Poverty, Inequality Statistics and Knowledge Politics Under Thatcher

Abstract

Abstract It is common knowledge that, under the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, economic inequality and poverty in the United Kingdom rose dramatically, but it is often overlooked that during the 1980s knowledge about movements in poverty and inequality was much less certain and was subject to political battles over statistical policies, measurements and figures. This article connects the historiography on Thatcherism to the growing scholarship on the politics of statistics. Based on recently declassified government records and other archival and published sources, it explores government interventions in official statistics and their impact on public discourse on issues of economic inequality. The Thatcher government endeavoured to transform the social-democratic knowledge regime inherited from the 1970s by cutting back existing statistical series on income and wealth distribution and by gearing the low income statistics towards the concept of absolute poverty, as favoured by the New Right. Moreover, the government made extensive use of statistical artefacts for government public relations purposes, including controversial claims about substantial rises in the real incomes of the poorest under Thatcher. The article traces how ministers and civil servants used statistical knowledge to promote narratives about the success of Thatcher’s policies and the trickle-down effect, complementing recent research about government public relations and Thatcherite efforts to recast social discourse. It argues that knowledge politics were employed to marginalise issues of economic inequality and to defuse opposition against market-driven reforms.