Author and journalist James Bartholomew got to present a copy of his book The Welfare State We’re In to Baroness Thatcher on Wednesday. He explained to her the argument of the book.
I told her that the book argues that we would be better off if the previous welfare systems had been allowed to develop instead of being replaced by the welfare state.
She announced, "You must suggest an alternative. If you say the welfare state is no good, you must suggest an alternative."
But it’s too hard, he whined to the 80-year old grande dame.
She was having none of that, saying words to the effect: "If you can't think of a good way of communicating it, then you must find a way of communicating it."
That is what it must have been like to be a junior minister in Thatcher’s government in the 1980s, he mused.
The paperback edition of The Welfare State We’re In is coming out soon. Writes Bartholomew:
The paperback edition of the book with many updated figures, a special preface and two extra sections (one titled 'The NHS: so did it get better?') will, officially, be published on Monday.
Meanwhile we can all get to thinking about Margaret Thatcher’s challenge. If the welfare state is so bad then what are we going to replace it with?
It was easy for the progressives and the Fabians a century ago to say: Just trust us with our rational, competent, and scientific ideas for reform. We have a much bigger problem. We know that the bureaucratic method is a failure. But we also know that the replacement will be much harder to conceive, to develop, and to sell to the public.
But there is no excuse for not trying! And there is no excuse for not getting started.
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