In a sense, it's an example of spin before Blair came along and perfected the art. That people, both at the time and in retrospect, think that Thatcherism was about deregulation and the 'sm… (View Post)

It's partly true. Thatcher did, as you say, continue to act as PM in charge of a cabinet government - the real centralisation of power from cabinet to PM happened under Blair. But she was respon… (View Post)

Vote Grind! (View Post)

The story from the fall of Weimar was that extra-state paramilitary power (the existence of which was essentially a fallout from the end of WW1), which could be deployed by leading politicians on ill… (View Post)

Freedman's book "Failed state: Why nothing works and how we fix it", which I've recommended here before, is well worth a read, despite being much stronger on why nothing works tha… (View Post)