The Prometheus Post: Issue Three

By Richard Pinder

This month the theme of The Prometheus Post is Margaret Thatcher and her ideas.

We have a massive feature on Lady Thatcher in champions of freedom. Charting her history and what made this great woman. The state of the nation when she was in opposition. What she achieved in government.

Thatcherism is strongly associated with sound economics. One of the key ideas she championed was that of Privatisation.

In a special feature Prometheus will explain a new model of privatisation devised by this magazine. A model that has all the original strengths of the classical policy, but none of its weaknesses.

A model which Prometheus will then apply to show how we can end the terrible energy crisis that man in British society face.

In this last month of so there have been some major political events. Namely the budget and the recent local elections. This month in The Prometheus Post this magazine Prometheus will conduct a thorough analysis of the government budget.

Explaining what the policies of My Osborne mean for the country. Demonstrating the strengths and weaknesses of his budget and comparing what he has done, with what the other parties have proposed.

Lady Thatcher was a symbol of, among many other things, proper free market capitalism.

Corporatism as an idea is one completely at odds with free market governance, as it is one at odds with sound economic policy. As far too many corporatists masquerade as capitalists, Prometheus will explain in this issue the difference between the two ideas.

Prometheus is no lover of charlatans. On the contrary he considers it a journalistic obligation to expose them.

Within the pages of this months magazine, Prometheus will demonstrate why there is nothing egalitarian about the Labour Party. While explaining also why the Unions are not on the side of the working class.

Freedom of speech is and has been especially under attack of late. Prometheus will show how new press regulations are a massive threat to freedom of speech and to democracy itself.

While Leveson and press regulation still remains big news regarding to threats to freedom of speech there remains other elements of existing government policy that also act to strangle freedom of expression. Prometheus will show how the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act is now being used to try and silence whistleblowers.

Thatcher's last stand as prime minister was against the European Union. Prometheus reports on where the British political debate is now, regarding British independence.

This and more in this months edition of Prometheus.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Pinder
• Release date: May 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301634828

Richard Pinder

Richard Pinder is an author, journalist and business owner. He is the author of the Libertarian's Handbook, an epic length (over 100,000 words) work on civil rights. While he is also the editor and owner of the Prometheus Post. The Prometheus Post is a monthly libertarian-conservative electronic magazine. It stands for the advancement of freedom, justice and prosperity. The Prometheus Post offers serious political analysis in areas such as civil rights, justice, economics and business. It is also actively campaigning for British withdrawal from the European Union, along with offering insight into, and critique of, general political affairs.

Book preview

The Prometheus Post

May 2013

Issue Three

Richard Pinder

Copyright Richard Pinder 2013

Smashwords Edition

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Also by Richard Pinder, published at Smashwords:

The Libertarian's Handbook

Table of Contents

1. Editorial

2. Champions of Freedom - Margaret Thatcher

The early life and making of Margaret Thatcher

The political rise of Margaret Thatcher

Thatcher in power

3. In the Defence of Liberty - News and comment on developments in civil rights

Why there is nothing egalitarian about the Labour Party

The truth about the new charter for press regulation

4. In the Pursuit of Justice - The means to advance law and justice

Watching Big Brother

5. The Free Economy - How we can increase national prosperity

The difference between capitalism and corporatism

Why the unions are not on the side of the working class

6. Special feature - Privatisation 2.0

Explaining traditional privatisation

Weaknesses of the original model

Privatisation 2.0

Where privatisation needs to go next

How we can deliver better healthcare

How we should privatise the BBC and market liberalise state broadcasting

7. Special feature - The 2013 budget

The 2013 budget and the average family

What this budget means for business

The budget and the national economy

The other major parties and the budget

In conclusion

8 Special feature - The May 2013 local elections

The Conservative Party

The Labour Party

The Liberal Democrat Party

The United Kingdom Independence Party

9. Independent - On why the United Kingdom would be better off out of the EU

So how close are we to getting a referendum on EU membership?

Why pursuing bank levies is the wrong way for Europe

10. The Last Word - Comment on general affairs

Why Thatcher was such a great success at the polls

11. Connect with the Post

12. Also by the Editor - The Libertarian's Handbook

The Prometheus Post - May 2013 Editorial

This month the theme of The Prometheus Post is Margaret Thatcher and her ideas.

We have a massive feature on Lady Thatcher in ‘Champions of Freedom’. It charts her history and what made this great woman; the state of the nation when she was in opposition; and what she achieved in government.

