Impact of Thatcherism (1979 - 1987) Flashcards
Describe Thatcher’s first cabinet
In 1979, Thatcher did not have control of the cabinet and had to accommodate traditional Keynesianians as well. Almost ¾ of her original cabinet were traditionalists and this would restrain her until she fought free in 1981.
Wets - Those who opposed Thatcher
Dries - Thatcher supporters
Describe relations with Northern Ireland at the start of Thatcher’s first term
- A deep Anglo-Irish divide
- Thatcher was strongly unionist and relations with the Irish PM, Charles Haughley, were tense
Describe rising violence in Northern Ireland at the start of Thatcher’s first term
- 1979, Thatcher’s friend and political ally, Airey Neave was killed by an IRA car bomb in Westminster
- IRA claimed responsibility for a bomb which killed 18 members of the parachute regiment at Warrenpoint
- August 1980, Lord Mountbatten, a member of the royal family was killed while on his yacht in Co. Sligo, Ireland
Describe the Maze Hunger Strikes
- Prisoners in the Maze prison in Belfast went on hunger strike in 1980 for political status
- The first series of hunger strikes ended in some concessions but when all of the prisoners demands were not met, a further hunger strike began
- Between May and August 1981, 10 prisoners belonging to the IRA and INLA starved themselves to death in protest at British refusal to treat them as political prisoners not criminals
The first to die was Bobby Sands, commanding officer of the Provisional IRA in the Maze:
- He was elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone during the hunger strike
- Over 100,000 attended the funeral.
Describe how Conservative campaign helped Thatcher win the 1983 election
- Thatcher was a strong leader
- The Conservatives attacked the ‘pacifist’ unilateralists and ‘Marxist socialism’
- They had the backing of the popular press
- The Conservatives had 320 campaign agents compared to only 63 for labour
- The campaign organisation was more efficient and unified than Labour
Manifesto promised:
- To reduce the power of the unions
- To abolish the metropolitan councils
- Traditional law and order
- The continued sale of nationalised industries to private buyers
Describe how the failures of Labour helped Thatcher win the 1983 election
- 29 Labour MPs left to form the SDP
- Labour had an unpopular leader, Michael Foot
- Their election manifesto was described by a member of the Shadow Cabinet as “the longest suicide note in history”
- Missed opportunities to campaign via television
- Healey described the Falklands war as ‘Mrs Thatcher glories in slaughter’ and was obliged to apologise to the widow of one of the campaign heroes
- The left wing programme was now anti-NATO, anti-Europe, unilateralist and committed to unpopular causes such as feminism, Irish nationalism and ‘green issues’
Describe how the impact of the Social Democratic Party helped Thatcher win the 1983 election
- Formed in 1981 and drew voters from both the left and the right
- A centrist party
- Formed the ‘Alliance’ with the liberals but by 1983 this was experiencing difficulties and popularity fell
- To some extent, the Alliance split the vote for those against the Tories, thus widening their victory
Describe the results of the 1983 election
- The Conservatives won a huge majority of 142 seats but this was not as much of a landslide as it might appear
- The Conservatives took less of the popular vote than they had in any election since 1945
- They did very badly in Scotland and Northern England
- Their had also been an increase in the total size of the House from 635 MPs to 650
- Labour had its lowest support since 1918
- Less than 40% of trade unionists and even less than half of the unemployed had voted for labour
- The heaviest losses were suffered by the SDP
What was the 1986 Local Government Act?
- Abolished metropolitan authorities and curbed power of local government
What were the positives of the 1986 Local Government Act?
- Local authorities were huge spenders and often Labour controlled
- Local councils tried to defy government tax rate capping by applying surcharges to compensate
What were the negatives of the 1986 Local Government Act?
A severe blow to local democracy and local participation in government
What was the Hillsborough Agreement?
- 1985
- Agreed that Ulster should remain part of the UK but ministers from Britain and the Republic of Ireland would meet regularly for reviews
What were the positives of the Hillsborough Agreement 1985?
This was in accordance with the wishes of the majority of the population of Ulster
What were the negatives of the Hillsborough Agreement 1985?
- Ulster unionists resigned their seats in mass protest
- Uproar in the Republic of NI
- The act changed little in terms of violence
- Still only 3% of the RUC were Catholic
Describe how Thatcher handled the BBC, 1983-87
- The government banned BBC interviews with Sinn Fein
- Thatcherite ‘Duke’ Hussey was appointed as new BBC chairman
- The BBC was constantly challenged
- Clean up campaigns by Mary Whitehouse really made little impression
What were the positives of Thatcher’s handling of the BBC?
- Government regained control and limited anti-government reporting
- The BBC had negatively reported on British involvement in Libyan bombing raids of 1986
What were the negatives of Thatcher’s handling of the BBC?
