Thatcher and conservative history

Abstract

T HE DEBATE about Margaret Thatcher's place in the history of British Conservatism did not begin with her retirement, and her departure from the leadership has not yet added much to the perspective available for making judgements. Nonetheless, the positions taken up by Michael Bentley ('Is Mrs Thatcher a Conservative?', CONTEMPORARY RECORD, Vol.2, No.6, 1989, pp. 36—9) and Christopher Barder ('Thatcher Was a Conservative', CONTEMPORARY RECORD, Vol. 4, No. 3, 1991, p. 25) seem in need of an arbitrator. Neither author seems to offer much of a definition of what 'Conservative' means in the British context, except by an appeal to empiricism; for both, to adapt Herbert Morrison's dictum about Labour, Conservatism seems to be simply what Party Conservatives have said and done. ' On the face of it this dictum may have more to recommend it for Conservatives than Socialists anyway — conserving is inherently about the past, while socialism was at least supposed to be about the future. But both authors go further. Harold Wilson in his heyday used to reply to the question 'Are you a socialist?' with the enigmatic 'Yes, but a British socialist,' and this approach seems to be at the heart of Michael Bentley's view that British Conservatism has been varied enough to explain the roots of Thatcherism. Opposing this, Christopher Barder's impassioned defence of Thatcher makes her views sound more like those of the Red Queen than either Morrison or Wilson: for him, Conservatism means what Thatcher says it means.