Institutional misrule

As I cycled up Leith Walk today, I pondered what would be the best type of picture to put on here in order to mark the death of Margaret Thatcher. In the end, I decided on a picture of the Mound, with New College and the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland, scene of the infamous Sermon on the Mound, which epitomised how badly out of tune with civic Scotland she was, overlooked by the headquarters of one of Scotland's many broken financial institutions. This latter in particular characterises the malaise of the UK economy post Thatcher. For after all, it was under her (mis)rule that the phase of asset price inflation kicked off, and continued more or less unabated, bar one house price recession in the 1990s, until it really started to crumble when the banking crisis in 2008 kicked off. So we had deregulation of the City and financial institutions (the famous 'light touch' continued by Blair and Brown). A continued hollowing out of 'proper' industry. The breaking, whether intentionally or not, of many communities. The infamous Poll Tax. The challenging of all institutions (sometimes in ways that have resulted in them responding much more light footedly to the challenges and possibilities of globalisation - I'm thinking of universities here). Those were the leitmotivs of Thatcher's rule which marked the first ten years of my adult political life and which have profoundly affected my preferences and choices over the years since then.

So there we are. She's gone. I suspect she is little regretted or missed in Edinburgh or Scotland.