Felled By Their Own Swords

How do you turn an economic miracle into an electoral disaster? That is the question that Britains Conservative Party cant stop asking of itself after its worst rout at the polls since 1906.

The Tories, who fought the election on the slogan: Britain is booming. Dont Let Labour Blow it, are shell-shocked by the record-breaking results. The worst defeat in nearly a century; the lowest percentage of votes since 1832, wiped out in Scotland and Wales. And all this while the outside world is calling Britain the Tiger economy of Europe.

But is that the whole truth? Has 18 years of Thatcherism really turned Britain into a booming economic powerhouse?

Britain has, indeed, had an economic renaissance that is the envy of its European neighbours. In the last few months, growth-hungry Korean firms like Hyundai Electronics and LG Electronics have poured money into remote Welsh valleys and the Scottish lowlands. Hyundai, for instance, is spending