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Thatcherism has left us so vulnerable
• DR Sebastian Kraemar (Forum January 22) correctly identifies one of the most malign among many vicious consequences of the Thatcher government and its successors, which tragically include Labour governments led by Blair and Brown.
That consequence was the wilful ruination of the employments which sustained the British working class.
But there was far more to the emiseration of the working class than the destruction of their natural employments. New council estates destroyed long-established working-class communities with their informal social support systems, while massive immigration provided ever more intense competition for jobs, especially unskilled and semi-skilled jobs, and social goods such as NHS services, council housing and schools.
In addition, the ever more frenzied privatisation, whole or piecemeal, of the past 30 years reduced the quality and scope of public provision, most notably in council housing, the NHS, the vital utilities (energy and water) and public transport.
This, of course, affects everyone to a degree, but it disproportionately disadvantages the less well-off because they are the people most in need of public services. More broadly, Thatcherism has left the entire country in a dangerously vulnerable state.
The disgraceful and reckless failure of governments to restrain British banks and their ilk from lunatic levels of credit creation needs no rehearsal, but there are many other frightening weaknesses.
Our manufacturing industry has been largely destroyed through off-shoring or by industries simply being allowed to die (inflation is not going down as quickly as anticipated because we import so much), the privatised energy and water companies (most of which are foreign-owned) have failed to invest sufficiently in maintenance and new plant.
Everything this and previous governments have done for 30 years, conspires to make us ever more dependent upon foreign countries and, consequently, ever less able to make our own decisions. Those who believe this is a good thing should reflect on what is happening in the present financial crisis: countries around the world are looking after their own interests by retreating behind protectionist walls and think of the cavalier behaviour of Russia over the past few years over its supply of gas to the Ukraine and much of Europe.
Far from being a source of international stability and peace, globalism is a prime cause of instability, because it means that countries become less self-sufficient and consequently more vulnerable to economic upheaval and political aggression.
ROBERT HENDERSON
Chalton Street, NW1
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