Thatcher attitude towards state was that the government should keep its involvement in public affairs minimum therefore having a small government although she was hard on crime she famously said “"Crime is crime is crime; it is not political" therefore crime has nothing to do with the government it is there decision she believed in big authority in law and order she wanted to increase the amount of police officers and their wages she said “an earnest of our intention to back the police in the war against crime. We must have a strong and experienced police force.” But this could be because Thatcher recognised that the police had large public support and their goodwill would be needed. Similarly Cameron insists that social problems are rarely solved by greater state intervention reiterated Thatcher’s ambition to ‘roll back the frontier’. Cameron encourages charity, faith, family and communities. However he is more sympathetic as well as believing in hard punishment Cameron is more like ‘new Labour’ when it comes to crime he believes in two contradiction ‘tough love’ as he says the media portrayed a title on one of his famous speeches it was known as ‘hug a hoodie’ eventhough he never said that himself although he stop discuss the crime issue in recent speeches.
Thatcher denied any link between poverty and inequality nevertheless Cameron shifted the conservative party towards ‘new Labour’ who believe poverty is a pressing issue that is triggered mainly because environment or inequality. However he may be considered to be like Thatcher because Cameron and his team criticised Gordon Brown for creating dependency culture otherwise known as a ‘nanny state’ and term associated with Thachrites. Cameron believes that poverty is best avoided by marriage, advocating a return to the marriage tax allowance. Poverty increased under Thatcher leaving at the end of the Conservative tenure one in three children living in households with less than half the average income then she was saying poverty didn’t exist. Cameron is allot more sympathetic towards people living in poverty and the well-off and losing more than the poor to maintain child benefits for the poor he says he’s hitting the rich the hardest.
Thatcher view in tax and public spending was fairly simple it was to cut income tax thus cutting government spending consequently having a small state. Initially Cameron wanted to maintain government spending therefore not cutting tax but the recession September 2008 changed everything therefore he started to cut government spending in October 2010. George Osborn cut £81 billion of government spending which is 19% the biggest for a long time. So at first he was unlike Thatcher but he is becoming more of a Thatcherite as time goes on but is it because of the recession or was it his plan to at first not seem like he was not a Thatcherite but now because he gained his power he can show his true ideologies.
Thatcher was a euro-sceptic she often said that the continent of Europe has been the source of most of Britain’s ills, and that the Anglo-Saxon nations, and in particular the Americans, have repeatedly rescued Britain from those ills. Cameron also dislikes Europe for example he changed his allies from France and Germany with anti euro parties that are extremely right wing eastern Europeans. This may indicate that he is growing more so into a Thatcherite.
The environment was not really a major issue in the time of Thatcher although she did a little for the environment. It first became a real important issue in 1988 when the green party done well winning their first sit in parliament. However Cameron slogan for the general election was ‘Vote blue, Go green’ Cameron promised to ‘stand up to businesses over such carbon emissions’. He also rides a bike to work and he change the logo from an intimidating torch to a scribbled tree which suggest he has gone green.
In conclusion David Cameron is different to Margret Thatcher however he is becoming more similar this could be because of the September 08’ recession or it could be because he is now in power so he is showing his true ideologies although I believe that it is the recession that is forcing him to change his views.
