The political economy of Mrs Thatcher's monetarism

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the contradictions in policymaking that have been observed over time in the actions of successive Governments. Attention is on the present Government simply because its contradictions are of immediate and urgent concern. A similar historical exercise could be conducted on the last Labour Government with similar conclusions, but from a different political standpoint. The spirit of the paper is that the extent to which a government remains consistent in its policymaking may be as important as the policies themselves. Furthermore, the longer Governments sacrifice consistency for short-term political expediency the more likely it is that support will be forthcoming for totalitarianism of the far right or the far left