Political and Social Division

Question 1

How did the Falklands War affect class and the British people?

Answer 1

1982
+ Won a war - united people
+ Reclaiming the Falklands - patriotic
+ Soldiers returned - boosted national unity
- Working-class made up a lot of the soldiers
- Lives were lost
- Wasted resources

Question 2

Explain the social division through Thatcher’s time as PM

Answer 2

Gap between rich and poor widened
- Regressive taxes took a larger part of the poor’s income
- Income of the rich rose, however income of the poor decreased
- Proportion of pensioners living below poverty line decreased
Regional Differences
- London and SE got richer - NE and NW productivity declined
- South Wales suffered a lot from the decline of mining areas
- Unemployment rose in Wales - closed mines etc

Question 3

When was the Miners’ Strike during Thatcher’s time?

Answer 3

May 1984 - March 1985

Question 4

What was the Miners’ Strike of 1984?

Answer 4

• Winter of Discontent turned public opinion against the TU movement
• Ridley, one of Thatcher’s closest supporters, prepared a strategy to deal with National Union of Miners - develop other sources of power, thus not overly reliant on coal and miners
• Thatcher appointed a Canadian businessman to run the National Coal Board - Scargill made a correct prediction, that the businessman was lying about the amount of pits he stated he was going to shut
• Started a strike, without doing the secret ballot declared in the 1984 Trade Union Act
• Organised pickets from pits on strike
• Had several violent clashes with the police
• Ridley’s strategy had worked - didn’t rely on miners
• NUM began to run low on funds - started to return to work
• March 1985 - NUM voted and called off the strike

Question 5

Explain Thatcher and the racial tensions she created within Black and Asian groups

Answer 5

• New Cross Fire (1981)
  Fire where 13 black teens died, believed to be a racist attack from NF - Government didn’t release a statement to this attack, but did when there were deaths of some teens in Dublin
• Black People’s Day of Action
  Created after this, made the government to re-examine the role of the police in black communities
  Ended up increasing stop-and-search, as well as racism for the police force