What happened to the progressive-left majority in Britain?

[Furunculus]

One Gordon Brown:

"There is also a progressive majority in Britain and I believe it could be in the interests of the whole country to form a progressive coalition government. In addition to the economic priorities, in my view only such a progressive government can meet the demand for political and electoral change which the British people made last Thursday.

And yet today we hear:

Britain is moving further to the Right after 13 years of Labour, it is disclosed today, as the public’s views on welfare become tougher than when Baroness Thatcher was prime minister.

What went wrong?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Only a quarter of people believe more money should be spent on benefits compared with more than half in the mid-1980s, it was disclosed.

A large-scale analysis of social attitudes over three decades also found fewer adults wanted the Government to redistribute income and many believed inequality was down to “individual laziness on the one hand and hard work on the other”.

The disclosure, in the annual British Social Attitudes report, is being seen as evidence that public opinion is “far closer” to many of Lady Thatcher’s core beliefs than it was when she left office in 1990.

After 13 years of a Labour government, the study found more people were against disproportionately taxing the better off. But, in a warning to the Coalition, the report disclosed strong support for increased public spending on education and health, with many believing key public services performed well under the last government.

Penny Young, chief executive of the National Centre for Social Research, which carried out the study, said it highlighted “the scale of the task at hand for the Coalition as it cuts the deficit and drives through its programme of reform”.

She added: “It is 20 years since Margaret Thatcher left office, but public opinion is far closer now to many of her core beliefs than it was then.

“Our findings show that attitudes have hardened over the last two decades, and are

more in favour of cutting benefits and against taxing the better off disproportionately. But, just as [Tony] Blair and [Gordon] Brown incorporated key concepts of Thatcherism into New Labour’s ideology, Britain today is sending a

clear message to [David] Cameron and [Nick] Clegg that it values the investment Labour has made in this country’s core public services.”

The survey has charted trends in public opinion since the early 1980s. In the 27th annual report, researchers questioned 3,421 people at the end of 2009 on a series of issues including politics, health, education, welfare, transport and equality. The study found widespread concerns over the income gap in Britain. Despite billions of pounds being invested in reforms to improve the quality of life among the poorest children, 78 per cent said the gap was too high, roughly the same as in 1987.

However, the study found an “apparent mismatch” between concerns over inequality and support for redistribution of wealth.

Asked why some people were “in need”, 26 per cent said they were “lazy” and 38 per cent said inequality was simply an inevitable consequence of modern life.

Only 57 per cent said the Government was responsible for reducing inequality, compared with 64 per cent two decades ago, and just 36 per cent said ministers should redistribute income.

The study found that only a quarter of people believed the Government should spend more on benefits, half the number who believed this in the mid to late-1980s.

Mrs Young added: “The survey points to a nation at a political crossroads between Left and Right: it is perhaps little surprise that the election resulted in a coalition.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...-she-fell.html

For that matter: what happened to progressive-left politics in europe?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...650812,00.html
Europe's social democratic parties are in the deepest crisis of their history as conservative parties co-opt their principles and far-left parties steal their traditional supporters. The glory days of Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder's "third way" seem like the distant past.

Question:

Are you a child of Thatcher?

[rory_20_uk]

It's too close to seeing the outcome of over a decade of Champagne Socialism for the view to be widely lauded. For the tenant of faith is that if the money is spent, the Utopia will arise. Unemployment will fall, standard of living will rise, social ills will end and society will become richer overall.

Sadly seeing as the only thing that has definitely risen is Private and Public debt with year on year reductions in efficiency in the Public Services along with a vastly greater state this circle is difficult to square. The barriers to bothering to work if anything have increased, with the number of benefits that one looses when one tries to work meaning an initial tax of over 100% earnings. For example, my Aunt has sufficiently low earnings and savings to get a better dental plan than my job offers me - everything free for ever - mine has a £100 charge. She'd have to work c. 20 hours to cover that (when one takes off travel / tax / NI), so at the moment as she is having dental problems, best not bother to work.

We need to allow people to have time to get angry at the austerity measures and to start to forget exactly why we spend so much money paying off debts before again the Church of Social Utopia will again rise like a Phoenix in the hearts and minds of unrealistic idealists: "what the government is currently doing isn't making life perfect for all, so by our version of logic, what we think will..."

Labour is apparently trying to woo many Lib Dems who have been so disaffected at the first experience of governing. Loosing the purity of opposition must be tough. Having to deal with the grubby reality of the world as it is as opposed to being able to predict both cause and effect. So, run to Labour now and snuggle there in opposition until either Labour gains power or the Lib Dems loose it and again they can return to the purity of the Cause.

[Furunculus]

lol, pretty much agreed, i always thought the phenomenon was best summed up by a question raised by a TV head i believe; "What is the purpose of the Labour party now that all the money is gone?"

big-state/big-spend has been tested to destruction, and it will take until the memory wears off for those naturally inclined to being nice to the world recover their 'appetite' for spending other peoples money of their celebrity cause of the week.

[Fragony]

The progressive left is the new aristocracy

[Beskar]

We don't have a left-wing mainstream party in Britain and there is misrepresentation of what is 'Left-wing'.

For a start, "Benefits" is not necessarily a left-wing issue. Socialism is about fairer wages, so the more work you do, the more money you get. People sitting around on their backsides in Council Estates as Baby Factories is not Socialism.

Then there is "big spend" as it is put, which again, doesn't actually mean it is "Left-wing". I was advocating on this forum before the whole conservative craze to get rid of the debt. I have also spoken of long-term investment and alternative strategies for handling infrastructure. Then as HoreTore brilliantly pointed out in another thread "In America, Healthcare is seen as a profit making industry, but in the UK, it is seen as a drain on public resources".

I could go on.

[Furunculus]

We don't have a left-wing mainstream party in Britain and there is misrepresentation of what is 'Left-wing'.

Q: if there is a problem with what is consdiered to be the left-wing, is it precisely because we don't have 'true' progressive-left parties anymore?

[rory_20_uk]

interestingly, conservatives would also advocate fir ways for the work that one does. They would also be against Baby Factories and scroungers.

You appear equally happy for conservatives to be all fixated on removing the debt in one cohort yet subdivide the alternative from the "big spend". Conservatives would also be pro investing on infrastructure via a variety of funding methods.