Downing Street Years - Margaret Thatcher [387]
Yet however valuable socially those initiatives were, they had little political impact. The 1992 election showed that the fall in Tory support had been halted; it had yet to be reversed. Some part of this unpopularity must be attributed to the national question on which the Tories are seen as an English party and on which I myself was apparently seen as a quintessential English figure.
About the second point I could — and I can — do nothing. I am what I am and I have no intention of wearing tartan camouflage. Nor do I think that most Scots would like me, or any English politician, the better for doing so. The Tory Party is not, of course, an English party but a Unionist one. If it sometimes seems English to some Scots that is because the Union is inevitably dominated by England by reason of its greater population. The Scots, being an historic nation with a proud past, will inevitably resent some expressions of this fact from time to time. As a nation, they have an undoubted right to national self-determination; thus far they have exercised that right by joining and remaining in the Union. Should they determine on independence no English party or politician would stand in their way, however much we might regret their departure. What the Scots (nor indeed the English) cannot do, however, is to insist upon their own terms for remaining in the Union, regardless of the views of the others. If the rest of the United Kingdom does not favour devolved government, then the Scottish nation may seek to persuade the rest of us of its virtues; it may even succeed in doing so; but it cannot claim devolution as a right of nationhood inside the Union.
It is understandable that when I come out with these kind of hard truths many Scots should resent it. But it has nothing whatever to do with my being English. A lot of Englishmen resent it too.
* See p. 39.
* For the arguments about the terminology see pp. 570–1.
* See my speech to Rand Afrikans University in May 1991.
* See p. 571.
* See pp. 670–1.
* The Department of Health and Social Security (later Health alone) was responsible for strategic planning of health care in England and Wales. Below it are the Regional Health Authorities (RHAs) responsible for a number of special services, major capital projects and regional planning, and below them are District Health Authorities, whose functions are discussed below. General practitioners, dentists, pharmacists, and opticians are the responsibility of separate bodies, now known as Family Health Service Authorities. In Scotland there is a single tier of Health Boards under the Scottish Office.
* We also looked briefly at the idea of a national lottery to help fund the NHS. But while I saw some value in local lotteries to help the voluntary sector raise small amounts for particular projects, I did not like a National Health lottery because I did not think that the Government should encourage more gambling, let alone link it to people’s health.
* ‘Medical audit’ is a process by which the quality of medical care provided by individual doctors is assessed by their peers.
CHAPTER XXI
Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life
Family policy, the Arts, Broadcasting, Science and the Environment
INDIVIDUALS AND COMMUNITIES
The surge of prosperity — most of it soundly based but some of it unsustainable — which occurred from 1986 to 1989 had one paradoxical effect. Deprived for the moment at least of the opportunity to chastise the Government and blame free enterprise capitalism for failing to create jobs and raise living standards, the Left turned their attention to non-economic issues. The idea that the state was the engine of economic progress was discredited — and ever more so as the failures of communism became more widely known. But was the price of capitalist prosperity too high? Was it not resulting in a gross and offensive materialism, traffic congestion and pollution?