Margaret Thatcher | Economic Debate 1981 | House of Commons Statement | 27/07/81

[@gorgeousgeorge3947]

Inflation knocks at the door again. The lessons of history long forgotten. The Lady calls out to us now as surely as she did in 1981.

[@zeddeka]

Totally different circumstances. The inflation we are suffering now is caused by a 1970s style energy shock, and Brexit.

[@EugenusRex]

@@zeddeka Though Mrs. Thatcher disliked the name and label, she belonged to and championed the field of 'monetarism'; particularly that so within a free market. I note that, within the framework of monetarism (of which has been the standard model of economic inflation for the past 45 years), there is no other "cause" of inflation other than governmental mishandling of the 'money supply'. I do not think it remotely controversial to posit that: paying people to stay in their homes and not to work for two years, whilst sitting back and watching wistfully as the United States federal reserve printed more money than at any other point in human history (including, during times of total war) will likely go down in the annals of history as one of the most blatant triggers of rapid inflation ever instigated by humankind. I see no cause-and-effect connection between Brexit and inflation, whatsoever, even as someone who would concede that it has not particularly proved to be a success. If Britain's financial woes were divergent from the rest of the great economies of the world, I could perhaps understand that there was an argument to be made. Being that every developed economy in the world is currently 'in the same boat' so to speak, I find it a very shallow accusation to make, based on little to no evidence other than personal antipathy. Modern inflation has, arguably, been triggered by a number of things, chief among them being: - A dangerous backsliding and abandonment in governmental adherence to strict monetarist economic principles since the turn of the century, leading to a rather dangerous habit from successive governments of trying to 'invent' money, out of the aether. - An exponentially disintegrating manufacturing base, offset by cheap foreign labour, both in the interior and abroad. - Disastrous mismanagement of economic policy, in particular the response to the COVID pandemic, of which we will be dealing with the repercussions for multiple generations. - Bizarre outside pressures on the economy that place arbitrary levies and restrictions on basic everyday commodities essential to the life of both the everyman and big industry (the 'race to net zero' and the consequences of its universal policies, in particular).

[@danielmurray1490]

How thatcher survived this period is amazing the labour party literally fought each other to the death

[@syedadeelhussain2691]

Inflation was brought down, but it created massive unemployment. France did the same without comprising on the rate of employment under Mitterrand.

[@zeddeka]

Absolutely. Michael Foot captured the destructive folly of Thatcher's approach when he said her government was like a conjurer who smashed an expensive watch on stage and then said "I've forgotten the rest of the trick".