As the unfortunate atoms that were so cruelly knitted into the malevolent form of Maggie Thatcher now enjoy their sudden liberation, the London Review of Books unearths an unlikely prophet of old who clearly foresaw the dangers of mythologizing “Thatcherism” and allowing it to establish the framework for all future politics. This insightful figure, writing boldly in the name of all “radical, progressive spirits” seeking a better world, also perceptively identified the historical and geophysical fluke — a situation that had nothing at all to do with Thatcher’s rapacious, hard-hearted and wrong-headed policies — which temporarily sustained the illusion that it was her economic “reforms” that “restored prosperity” to Britain.
As the LRB’s Thomas Jones notes in the piece, how different the world might be today if this prophet himself had become prime minister! Surely he would never have succumbed to the mythology of Thatcherism, including its cynical, murderous penchant for totally unnecessary wars, but would have worked tirelessly to reverse its foul effects, which are still with us, and growing worse, today. O for what might have been!