Thatcherism is strongly associated with sound economics. One of the key ideas she championed was that of privatisation. In a special feature Prometheus will explain a new model of privatisation devised by this magazine. A model that has all the original strengths of the classical policy but none of its weaknesses. A model which Prometheus will then apply to show how we can end the terrible energy crisis that many in British society face.

In this last month of so there have been some major political events. Namely, the budget and the recent local elections. This month in the Prometheus Post Prometheus will conduct a thorough analysis of the government budget, explaining what the policies of Mr Osborne mean for the country, demonstrating the strengths and weaknesses of his budget and comparing what he has done with what the other parties have proposed.

Lady Thatcher was a symbol of, among many other things, proper free-market capitalism. Corporatism as an idea is one completely at odds with free-market governance and with sound economic policy. As far too many corporatists masquerade as capitalists, Prometheus will explain in this issue the difference between the two ideologies.

Prometheus is no lover of charlatans. On the contrary, he considers it a journalistic obligation to expose them. Within the pages of this month’s magazine, Prometheus will demonstrate why there is nothing egalitarian about the Labour Party and why the unions are not on the side of the working class.

Freedom of speech is under attack – especially of late. Prometheus will show how new press regulations are a massive threat to freedom of speech and to democracy itself. While Leveson and press regulation still remains big news regarding threats to freedom of speech, there remain other elements of existing government policy that also act to strangle freedom of expression. Prometheus will show how the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act is now being used to try and silence whistle-blowers.

Thatcher's last stand as prime minister was against the European Union. Prometheus reports on where the British political debate is now, regarding British independence.

This and more in this month’s edition of Prometheus.

Richard Pinder

Editor

Return to table of contents

Champions of Freedom - Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher was easily and by far one of the very greatest leaders of the twentieth century; the calibre of leader that was, to peacetime Britain, what Churchill was to wartime Britain.

She was remarkable, unyielding and passionate. Ferocious towards those who would harm her beloved Britain. Utterly loyal to her nation. Resolved to make Great Britain a success no matter what the odds.

Thatcher was the epitome of strength in the face of adversity.

Her great achievement was to take a nation that believed it was finished and make it stand tall again.

It is by understanding where Thatcher came from that one can see how she was able to achieve this great feat, as her background explains why she was minded to do so in the first place.

The early life and the making of Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, in 1925. She was not born into privilege, being the daughter of two grocers, Alfred and Beatrice Roberts. As she was not born into a wealthy family, while she was growing up she had to make do; and the business environment into which she was born very much taught her the values of thrift, efficiency and financial sense.

Alfred Roberts was Margaret's great inspiration. He was the man whom she most looked up to and it was he who most shaped her outlook of the world. So in order to really understand Margaret one must first understand her father.

Alfred was a liberal in the old and classical sense.

He himself was influenced to a great extent by John Stuart Mill, cherishing the ideas of limited government and of the sovereignty of the individual as described in John Stuart Mill's classic work On Liberty.

Alfred, though, like many classical liberals of the early twentieth century, had abandoned the Liberal Party of old, as he considered their new-found attachment to collectivism to be incompatible with his ideas of freedom.

After all, one cannot have limited government if the government is in every sphere of one’s life. Or if the state sacrifices individuals’ needs and freedoms for the collective.

This in turn at the time led to the effective collapse of the old Liberal Party and to an exodus of classical liberals from the old Liberal Party to the Conservative Party. Which was why Thatcher, a woman very much influenced by classical liberal ideas through her father, became a conservative.

Margaret Thatcher was a strong Methodist, also under her father’s influence. Alfred was very spiritually active in Grantham. He gave regular sermons, being a preacher as well as a shopkeeper.

Methodism has its emphasis on helping the poor in particular. Not just through word and sermon, but through action, with Methodists traditionally being involved in the creation of hospitals, schools and soup kitchens.

One of the key beliefs of Methodism, the denomination that Margaret wholly subscribed to, is the idea that service to one’s community is a means to working towards gaining more of God’s love.

So considering that this was such a key belief of Margaret Thatcher we should not be surprised she worked so hard and so unwaveringly towards the betterment of Great Britain.

It is the view of Prometheus that the strong religious convictions of Margaret Thatcher, through her father's direct influence, led very much to her political actions. And it was this fundamental belief in the righteousness and goodliness of serving others - acting in service to God - that very much drew her and pushed her to becoming prime minister, as being prime minister is the ultimate position in which a person can help others the most.

