Thatcher key facts

Question 1

What did the 1984 Trade Union Act do?

Answer 1

a strike had to be approved by a majority of union members before taking place (trying to limit numbers of illegal strikes)

Question 2

How did Thatcher’s closure of 20 coal pits across Britain impact the mining workforce?

Answer 2

1974 - 200,000 miners compared to just 10,000 in 1981
(95% of the coal mining workforce lost)

Question 3

What did a poll in June 1984 display about attitudes of Britons toward increased police power?

Answer 3

77% of people agreed with the way the police handled the riot at orgreave pit

Question 4

When did Thatcher introduce the Right to Buy Housing Act and how was this negative in some ways?

Answer 4

• 1980
• whilst house ownership increased (2.5 million houses sold at discounted rates), mortgage debt increased (43bn to 235bn) - 20% of families were in debt

Question 5

What did the 1986 Public Order Act do?

Answer 5

• creates new offence ‘disorderly conduct’ to control miners strikes better
• stop and search powers increased for the police

Question 6

When did Thatcher deregulate currency and what did this lead to?

Answer 6

• 1986
• boom of financial services in London, also led to the 2008 financial crash (huge amount of personal and corporate debt)

Question 7

What were the figures of unemployment in 1982?

Answer 7

unemployment had risen to just over 3m (highest number since the great depression in the 30s)

Question 8

How did inflation change in the 80s?

Answer 8

• 22% in 1983
• however decreased to single figures, never went above 9% for the rest of the decade

Question 9

When did Thatcher privatise British Telecom and how did she try to promote popular capitalism?

Answer 9

• 1984
• sold shares for cheap allowing the British public to buy, however failed as they didn’t reinvest
• only 20% of individuals owned shares, 9% of working class owned shares

Question 10

How was Thatcher’s belief in popular capitalism ultimately unsuccessful?

Answer 10

only 20% of individuals owned shares, only 9% of unskilled workers owned shares

Question 11

How was tax cut during the 80s?

Answer 11

• 1980 - top rate of tax is cut from 83% to 60%, cut again in 1988 to 40%

Question 12

How did Thatcher reduce benefits?

Answer 12

reduced from 61% of the average wage to 53% of the average wage
pensioners especially were in poverty

Question 13

How did the gap between the rich and poor increase?

Answer 13

income of top earners on average was 3x that of low earners in the 70s

Question 14

How did people overall become richer?

Answer 14

average gdp increased from £7000 pp to £20,000 pp

Question 15

When did Thatcher introduce the community charge (poll tax) and how was this received by the public?

Answer 15

1989 - introduced in scotland
1990 - introduced in England
• conservatives didn’t gain any seats in scotland
• 200,000 protesters gathered in trafalgar square

Question 16

How was the government able to afford tax cuts?

Answer 16

Discovery of North Seal oil?

Question 17

What did thatcher call the unions? Especially miners

Answer 17

The ‘enemy within’ trying to break the system

Question 18

How did thatcher limit union power?

Answer 18

Employment Acts of 1980 and 1982, limited powers of unions long term
Restricted picketing, made ballots, requirements on unions to ensure strikes were lawful

Question 19

Long term impact of thatcher on the centre ground?

Answer 19

• moved it to the right through radical reforms e.g mass privatisation
• Labour blamed for inflation, increased power of unions, failure of post war consensus
• Blair rebrands Labour ‘New Labour’ e.g adopting free market, capitalism, privatisation (abandon clause 4, commitment to nationalisation)

Question 20

Negative consequences of unregulated finance

Answer 20

• led to a rise in private household debt, stood at £16bn in 1980 and increased to £47bn in 1989
• easier access to mortgages meant that mortgage debt rose from £43 billion to £235bn
• by 2003, personal debt (including mortgages) stood at £1.3 trillion, the highest in Europe

Question 21

Lack of improvement of inflation

Answer 21

• 1979 inflation was at 10.3%, 1990 it was at 10.9%

Question 22

social impact of 1980-81 budget cuts

Answer 22

• led to riots in Brixton (ethnically diverse area)
• 1982 employment at 3 million (forced up government spending on benefits)

Question 23

Failure to tackle inflation initially

Answer 23

• 1980 inflation rose to 22% due to soaring pay demands
• 1983 monetarism (restricting money supply) phased out in favour of supply side policies (tax cuts and deregulation)

Question 24

decline of manufacturing

Answer 24

• 1980-81 manufacturing fell by 14%
• permanent loss of 2 million relatively well paid manufacturing jobs

