of government and he promised to take the party in a new direction, thus giving the…

distribution of resources through federal management. Thatcher’s views sharply contradicted the general post-war consensus, and her goal was to reform most aspects of the welfare system that was profoundly embedded in the British populace. As an individual, Thatcher fervently put forth the idea of “Markets, Monetarism and Authoritarian Government” as the successful foundation to any functional statehood. In order to institute such reforms, Thatcher pursued a variety of programs in order to shape…

In the following there is going to be an offer of what Thatcherism is as an ideology and key concepts involved; Privatization closely linked with Individualism and Monetarism and also how Thatcher became successful as Prime Minster in the UK. Thatcherism defined as “the free/strong-state ideological stance adopted by Margaret Thatcher: the UK version of the New Right political project” by Andrew Haywood (Heywood, 2007). Thatcherism is a term that came from The Daily Telegraph, days after…

Hall contextualizes the Thatcher government in changes in the political character of postwar Britain. In the initial decades after WWII, Britain was headed toward European style social democracy. The post-war combination of big state and big capital was the result of a compromise between left and right: the right settled for the welfare state and Keynesian economic policy while the left agreed to work within the fundamental terms of capitalism. Responding to the massive upheavals of the late…

As well as portraying the political views of the time, there are also echoes of Thatcherism. Whelan shows this conservative ideology through the character of May. May is a working-class stall owner who aspires to be middle-class and has middle-class ideals “they’re just waiting to see you stumble, slip back and be as they are. In the end it’s just you…yourself. We don’t create the rules of life. They’re there.” The same ideologies are hinted at in Sherriff’s Journey’s End. There were few plays…

Political parties play a tremendous role in formulating policy and distribution of goods and services. These parties have many important roles like educating voters about issues, recruiting candidates, and developing economic and political ideas. Two different but similar political parties are Conservative and New Labour. The Conservative party was led by Margaret Thatcher from 1975 to 1990. Margaret Thatcher was the prime minister of the United Kingdom who served from 1979 to 1990. Her policies…

rather than household chores which shows that the attitude towards women in the 1980s had become more liberal. Another character in ‘Top Girls’, Win says to Marlene in her office "We’d rather it was you than Howard. We’re glad for you, aren’t we Nell." Churchill purposely chose to show the women praising Marlene for her promotion as she wanted to highlight how unconventional it was for a woman to gain a promotion over a man or to have such high status in the first place. This could be…

Thatcherism is based off the ideas of Margaret Thatcher and to this day many British people support the ideas of this concept. Thatcherism believes trade unions should have a tighter legal framework and not be the center of enterprise. Another of the ideas is the spread of privatization, or transferring businesses from the public sector to the private sector, of major utilities. Thatcherists also believe in low inflation, lower taxes, and limited welfare benefits. One of the most widely known…

need for change. Although there is a significant amount of drug use throughout the film, it is not the focal point. Cardullo states, “It is neither a glorification of heroin use, an anarchist’s call for the destruction of society, nor, at the opposite end of the spectrum, a moralistic condemnation of drug addiction. Instead [Trainspotting] makes the characters’ desire for chemically induced oblivion comprehensible, given the sordid, disaffecting environment in which they live” (Cardullo 159).…