For Turning…Back
By Mitch Berg
Britain more conservative now than when Thatcher was PM:
Britain is now more Thatcherite than when Margaret Thatcher was in power, with people much less supportive of the welfare state and the redistribution of wealth than in the 1980s, according to an authoritative study of the country’s mood.
New Labour oversaw the biggest recorded shift to the right in public attitudes on those measures, despite a surge in concern about the scale of the wealth gap between rich and poor.
The British Atlas’s shoulders seem to be itching…:
Sympathy towards benefit claimants has evaporated, along with support for redistributive tax and spend policies, over the past 20 years, with Labour governing during a period of significant hardening of attitudes towards the poor, the annual results of the British Social Attitudes survey reveal.
So there is hope in Europe.
December 14th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Meanwhile, back in Italy “students” are rioting because Berlesconi survived a no confidence vote and remains in power. The same “students” who attacked Prince Charles last week.
Hey, I just remembered. It was “students” who started the Iranian revolution, and that turned out just great.
December 14th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
And it was “students” who carried out cultural revolution in China – and that turned out just as great.
December 14th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
And the Khmer Rouge. It seems that “students” == “success” all over the globe.
December 14th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Hopefully those students rioting never get to pay any of those fees they’re rioting about……
….and in other good news for Mitch, Scarlett Johannsson is now single again! Now if he can only turn liberal, this could be a late birthday present for him….
December 14th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
“…hardening of attitudes towards the poor, …” sounds as if the Brits are tired of the sclerosis of government in doing anything other than creating more poor people who need government assistance. A few folks temporarily on the dole is tolerable. When too many work harder on angles to get on the dole permanantly rather than working at being gainfully employed you’ll get a revolt. Good on ya mates!
December 15th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Don’t let the Brits hear you calling them “Europe.”