Of course there are many who supported Thatcher, indeed still support what she did. But that she heralded the end of decades of decline is stretching things a bit! Sure, we had trade unions who had become too cocksure and dominant, not recognising the simple fact that screwing companies for every penny in wage increases, striking without…
But I digress. There were many, many left-wing politicians from earlier times who would abhor what is happening now in the perverted name of "liberalism" - anathema to the principles of decency they (very broadly speaking) held. That's where so many of us feel WE haven't changed, but the "liberal" tide has swirled beyond us.
You speak of the "desire for government to do more and take a larger role in the day to day affairs of its citizens". When we look at the drive to control what we think, then yes, this is perfectly abhorrent and indeed absurd. But this is completely different from state funding, which has has been receding since Thatcher, of our health services, the railways, our education system, or our environmental and river authorities, and so-on. Again, an imperfect system, but there is no evidence at all that the galloping de-funding and/or privatisation of those sectors has brought improvement - far from it. Management for profit and austerity are each arguably a significant part of much social and structural erosion over here since Maggie - an essay in itself. The efforts of those who saw societal benefit in enhancing all those sectors, and improving the health and lives of all, were hardly what led to where we are now.
To follow your logic, if, in the sense I'm speaking of, the "efforts of good people to improve the lot of their fellow humans" can only lead to the insanity of recent Irish, European, British (etc., etc) legislation, then we may as well all give up on aiming for increased fairness and equality in society. But what then is the alternative to that struggle?
Of course there are many who supported Thatcher, indeed still support what she did. But that she heralded the end of decades of decline is stretching things a bit! Sure, we had trade unions who had become too cocksure and dominant, not recognising the simple fact that screwing companies for every penny in wage increases, striking without consultation and all the other malpractices of the time would lead to the bankruptcy of their employers. The problem there was our industrial revolution heritage: the "us and them" of management and workers. And the solution, which worked well in other European countries, was much earlier on to break down the class-based divisions, introduce better training, education and managerial inclusiveness of the work-force; and a number of - let's avoid the words "liberal" or "socialist" which clearly vex you 😩 - socially conscious measures. So OK, the old girl inherited a tricky problem. But she was someone who hadn't a clue about industry or manufacturing, and instead of working to bring the unions on-side and revolutionise our industrial base, she set out to destroy it. Her vision of a UK work-force selling insurance policies and beef burgers worked, and now, traceable to her, we have a deeply impoverished manufacturing base. [Made worse more recently by Brexit, it's true, which was an impressive display of self-destructiveness by the UK populace. Imperfect though the EC is, we had considerable influence within the 27, far more than with the much-vaunted "sovereignty", which is now accelerating the erosion of our economy. 60% approx. of our trade both ways was with the EC, our neighbours, and we've put a bureaucratic minefield in the way of that which is having devastating consequences.]
But I digress. There were many, many left-wing politicians from earlier times who would abhor what is happening now in the perverted name of "liberalism" - anathema to the principles of decency they (very broadly speaking) held. That's where so many of us feel WE haven't changed, but the "liberal" tide has swirled beyond us.
You speak of the "desire for government to do more and take a larger role in the day to day affairs of its citizens". When we look at the drive to control what we think, then yes, this is perfectly abhorrent and indeed absurd. But this is completely different from state funding, which has has been receding since Thatcher, of our health services, the railways, our education system, or our environmental and river authorities, and so-on. Again, an imperfect system, but there is no evidence at all that the galloping de-funding and/or privatisation of those sectors has brought improvement - far from it. Management for profit and austerity are each arguably a significant part of much social and structural erosion over here since Maggie - an essay in itself. The efforts of those who saw societal benefit in enhancing all those sectors, and improving the health and lives of all, were hardly what led to where we are now.
To follow your logic, if, in the sense I'm speaking of, the "efforts of good people to improve the lot of their fellow humans" can only lead to the insanity of recent Irish, European, British (etc., etc) legislation, then we may as well all give up on aiming for increased fairness and equality in society. But what then is the alternative to that struggle?
Anyway, nice speaking with you. Must now move on to a million other more mundane things calling for attention! Best wishes.