Hook
Blackbeard's former bo'sun.
Yes, it is far more transparent now. There is no masquerade. The Tories now openly exist to move money upwards to donors and from there offshore. There is no pretence beyond maybe the occasional entirely undefined “levelling up” slogan, which seems to translate to ‘level the north and move money upwards’.
Thatcher at least had some rhetoric that had traction in certain areas. There was an undeniably aspirational ‘upwardly mobile’ ethos along with investment to back it e.g. the BBC Computer Literacy Project, the Enterprise Allowance Scheme etc. In hindsight her tenure was obviously a total disaster. A lot of crazy bad decisions that left the UK hollowed-out, bitterly divided and unable to compete in much beyond the service industries, but there was good there too, and as an ideology it was at the time untested.
It has now been tested to the point of national destruction, yet here we have Liz Truss cosplaying Thatcher in front of a Leman Brothers/Enron economic model.
The concept of “leveling up” has always struck me as hypocritical. Yes, it’s good to invest in places that have been neglected in the past. But who’s fault is that neglect? Wouldn’t that be the same folks who are now promising to make up for their sins of the past? Seems like a poor basis for trust going forward.