Neoliberalism in Britain: From Origins to Orthodoxy

Divided into three sections, the chapter commences by discussing how, and from where or whom, the ideas of neoliberalism developed in Britain, and were then incorporated and disseminated in the Conservative Party, via senior figures such as Thatcher and Joseph, and free-market think tanks such as the Institute of Economic Affairs. The adoption of neoliberalism by many prominent Conservatives in the 1980s naturally shaped much of the agenda of the Thatcher Government, yielding policies such as significant income tax cuts, privatisation, “marketisation” in/of the public sector, weakening of trade unions and workers’ rights, maximising profitability and shareholder value, a leaner and meaner welfare state, and the relentless promotion of individualism over collectivism. The second section examines the “discourse” adopted to disseminate and inculcate neoliberal arguments and policies, to the extent that they became “hegemonic” and portrayed as simple non-ideological common-sense; all potential alternatives were discredited, via control of language and construction of meanings, and the articulation of binary opposites which were presented as good/bad, such as individual liberty or State control, hard work or laziness, etc. The third and final section discusses how neoliberalism has been continued and thus entrenched by subsequent governments to the present day