Thatcher also picked up her interest in politics, unsurprisingly, from her father. Alfred Roberts was an alderman (a now extinct political role, similar to a councillor) and was also Mayor of Grantham, taking on the latter role immediately after the culmination of World War II. The fact that Margaret had politics all around her in her most formative years, and her most important role model was involved with it, is in the view of Prometheus a large part of the reason she became so involved with politics herself.

Growing up in World War II, Margaret, upon concluding her secondary education, went on to study chemistry at Oxford University. At the time of her application to university the Second World War still raged, so she desired to study a subject that might be useful to advancing the war effort. As explosives and plastics at that time were both important technologies to warfare and as she could learn about such technology through a chemistry degree, she considered it a sensible university option.

It was also while at university that Thatcher became influenced by another of the great voices of twentieth-century freedom: Friedrich von Hayek. It was while studying at Oxford University that she read Hayek's most influential work The Road to Serfdom.

While Friedrich von Hayek is most famous as a distinguished economist, being one of the most famous proponents of the Austrian School of Economics, The Road to Serfdom as a book was entirely political.

In this work Hayek explained that what linked Nazism and socialism was a belief in collectivism. He said that with collectivism, no matter how benevolent some of its followers are to start with, in the end everyone is reduced more and more to servitude, purely by the fact of giving more and more power to the state.

An idea that was to form, later on, one of the key foundations of Thatcherism.

By the time she had finished her degree, though, in 1947, the War was over. So Margaret joined BX Plastics to work in their research and development division.

Not long after this Margaret went on to join her local Conservative association. She immediately impressed them and became the Conservative electoral candidate for Dartford. After the formal selection processes she was invited to an informal 'adoption' evening in which she met the local association for Dartford. It was at this event that she met the future love of her life, Denis Thatcher.

Margaret and Denis immediately got on well, sharing a very similar world view. Denis like Margaret was very much a no-nonsense Tory, who shared with Margaret a very dry sense of conservatism. They also shared an interest in the sciences. Denis ran a paint firm, which, in terms of products, is, when all’s said and done, all about chemistry. This gave them natural common ground, as Margaret was herself a chemistry graduate. They also shared an affection for classical sorts of music.

Margaret and Denis married in 1951 and soon after had two children, twins Mark and Carol.

It took Margaret four attempts to get elected. On the first two occasions she tried unsuccessfully to get elected in Dartford. Failure was no surprise as this had always been a safe left-wing seat. On the third occasion she stood as the Tory candidate in the Orpington by-election of 1955.

On the fourth attempt, though, she was elected as the Member of Parliament for the considerably easier seat of Finchley in 1959.

The political rise of Margaret Thatcher

Early on in parliament Margaret Thatcher held several positions, including Undersecretary at the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance and the spokeswoman on Housing and Land.

Her major first step into the upper levels of politics began when she became a Cabinet minister in 1970, holding the position of Secretary of State for Education and Science. She continued to hold this position in the Heath government until it was defeated in 1974.

1974 was a complete disaster for the Conservative Party, as it was for the country. In 1974 the Conservatives lost not just one election to Labour, but two. The first one was in February, when Labour was returned the largest party but did not win enough seats to form a majority government. The second was in October, when the Labour Party did even better and formed a majority government.

This under the leadership of Heath.

Even after two election defeats Ted Heath still felt that he was the right leader for the Conservative Party. After two clear election defeats, Prometheus would have to describe Ted Heath as delusional in this.

The inherent problem with Ted Heath and his leadership was that he simply was not conservative enough. While it is harsh to say, it is right to say that with Ted, being a conservative at all seemed more like a cruel accident of chance than anything to do with principles.

While it would be unfair to label Ted Heath as stupid, he certainly was not much of a real conservative, nor in possession of anything resembling either good common sense or the ability to strategically think through his actions.

Ted was the man who opened the door to Europe. While he made many errors this one was the very worst. It is cowardly to be leading an advanced liberal democracy like Great Britain and to seriously transfer any powers to a third party, such as the EU, to do some of the governing for us.

It was also betrayal. Great Britain had fought two world wars, to remain an independent and self-governing nation. When Heath sold out the country to foreign powers, so that they could have a say over how Great Britain was governed, it was betrayal.

This single action was so poor and cowardly and badly thought out, it had ramifications that affect us today. Heath’s signing of the first treaty made it of course easier and more possible for others to sign further treaties without too much of a fight. In turn this has led to an increasing loss of sovereignty. To Great Britain sending tens of millions of pounds to Europe every day. To frankly stupid