The Myth of Margaret Thatcher

Excellent piece here on the myth of the economic prowess of Margaret Thatcher.  It took me a long time to come around to this perspective, but eventually I did come to agree with my old Economics teacher Mr Evans who'd chide anybody who tried to defend Margaret Thatcher's economic record.  He'd accept her social stuff, at least on the basis he understood it, but not the economic stuff.

I think it's clear now that the economic stuff was smoke and mirrors.  The killer facts for me out of this lengthy article which points out the utter failure of Moneterism are these.  Average growth in the UK in the 1970s, with the Unions and the whole global shock of Oil Price rises, was 2.54%...  in the 1980s, with North Sea Oil revenues and all the stuff Thatcher did to 'rescue' the economy... it was 2.79% - a whopping whole 0.15% extra.

The second...  for much of the 1970s unemployment was sub 4%,growing to over 5% when Thatcher won in 1979.  It has never really got that low again.

She didn't practice Monetarism because it was destroying the economy.  She created a credit boom which only partly crashed after she left office, leaving the actual deflation to happen much much later.  People talk about the current UK government tidying up the mess left by the last Labour government.  Really, they're picking up the mess created in the 1980s.

Hugo Detractors - Check your sense of entitlement at the door....

The Hugo mess rumbles on and once more I feel like I'm trapped in a bad re-run of NUS Conference 1990.  Here's another one from Shaun Duke "To the Hugo Defenders, Check your Financial Privilege at the door" (link removed due to Malware warning)

I replied but bit my lip over my gut response of 'oh grow the fuck up.'  And went for some more reasonable stuff.  But seriously, if the crux of the argument is that the Worldcon selects against the poor, then yes, yes it does.  As do many things which are slightly more fucking serious than not being about to get to a convention to help change the way a Science Fiction award works.  How about US Healthcare, or hunger eh?

I'd quite like a Bugatti Veyron, but the man is keeping me down!

Is attending Worldcons on a regular basis something you can do when young? No, not really.  I attended my first convention at 24, at least 6 years after being regularly involved in fanish things.  I didn't get to a Worldcon until I was 37, since then I've attended 3 others.  One where there was a business meeting I could piggy back off, another was fun, a third involved a Business Meeting and sleeping on the sofa.  I am fully aware that it's an expensive hobby.  And I am pretty sick of people assuming that because you do something you're rich and privileged. And oh yea gods how I am coming to hate the way that word is getting used.

Older people having more money than younger people is not privilege.  It really isn't.


Then, in the comments, Jonathon McAlmont turns up complaining about class, age and race.

Class has nothing to do with this.  You get fans from all classes and last time I checked money and class haven't been linked for a while.  Age?  Guilty.  It's easier to do these things as you get older. Assuming, of course, you don't have kids, or a partner who isn't a fan, in which case it's fucking hard to get a furlough for an SF Convention, believe me.  Finally Race.  All I have to say to that is Really you want to go there?  Because I'm fairly sure that Jonathon suffers from that about the same way I do.

Where I get annoyed is simply that I suggested a fix.  There are ways that improvements and changes could be made.  But the Hugo Award is given by the members of the Worldcon and that ain't going to change.  And people like Jonathon were clear they didn't actually want change.

You need to want to engage, even if you can't attend.  If you want to change things, there are ways and means to engage.  Kevin Standlee who has had such a dreadful press stands willing and able to work with people who want his help.  But name callings and moaning about privilege is a pretty poor way to get anybody to work with you as anybody who stays in employment in companies or academia will learn.

Having an opinion on something, and an interest in it, doesn't automatically give you the right to be involved with it.

EDIT:  In my original post I referenced being poor.  And it was pointed out that realistically I'm not poor.  Fair enough.  I'm not really poor.  I am heavily indebted which is causing me a lot of pain at the moment and has happened because I've been starting my own business and will, I hope, be something that changes shortly.  And then, yes, I'll be relatively speaking well off.

I'll be clear though, as a student and in the decade  that followed being a student I could never have considered going to a Worldcon, and during that period I went through a short period (about 5 months) where I was homeless and relying on family and friends for a roof over my head.