Corporate giants undermine Thatcher’s vision

Fifty years ago, the most significant event in the recent history of the Conservative Party took place in a small office in Westminster. Mrs Thatcher was on the floor wiring a kettle for her new Centre for Policy Studies. In fact, she wasn’t wiring the kettle at all. She was re-wiring Conservatism.

She and Sir Keith Joseph designed the CPS to provide the intellectual and academic foundation for what later became known as Thatcherism. It worked. Four Conservative election victories followed.

Times change. Fifty years later, the wires have been pulled out. Conservative supporters now exhibit the symptoms of what doctors call dissociative seizures – confusion, bewilderment, a strange sense of detachment and disillusionment.

Something has gone wrong with Mrs Thatcher’s idea of the “free market”. It was meant to be a “perpetual referendum”. People would cast their vote every day, and from the competition to win their custom better products and services would emerge.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out like that. After she left office, Mrs Thatcher came to lunch. I asked her if she knew the share of the top five banks in Britain in all financial transactions – loans, mortgages, credit cards, insurance. She said she didn’t. I told her it was 80 per cent. She said: “It’s impossible.” She didn’t mean it wasn’t true. She meant it was intolerable.

Globalisation led to “cartelisation” – the creation of cartels in which there is a huge imbalance of power between the customer and the corporation; a sense of powerlessness and unfairness that results from a world of global companies whose governance (and maybe taxes) are beyond public control.

Many Conservatives suffered dismay and disappointment as the story unfolded. They struggle to understand how free market competition could possibly lead to a situation where the capitalist model would be discredited, not by its well-rehearsed moral consequences, greed and selfishness – but by its unintended economic consequences, the creation of giant cartels beyond the reach of national governments.

Is this the anthill society? For those at the top of the corporate ferris wheel, we may look like ants. They can tread on a few of us without even noticing.

Have you ever tried calling BT? Vodafone? Or UK Power Networks? I have. I timed it. It takes longer to get through to BT than No 10. Vodafone takes longer than the White House. UK Power Networks takes longer than Parliament.

Have you ever heard of the people who run these companies? Of course not. At least with big government you know who’s in charge. But with these big companies you have no idea. With big government, you can change the leader every now and again. But with these big companies you wouldn’t know where to begin.

Mrs Thatcher was concerned to hear that the end-result of competition is the end of competition. She knew that capitalism without competition is exploitation.

Finance? Five banks control Wall Street. Defence? In 1990, America had 51 “prime defence contractors”. Today? Five. Satellite suppliers: from eight down to four. Tactical missile suppliers: from eight down to three.

You might have thought there is at least one market that is definitely “free” – the stock market. But no, the big companies have taken that over, too. They persuaded the US Securities and Exchange Commission to permit them to buy their own shares in the market. One trillion dollars in 2022.

This distorts the “free market” to the benefit of shareholders and executives. It alters the calculation of earnings per share to help executives achieve the targets in their share option plans. This “free market” may be creating levels of inequality in society that no Levelling Up Minister can fix.

It has also presented us with a problem to which it has no solution – our own health. Consider the NHS, Britain’s proudest achievement since the Second World War. I saw first-hand the glow of pride in the NHS slowly darken to ambivalence – concern about the present and anxiety for the future.

One thing is certain. We are not going to pay more tax for the NHS. We’re paying enough tax already. We are also not going to pay for NHS treatment because it is meant to be “free at the point of use”.

There is a new, top-secret government policy. Very hush hush. It has a name. Rationing by waiting. Your knee operation will still be free, it’s just that you will have to wait a year. If you don’t want to wait, go private.

We have grown used to “tiered services” from airlines or streaming channels that offer a “basic” service with extra features for £X. The NHS has joined their club. If you don’t like the delay, pay.

Being the chief spokesperson for the “free market” is no longer a winner. Big companies think they are Big Daddy. To them, we are helpless administrative units with no power. They commit what the Pope calls “the modern sin. The sin of indifference”. A shrug of the shoulders.

Perhaps it’s time to rescue the ants from Big Daddy. Only the Conservative Party can do that. Because freedom, independence and self-determination are the core of its body. Perhaps a Royal Commission on health will help it recover its heartbeat.

Can dissociative seizures be treated? Certainly. And hopefully it won’t be another 50 years before the new Mrs Thatcher comes along.