Question 25

Positive impacts of privatisation

Answer 25

- 19bn raised, able to pay for tax cuts

Question 26

impact of privatisation on shareholding

Answer 26

- number of shareholders went from 3 million to 11 million between 1979 and 1990 - however, by 1990, only 20% of shares were owned by individuals (failure of popular capitalism) - only 9% of unskilled workers owned shares compared to 50% of all professional males

Question 27

privatisation positive impact on customer service

Answer 27

- privatisation of water in 1989 meant the number of customers at risk of low water pressure decreased by 99% - BT privatisation in 1984 led to better customer service: customers previously had to wait 6 months for the installation of a BT line - today occurs within 15 minutes

Question 28

negative impact of privatisation

Answer 28

- privatisation of British rail didn't improve the service - government spending on rail has doubled since 1994 - led to job losses - 200,000 lost due to coal privatisation

Question 29

benefits of deregulation of finance in 1979

Answer 29

-removal of exchange controls fuelled greater overseas investment - 1986 'Big Bang' - city of London became one of the main financial centres of the world - Lawson Boom, economic growth reached 4-5% annually in late 80s

Question 30

Deregulation consequences

Answer 30

- removal of exchange controls increased balance of payment deficit as Britain were importing more consumer goods - British people became more accustomed to borrowing money, went against Thatcher's support of 'careful savers'

Question 31

positive impact of tax cuts

Answer 31

- fiscal stimulus, leading to increased disposable income and consumer confidence - tax cuts contributed to Lawson boom - less avoidance of tax - wealthiest 5% of earners paid the same amount of tax in 1988 at the 40% tax rate as they did in 1978 at the 83% rate

Question 32

negative impact of tax cuts

Answer 32

- regressive taxes like the VAT and National insurance were increased, placing a larger burden on the poor - poll tax led to downfall of Thatcher/

Question 33

1980 Employment Act

Answer 33

ended 'closed shop' and sympathy strikes

Question 34

1982 Employment Act

Answer 34

unions could be sued for illegal strike action

Question 35

1984 Employment Act

Answer 35

strikes had to be approved by a majority of union members in a secret ballot - Thatcher began building up coal reserves

Question 36

Thatcher's successes in curbing trade union power

Answer 36

- unions became far more willing to work with the government after NUM defeat - total number of trade union members fell from 13.5 million in 1979 to under 10 million in 1990 - total number of working days fell from 10.5 million in 1980-84 to 0.8 million in 1990-94

Question 37

Negative impacts of trade union powers being curbed

Answer 37

- unemployment between 1974 and 1990 fell from 200,000 to 60,000 - communities in industrial areas were devastated, mass unemployment - crime rate doubled in 1980s

Question 38

Increased police stop and search powers

Answer 38

- 'Operation Swamp' in 1981allowed police to uses 'sus' laws to stop and search black people in London, particularly in Brixton. - This was based on the justification by the Scarman report that most muggings were committed by black people - aggressive policing policing led to Brixton riots - government used this as evidence to increase police powers further

Question 39

1984 Police and Criminal Act

Answer 39

expanded police stop and search powers giving them rights to search cars and enter properties

Question 40

1986 Public Order Act

Answer 40

- gave police new powers to arrest and charge people involved in demos or pickets - created a new offence 'disorderly conduct' which allowed them to arrest people using insulting words

Question 41

Criminal Justice Acts of 1982 and 1988

Answer 41

- introduced shorter prison sentences for young offenders but tougher sentences 'short, sharp, shock'

Question 42

Increased spending on NHS

Answer 42

Increased by 60% between 1980 and 1987

Question 43

How did Thatcher try to reform the NHS?

Answer 43

1989 'Working for Patients' called for creation of a marketplace in the NHS - yet creating this business structure led to more debt, spending on NHS increased by 1986

Question 44

what did the 1988 Education Act do?

Answer 44

- imposed compulsory National Curriculum as well as SATs and GCSEs - results formed the basis of league tables, parents can choose best schools, creating competition

Question 45

Negatives of reformed education

Answer 45

- the 'best schools' based on league tables mostly occupied by upper/middle class as housing prices became expensive in those areas - the Act gave grants directly to schools rather then LEAs - less government intervention but more schools entering financial trouble

Question 46

Civil service cuts

Answer 46

- 1 in 4 ministers were sacked within 3 years - by 1988 22.5% of civil servants had been sacked, saving £1bn

Question 47

How many people protested against poll tax in Trafalgar Square?

Answer 47

200,000