Andy Burnham is fighting the wrong enemy (Mani Basharzad, 20 July 2026, CapX)
Looking back, it is easy to see why. Inflation reached 25% in 1975. Britain was suffering a brain drain, with highly skilled engineers and academics leaving the country. Why would they stay when the top rate of income tax stood at 83%? Then there was the 1976 IMF bailout, followed by the Winter of Discontent. In 1979 alone, 29.5 million working days were lost to strikes. Unemployment reached 2 million. The dead went unburied, and hospitals were reduced to emergency treatment only.
When the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, says he wants to ‘undo Thatcher’s economic legacy’, is that the Britain he wants to return to?