British Conservative Leader Abandons Thatcherism

LONDON – The British Conservative Party, which championed wealth creation and low taxes under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, is pushing companies to improve the quality of life for workers by introducing flexible work practices.“There is more to life than money,” the leader of the main opposition party, David Cameron, said in a speech in Hertfordshire, near London, today. “The pursuit of wealth can no longer meet people’s deepest hopes and aspirations. The spirit of our age requires social values as well as economic values.”Mr. Cameron is trying to boost the party’s appeal to voters after losing three elections to Prime Minister Blair’s Labor Party. Today’s speech seeks to make a clean break with “Thatcherism” and highlight business regulations imposed during Mr. Blair’s nine years in office that Mr. Cameron says are stifling the competitiveness of British companies.“It’s time we focused not just on GDP but on GWB – general well-being,” Mr. Cameron told a conference on the future of work organized by the Internet search company Google Inc. “Our goal is clear: to move beyond a belief in the protestant work ethic alone to modern vision of ethical work.”Mr. Cameron wants to soften the Conservatives’ traditional image as the party of the business community and the rich. Earlier this month he criticized Bhs Limited department stores and the supermarket chain Tesco Plc and praised family friendly policies of British Telecommunications Plc and Lloyds TSB Bank Plc.Since Mr. Cameron became Conservative leader in December, the party has overtaken Labor in opinion polls for the first time since 1992.A YouGov Limited survey showed 37% of voters back the Conservatives compared with 31% for Labor and 17% for the Liberal Democrats. The survey of 1,910 voters was conducted May 8 and May 9 and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.Mrs. Thatcher and her successor John Major sold state-run companies and slashed taxes to spur the economy and business between 1979 and 1997.By 1988 Mrs. Thatcher had cut the top income tax rate to 40% from 83% when she took office and lowered the levy on unearned income from 98%. Her government sold state-run companies including BT, British Airways Plc, and British Gas, now known as BG Plc and Centrica Plc.Mr. Cameron noted that at BT 99% of women who go on maternity leave return to work at the same company compared with a national average of 47%. Wal-Mart Stores’s Asda supermarket, and Lloyds TSB Bank Plc cut absenteeism by allowing staff to negotiate flexible work hours, he said.Mr. Cameron said his efforts to encourage family-friendly practices contrast with the Labor’s instinct to regulate. Mr. Blair’s government has pushed through new laws requiring a minimum wage and boosting maternity leave to 12 months from 26 weeks.“The response of the left that Britain should regulate working life is ineffective. It ends up treating all companies in same way,” he said. “We believe there is such a thing as society, it’s just not the same thing as the state.”He promised to make the public sector, which employs a fifth of the workforce, “a world leader in progressive employment practice.”

British Conservative Leader Abandons Thatcherism

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