Bernard Ingham: Twenty years after Thatcher, we need a revolution to destroy our decadence

Like the police, the National Union of Students should have known the word "Tory" brings out the worst in the rabid dogs of the Left. Once again we have seen their totalitarian rejection of any regime they do not own or approve of.

Why, I wonder, was Labour Party HQ not trashed when Tony Blair introduced tuition fees?

The sacking of Tory Party HQ and the targeting of the police, as emblems of authority, in the Trafalgar Square riot over the Tory poll tax a generation ago were symptoms of the same class hatred.

They are a depressing commentary on our progress since Margaret Thatcher was felled by her Parliamentary party 20 years ago to the day come Monday.

She was toppled not by rioters or by a political conspiracy but by a combination of events – rising inflation, thanks to clever-dick Nigel Lawson, in combination with the poll tax, which might otherwise have been grudgingly accepted; disaffection within her Parliamentary party after the inevitable 11 years' of sackings and under or non-promotion; a certain weariness with her wearing style of government; and Europe.

Like Lord Howe and Lord Heseltine before them, the Europhiles in her party – indeed, in all parties – continue to put Europe's interests before Britain's.

So, is there nothing since Thatcher's demise to shout about? Well, we did enjoy one of the longest economic booms in our history. Our expensive departure from the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992 more or less ensured we should not join the euro.

And Tony Blair and Gordon Brown tested Labour's economic competence to destruction. They proved conclusively its ability to dissipate a golden legacy as well as make a problematical one worse. In a sensible world, that alone – leave aside Iraq – should spare us a Labour government for a generation.

Unfortunately, we do not inhabit a sensible world, whatever hopes we may have of Iain Duncan Smith's welfare revolution and David Cameron's deliberately misunderstood "Big Society".

Incidentally, there is not a blade of grass between Thatcher, who said "There is no such thing as society", and Cameron, who put it much better by saying "There is such a thing as society, but it isn't the State". They are of one voice in saying society is us – and we are responsible for its condition.

Which brings me to my depression since the Tory Party got rid of one recently voted the world's most influential woman. Thatcher's revolution, as it is described, was not merely an economic event. Her economics, like Adam Smith's, were part of a moral philosophy, demanding, above all, personal responsibility.

Twenty years on, I cannot say we have a more responsible society. Instead, it is infected with terminal decadence. Riddled with and gagged by political correctness, we are in no condition to beat Islamic extremism or prevent the eastward shift of power into the hands of coldly calculating Commies, whether by name or nature. Dammit, we are so shorn of will we even shy away from holding a referendum on the European Union.

We are so dumbed down we cannot educate our young properly, partly because discipline has gone out of the window. Television has reduced our attention span to that of a gnat and our concept of worth to "celebrities" who behave badly on the box.

Our police, by default, have lost control of the streets and our public services have been contaminated by careerists who have rewarded the public by pillaging their purses.

Even scientists, who are supposed to proceed by debating evidence, have assiduously tried first to rig the evidence and then to close down debate on climate change to safeguard their careers.

At the same time, they are imposing vast financial penalties on us through idiotic responses to a man-made global warming they can neither quantify nor conclusively demonstrate.

Not to put too fine a point on it, we are a corrupted, weakened and destabilised nation. The sooner we recognise it the sooner something will be done to haul us back to greatness.

Thatcher's revolution got rid of a decaying and increasingly ungovernable corporate state. Now we need a new revolution to ditch the decadence.

Cameron has got the message. We'll soon see if he has the guts to face down, among others, the Left's violent would-be Tory-wreckers.