- Limited freedom of speech and press
- Demoralised the BBC
Describe Thatcher’s handling of the GCHQ
- Banned trade union membership at the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ)
- Equated union membership with disloyalty
Describe the Westland Affair
- 1986
- Failing Westland Helicopter company sought government approval to sign a rescue deal with American firm Sikorsky
- Secretary of State for Defence (Hesseltine) favoured a European partner and had embarrassing public rows with the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Brittain)
- 1986, Heseltine resigned from the Cabinet over the governments avoidance of a full debate on the matter
- Later, a government document referring to Heseltine was leaked and Leon Brittan took responsibility and resigned
Describe the Tory revolts, 1983 - 1987
- Ted Heath was a persistent critic from inside the party
- He opposed government attempts to dismantle the GLC, the Poll Tax and the government’s stance on Europe
- 1986, 72 Tories threatened legislation on Sunday Trading
- Michael Heseltine resigned over the Westland Affair
Describe Spycatcher
- 1986, government tried to suppress publication of the book Spycatcher by ex-MI5 agent, Peter Wright
- Book included allegations that MI5 had tried to destabilise Wilson’s government
- For many this showed the dictatorial attitude of the government
- The book was not allowed to be sold in the UK but was published and easy to obtain abroad
What was monetarism?
The theory was to reduce money in circulation by reducing government and public spending.
The key points were to:
- Cut public spending
- Raise interest rates
- Keep the pound strong on the international market
Describe how Thatcher handled public spending
Urged cuts in public spending (but ultimately spending increased due to high unemployment)
Describe how Thatcher handled taxation
- 1987 budget reduced standard rate of income tax to 27p
- Cuts to personal taxation levels to benefit the super rich
- Increasing returns from VAT
- Increased Corporation Tax from company profits
Describe Thatcher’s ‘Supply slide’ policies
- Policy of low taxation
- Incentives such as cuts in benefits to produce goods and investment
- Tax cuts to increase economic growth, thus allowing entrepreneurs to invest their tax savings, create higher productivity, jobs and profits
- Success is based on the expectation that total tax collected will out grow deficit
Describe Thatcher’s policy of privatisation
- 1984 British Telecom sale cost of the government over £3 billion as a result of underpricing the share issue and a lavish advertising campaign
- British aerospace, British gas, Rolls Royce, British Shipbuilders, British Leyland and British Airports followed
- Former Tory PM Harold Macmillan likened privatisation to “selling off the family silver”
Describe deregulation
Thatcher’s second term also saw a determined attempt to deregulate the capital markets
The Big Bang
- Stock market restored by Big Bang (27 October 1986)
- Ended old restrictive practices and opened up trading to a wider range of financial institutions, including foreign banks
- Computerised dealer networks
Describe the positives of Thatcher’s economic policy by 1987
- Household consumption rose rapidly
- House prices rocketed
- Earnings rose above inflation (1986, prices rose by 3.4% and earnings by 7.9%)
- Annual growth rate of 4% while inflation continued to fall
Describe the negatives of Thatcher’s economic policy by 1987
- Critics said that this encouraged the Thatcherite culture of greed and acquisitions to the detriment of social cohesion and collective responsibility
- 1983, balance of trade in manufactured goods moved into deficit for first time
- Unemployment remained high peaking at 3.2 million in April 1985
- Property price boom in the South prevented entry by northerners and young people
Describe initial industrial relations
- The 1980 & 1982 Employment Acts were strongly enforced
- The number of strikes rapidly decreased through fear of job loss
Describe the Trade Union Act
- 1984
- Required unions to ballot their members on the retention of their political funds
- Damaged labour support
- Tories continued to cash in from record donations from industrial and commercial companies
Union influence was also reduced by:
- Decline of manufacturing
- Geographical change
- Technical innovations
- Poor self-image
Describe the National Coal Strike
- 1984, National Coal Board found themselves facing a national strike by National Union of Mineworks led by Arthur Scargill
- Scargill and the chairman of the NCB, MacGregor, clashed in the news
- The strike lasted almost a year with widespread public support
- The government had prepared well, ensuring coal was stockpiled and that the power network was protected with the help of other European countries
- Ended 3rd March 1985, the government won
Describe police power during the National Coal Strike
- The power of the police was also increased to deal with mass picketing and flying pickets
- Highly organised and violent
- The setting up of roadblocks to restrict the movement of strikers raised questions about civil liberties
Describe Scargill’s mistakes during the National Coal Strike
He split the NUM by failing to ballot voters:
- Many from the prosperous Nottinghamshire coalfields continued to work, breaking away from the NUM to form the Union of Democratic Miners
- The actions of the UDM were mainly responsible for the government’s survival
- The UDM also accused Scargill of caring more about hard-left politics than the interests of the miners
He also turned down a compromise from the government from the government but was unable to sustain support from the public
Describe the violence that occured during the National Coal Strike
- Violence between police and pickets, notably at Orgreave cooking depot in Rotherham
- Violence occurred against “scabs and blacklegs” in various parts of the country
- This lost the NUM some support and there was little or no support from the wider trade union movement
- TUC, failed to respond to calls for a national general strike
Describe the impact of the National Coal Strike
- Pit closures went ahead
- By 1989 less than 5,000 miners were employed in Wales, with Scotland and Lancashire having barely 3,000
- UDM mines also closed
- The militant Kent coalfield was closed entirely and the situation in the North East was little better
- The “winter of discontent” over
