A society tainted by Thatcher’s legacy

IT IS difficult to understand precisely what Steven King (Opinion, August 17) is on about when he suggests that “small groups on this island” might take from the recent riots in England that the “British state has given up defending itself”.

Is this some form of paranoia? For example, to deny that many of the rioters are “Thatcher’s grandchildren”, on the basis that things have changed there in recent years, fails to recognise the damage that is done to children in their formative years where their families struggle in grinding poverty.

Thatcher, in conjunction with Reagan, introduced policies that created instant poverty for many families. Remember “Cardboard City”? Many of those children are now entering adulthood and beginning to act in accordance with the values that they were imbued with as they journeyed through childhood.

The undoing of the Reagan/Thatcher legacy will take generations, such is the depth of the changes they foisted on society.

And despite the protests to the contrary, Britain remains one of the unfairest countries in Europe, with very high levels of disaffection and poverty.

Let’s look at the figures. In 1979/80, when Reagan and Thatcher came to power, 1% of Americans owned 8% of the wealth.

By 1990 they owned 12%, by 2000 it was 16% and it is now 24%. In 1965 the average CEO made 24 times the wages of his workforce.

By 1978 it was 35 times; by 1989 it was 71 times; by 2000, 300 times and by 2007 it was 364 times more.

In Britain, the trend is the same. Now, the least wealthy half of households account for only 9% of wealth, while the wealthiest 20% of households have 62% of total wealth.

British poverty tables show that 22% of the population are in that category. This compares with 12% in Sweden, 13% in Germany and 14% in France and is a mere 1% below the US. Inexorably the rich have got richer, the poor poorer as a result of policies pursued by this disastrous duo.

These are shocking statistics and rather than the riots presenting opportunities to “small groups” here, should the eruption of violence be honestly analysed, it presents a great opportunity for Britain to once and for all jettison the “greed” ideology that Thatcher sewed deeply into the fabric of their society and set about creating a fair and decent place.

The first step along that road is for commentators such as Steven King to remove the blinkers.

Jim O’Sullivan

Rathedmond

Sligo