Must Read- it's time not just to bury Thatcher, but Thatcherism itself

[malaise]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/16/bury-not-just-thatcher-but-thatcherism
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But a week on, it's clear the revisionists have overplayed their hand. Anger and revulsion keep bursting into the open. Simply raising her record reminds people of the price paid for unrelenting deregulation, privatisation and tax handouts to the rich; why she was so unpopular across Britain when she was in power; and the striking similarity with what's being done by today's Tory-led coalition.

But Thatcherism was only an early variant (following her friend General Pinochet, the Chilean dictator) of what became the neoliberal capitalism adopted or imposed across the world for the next generation. And it's that model which imploded in the crash of 2008. As even the free-market Economist conceded last week, while demanding "more Thatcherism, not less", her reforms could be said to have "sowed the seeds" of the current crisis.

There's certainly no automatic basis for such a shift. As history shows, the right can also take advantage of economic breakdowns – and often has. But more than 20 years after Thatcher was forced out of office, the evidence is that most British people remain stubbornly resistant to her individualistic small-state philosophy, believing for example that it's the government's job to redistribute income across the spectrum and guarantee a decent minimum income for all.

And crucially, the economic model that underpinned the policies of Thatcher and her successors is broken. As the Labour frontbencher Jon Trickett argued this week, we need a "rupture" with the "existing economic settlement" – the Thatcher settlement. That's the challenge of the politics of our time, not only in Britain. As we remember blighted lives and communities today, it's time not just to bury Thatcher, but Thatcherism itself.