The Way Elections Work Now

Abstract

It has been interesting to watch the ambivalent reactions of British Conservatives to Reagan’s triumph. Only the more simple-minded ‘social democrats’ of the hard Right (Lord Chalfont, Paul Johnson) and monetarist ideologues (Rees-Mogg) have sounded naïvely happy. It is no small tribute to the speed and thoroughness with which Mrs Thatcher has wrought havoc on our economy that, only eighteen months later, a majority of her party are downright fearful (à la Heath) of what an American Administration promising to repeat the Thatcher experience over there may do.

First published in New Society, 20 November 1980.