So this week Theresa May becomes our new Prime Minister. Naturally her gender will prompt comparisons with Margaret Thatcher. This comparison will be tough to measure up to. Indeed, it is an impossible one for her first week in Downing Street.
Thatcher was in power for more than 11 years after winning three General Elections. She won the Falklands War and was a crucial partner to Ronald Reagan in winning the Cold War. She turned the nation’s fortunes around. The trade unions were brought to heel; penal tax rates were slashed; Exchange Controls lifted; failing state industries privatised.
Her example was followed around the world. It was called Thatcherism.
Will our second female Prime Minister have an equivalently distinct mission? Will we come to talk of Mayism? Will her work be continued years after her departure by Mayites?
In the 1970s, male chauvinism and social snobbery had much more force than today. Thatcher was much sneered at. But she got lucky with one piece of abuse. On 24 January 1976, the Soviet Army newspaper, Red Star, dubbed her the “Iron Lady.” It stuck. Theresa May has been given an equivalent gift. Ken Clarke was caught, with his microphone still on, concluding that May is a “bloody difficult woman”.
Ken Clarke and Malcolm Rifkind filmed in Sky News Westminster studio making remarks about Tory leadership candidates https://t.co/SywJXdMvH6
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 5, 2016
So comparisons of style might have some validity. Whether May will prove as exciting a politician is another matter.
Thatcher’s passion gave her performances an electricity – whether in the Commons, on TV interviews, or in the big speeches such as at the annual Conservative Party Conference. May talks, as Thatcher did, about getting the “best deal for Britain”, but May’s tone is milder. Thus there is an
expectation that May will prove boring by comparison with her female predecessor.
'Together, we will build a better Britain' – watch Theresa's speech after being chosen as @Conservatives leader: pic.twitter.com/MIUIqRVSoM
— Theresa May (@theresa_may) July 11, 2016
Indeed Clare Foges, a former speech writer to David Cameron, compared the prospect of a May premiership to Thatcher’s successor: “In 1992, John Major introduced a telephone hotline motorists could call if they saw traffic cones wrongly deployed. It was roundly mocked. “Cones hotline” became shorthand for a government that has run out of big ideas. There is the suspicion that a May government would head in this direction; competent, yes, but not daring.”
Foges does not sound keen, but others, including some Tory MPs may well be yearning for dullness. Even journalists have found the rate of news over the last couple of weeks a bit much. “May you live in interesting times,” is, of course, reputedly an ancient Chinese curse.
Yet – for good or ill – the May Government will see important changes for the country. There is Brexit for a start. Given that May supported Remain the suspicions will be obvious but I hope and believe that she will deliver as she has promised. During the Referendum campaign she gave a speech offering the mildest of Remain endorsements. “There are certainly problems that are caused by EU
membership, but of course there are advantages too,” she said. “Our decision must come down to whether, after serious thought about the pros and the cons, we believe there is more in the credit column than in the debit column for remaining on the inside.” She started the speech by stressing: “This is not a rally.” She added that it was “nonsense” to suggest that “Britain is too small a country to cope
outside the European Union.”
TM: “We must leave the European Union – and forge a new role for ourselves in the world.” #TM4PM pic.twitter.com/qEtjxJxBo4
— Theresa May (@theresa_may) July 11, 2016
The equivocation was certainly unheroic. It will have been frustrating to both sides. Naturally cynics observed it left her well-placed to be the “unity” candidate which was the role she then took on. But it is always possible that her equivocation was
sincere rather than craven.
What of her views on other matters? As Home Secretary she presided over a falling crime rate despite reductions in police budgets. There were also reforms pushed through which the police didn’t like – such as increasing accountability with the introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners. The big failure was to deliver on the pledge to cut immigration to the “tens of thousands” a year. As became blindingly obvious, that pledge was at odds with our EU membership.
Then there is the social reform undertaken by David Cameron which will be judged rather more significant by historians than the pundits. The work will continue. More schools will become academies and more free schools will be set up. The hugely radical welfare reform Universal Credit will continue to be “rolled out”, giving a greater incentive to work. But there will be further reforms.
In 1997 May gave her maiden speech as a new MP and protested against the Blair Government’s abolition of the Assisted Places Scheme. I would not be at all
surprised if she restores the scheme – which helped pay the school fees for bright children from poorer families to attend independent schools. As she was state school educated herself, it might well prove easier for May to boost the independent sector in this way than it did for an Old Etonian.
Her 2013 speech to the Conservative Home conference also suggested that new providers of public services would be welcome and that “if allowing those organisations to make a profit means we have a more diverse supply side and better outcomes, then that is something we should consider with an open mind.”
The Brexit era could see a wider resistance to the cosy world of crony capitalism – where lobbying delivers subsidies and restrictions on competition to corporate vested interests. There has been concern that George Osborne has been a bit too comfortable schmoozing in this world.
Theresa May is a stronger Christian than David Cameron. She is also more sceptical than him about that alternative religion of environmentalism.
So don’t fall asleep through the May premiership. It may prove rather more radical in substance than in tone.
