How far has the Modern Conservative Party departed from the Thatcherite agenda? Comparing Margaret Thatcher’s “There is No Such Thing as Society” versus Cameron’s “Big Society”

Executive summary

This essay argues that Modern Conservative Party, particularly its new Prime Minister, David Cameron has not totally departed from its predecessor, Margaret Thatcher. Though Cameron explained that his “Big Society” to be totally different from Thatcher’s “there is no such thing as society” as it acknowledges the societal ties that makes society interdependent, this paper is in the opinion that such political pronouncement was just to parry the criticism associated with Thatcher’s “New Right”. The departure of Cameron’s “Big Society” from Thatcher’s “New Right” is more on the semantics because many of the principles of its predecessor remain the same.

First, Thatcher’s “there is no such thing as society” did not mean the dissolution of social ties that composed society. She herself clarified that the original intent of the statement was distorted beyond recognition. What she meant by “there is no such thing as society” is to diminish dependency on welfare and to encourage individual members of society to help themselves. In effect, it lessens the burden on public expenditures which contributed to the inflation that beset UK’s economy. Thatcher may have just put it in the wrong way but the intent and purpose of her statement was to strengthen industry by enabling society’s individual members. In effect, Cameron’s “Big Society” is just the same with Thatcherism when it intends cut back public expenditures (though explaining that he is just returning it to 2007 level). It only differs in a way that it encouraged public engagement and volunteerism and by putting up a Big Society fund of £200M to enhance societal capability (Channel4.com 2011).

With regard to the economy, Cameron also adopts the free market system which is precisely what Thatcher asserted despite public criticism during her time. Cameron’s economic policy pronouncements also do not subscribe to Keynesian inflationary measure of pump priming the economy through increased public expenditure. It is only his method that differs from Thatcher because he intends to cut public expenditure which Thatcher was opulent during her term.