Monday, May 23, 2011

Dwelling On The Past

It must have been a slow news day for Tony Schumacher to pen his Liverpool Confidential piece on Margaret Thatcher (http://www.liverpoolconfidential.co.uk/News-and-Comment/Should-Liverpool-forgive-Thatcher ). Given all the issues facing the city, even those who cut their political teeth in the 80s (guilty) will view Schumacher's article as, at best, a half-hearted stab at controversy.
It's true to say that Thatcher's legacy for areas like Merseyside is still ruinously evident (generational dependency, an exponential rise in the underclass, etc.). Moreover, some of us recall the comment by Geoffrey Howe in the wake of the Toxteth riots that government policy towards Merseyside should be one of "managed decline".
That said, dwelling on Thatcher's record at a time when the city continues to be governed by a motley collection of political eunuchs & invertebrates who collude in the destruction of Liverpool's waterfront while meekly accepting the ConDem cuts is perverse to the point of irrelevance.  

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having just read the article (which I thought was quite good) I think you've missed the point. The writer seems to me to not be supporting Thatcher, they are just asking if Liverpool was worse off than other cities on the north. And whether Thatcher was any worse than any other prime minister.

Henry said...

Hmmm. I have just read it too thanks to your helpful link and I'm not sure what you mean by irrelevant. Thatcher is about to die. That not relevant enough? Also it would seem that the writer has had death threats about it, more people missing the point, like you, I guess.

I also thought it was a good article and added myself to the 37 facebook "likes"