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Thatcher and Sons: A Revolution in Three Acts (Hardcover)

by Simon Jenkins (Author) "Myth clings to the foothills of any great career ..." (more)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Allen Lane (5 Oct 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0713995955
  • ISBN-13: 978-0713995954
  • Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 3.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 313,173 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

The history of Britain in the last thirty years, under both Conservative and Labour governments, has been dominated by one figure – Margaret Thatcher. Her election marked a decisive break with the past and her premiership transformed not just her country, but the nature of democratic leadership. In his ‘argued history’ Simon Jenkins analyses this revolution from its beginnings in the turmoil of the 1970s through the social and economic changes of the 1980s. Was Thatcherism a mere medicine for an ailing economy or a complete political philosophy? And did it eventually fall victim to the dogmatism and control which made it possible? This is the story of the events, personalities, defeats and victories which will be familiar to all those who lived through them, but seen through a new lens. It is also an argument about how Thatcher’s legacy has continued down to the present. Not just John Major, but Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are her heirs and acolytes. And as the Conservative party reinvents itself as a viable political force once again, is the age of Thatcher finally over?


About the Author

Simon Jenkins writes for The Sunday Times and the Guardian. He has edited both the Evening Standard and The Times, and has written books on politics, history and architecture in London including England’s Thousand Best Churches and England’s Thousand Best Houses, published by Penguin. He was knighted in 2004.
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Myth clings to the foothills of any great career. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Penetrating critique but falls down on the elixir of "localism", 8 Jan 2007
By kingofwessex (colchester) - See all my reviews
With this well-written and insightful book, Jenkins confirms his status as probably Britain's leading broadsheet columinist on matters political. Here, he has a compelling thesis and follows it through chapter after chapter, and only the latter couple of chapters are somewhat of a letdown. The continuation of Thatcher's 1980s deeds, via Major, Blair and, most probably, Gordon Brown, is documented well, with judicious use of figures and concrete examples to underpin the trenchant views of the author. The mismatches between the two distinct Thatcherite revolutions are stressed throughout this book, though reference to Andrew Gamble's excellent 'The Free Economy and the Strong State' would have been instructive. Many of the problems and inefficiencies supposedly brought about by command and control centralism (or, in the early postwar decades summed up as 'The man in Whitehall knows best') are exposed here, including some major and very costly failings under Brown's watch at the Treasury. It becomes clear from this evidence that ministerial accountability is one of the hollowest words in the British political vocabulary.
While the supposed panacea of 'localism' does not really convince, we can at least be sure that we are right to be highly sceptical of leading politicians pronouncing ad nauaeam about the virtues of devolving power and reinvigorating local governance. The words 'clutching' and 'straws' spring to mind. Also, despite the post-1997 devolution settlements, the political culture in Britain still seems highly centralised and one fears that the good citizens of Britain are not ready to somehow embrace a localist philosophy as a way of overcoming the pathologies of heavily-centralised management of public services. Indeed, much evidence points to a generally declining interest in political participation, with local politics perhaps bearing the brunt in terms of pitiful local election turnout levels. Central or local, regional or supranational, public administration everywhere is a complex business and devolving a swathe of powers to local councils - whatever their territorial basis - is not necessarily the magic potion that Jenkins, despite his preeminence as an author and commentator, so fervently believes it to be.
A very interesting read, but, as with many analyses of the failings of how Britain is governed, it offers a comprehensive diagnosis, but remains unconvincing in the remedy it offers.
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Quite a devestating summary of the recent political past, 26 Oct 2007
This review is from: Thatcher and Sons: A Revolution in Three Acts (Paperback)
While I really enjoyed reading this account, I found - as is often the case with up-dated books - it fell a little short of putting the most recent developments (i.e. Brown taking over) into the same sharp focus as the Thatcher and Blair premierships. Having said this, I was thoroughly impressed by the sheer amount of background information and detail often quite casually offered. Just to give one example - the money the Blair government spent on "consultants" is abolutely staggering. I wish real insiders like Simon Jenkins would "let rip" one day, and actually share the full amount of insight they have with the reader.
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11 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Very useful critique of Thatcherism, 7 Jan 2008
By William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Thatcher and Sons: A Revolution in Three Acts (Paperback)
Simon Jenkins, past editor of The Times and the Evening Standard, has written a fascinating book on Thatcherism which, he observes, is not a style of leadership but a political direction. He claims that Blair and Brown are its `willing prisoners'.

Thatcher attacked all workers and all professions - doctors, nurses, teachers, judges, steelworkers, police and miners. She stripped local government and the civil service of their independence and democracy.

Since 1990 we have suffered Thatcherism without Thatcher. Jenkins shows how Major and Blair continued Thatcher's policies across the board. He calls Blair `Thatcher's most devoted follower', but he makes a very strong case that Brown is even more so.

His Chapter 17, `Gordon Brown Thatcherite', shows how Brown has mortgaged the government's current and capital accounts to balance the books and has sold forward contracts to private firms to supply services through his PFIs and PPPs. The government borrows dear now, workers pay dearer later.

Thus Brown shifted investment in public institutions `off the books', hidden from the public borrowing total, a technique that he copied from his banker friends like Gavyn Davies of Goldman Sachs. The Office of National Statistics now classifies 60% of PFIs as off-balance-sheet. Britain's gross off-balance-sheet public debt was £110 billion by 2003. Brown has imposed on us not just stealth taxes, but stealth debts too.

By 2005, Brown had forced the NHS to borrow £6 billion for PFI schemes, with another £11 billion to come. Less than 30% of the touted increased `health spending' goes to health care. 20% of hospital budgets go to servicing bank loans, far outweighing any promised compensatory `efficiency gains'. Most of the rest pays for the last decade's 60% increase in support and administrative staff, so it goes straight through the NHS and out the other side to private subcontractor firms.

Jenkins claims that Thatcher conducted two `revolutions' - freeing capital and strengthening the state - two aims which he sees as contradictory. But in fact she launched a single counter-revolution, strengthening capitalism's power, in order to defeat trade unions and their sources of strength in manufacturing industry.


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4.0 out of 5 stars Too centralised by half
Jenkins seeks to answer two questions; first, what exactly was Thatcherism? This he defines as two revolutions; privatising the old nationalised industries and utilities; and... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. David Cheshire

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