Our 2018 conference took place at the University of Liverpool on Thursday 5th and Friday 6th April 2018.
The conference, Thatcherism Now, focused on the legacy of Thatcherism after Thatcher. A copy of the programme is available here.
It featured two keynote speakers: Stephen Farrall (“What Happened to Thatcher’s Children”) and David Jeffery (“How to Lose Votes and Alienate People”). A recording of David’s talk can be viewed here.
The conference also welcomed former Deputy Prime Minister, Michael Heseltine, who was in conversation with Antony Mullen (Durham). This was attended by around 250 members of the public and reported in The Times newspaper.
The conference also featured a roundtable discussion on “Women in Conservative Studies”. The panel included Angelia Wilson (Manchester), Chair of the Political Studies Association, and the historians Charlotte L. Riley (Southampton) and Ruth Davidson (KCL). The discussion offered practical ideas about enabling more women to participate in the study of conservatism.
This conference was unlike most academic events in that it was widely discussed in the national media. The BBC, the Daily Mail and the Liverpool Echo all reported on the debate that the conference sparked: is Margaret Thatcher’s legacy worth debating and, if so, what does it mean to debate that legacy in Liverpool?
We were also invited onto ITV’s Good Morning Britain to discuss the issue with Piers Morgan, but declined the offer.
The Thatcher Network 