Keen On

There will be a British general election on July 4. “The most consequential of our generation” no doubt many politicians will remind the voters. But almost exactly 45 years ago, there really was a profoundly consequential British election. Back in May 1979, Mrs Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative party won power in an election that ultimately changed everything about Britain. In 1979, (Sir) Tim Lankester was the first economic private secretary to Margaret Thatcher and, in his new book, INSIDE THATCHER’S MONETARISM EXPERIMENT, he writes about the promise, failure and legacy of this radical economic gamble. Yet in spite of the economic failure of Thatcher’s monetarist experiment, Sir Tim appears not a little nostalgic for a politician with the vision and will of the Iron Lady. “Mrs Thatcher never lied”, he reminded me about a politician whose success at the polls was rooted in the trust she established with the electorate. And it’s this trust that seems most scarce now, not just in the UK, but also in the US and