ABSTRACT
Much has been written about the ‘New Right’ and ‘new’ racism. However, it is apparent that the content of current emphases ignores both the complexities of ‘New Right’ ideology and its use of perspectives and attitudes from earlier periods. Indeed, it appears that ‘race’ is not, at least in practical terms, a leading feature of Thatcherite government and policy, despite certain well-publicized instances and the rhetoric of critics of the ‘New Right’. Where there has been a clash of ideologies, it has been more at the level of the local state, particularly in the area of anti-racist strategies. It is argued that opposition to certain of these strategies is aided by their inappropriateness for the nature of British society in the late 1980s.
