1979-1990

Question 1

Why did Thatcher win the 1979 election?

Answer 1

-Offered a new type of politics
-Took a firm stance on issues such as the trade unions

Question 2

Who was the Prime Minister from 1979-1990?

Answer 2

Margaret Thatcher

Question 3

What was monetarism?

Answer 3

Controlling the supply of money in the economy, and restraining government spending and borrowing. It was intended to reduce inflation levels

Question 4

What was privatisation?

Answer 4

The transfer of a business from public to private ownership

Question 5

What was deregulation?

Answer 5

Removing laws and restrictions placed on businesses, in order to help them expand and grow

Question 6

What was Thatcherism?

Answer 6

The mixture of policies used by Margaret Thatcher. This included:
-Conviction politics
-Anti-Post-War Consensus
-Anti-Keynesianism
-Patriotism

Question 7

Strengths of Thatcher

Answer 7

-She was not a part of ‘the establishment’
-She was middle, rather than upper class
-She was intensely serious, hard-working and determined

Question 8

Weaknesses of Thatcher

Answer 8

-She was a woman, and some men were against the idea of having a female Prime Minister

Question 9

Thatcher’s economic policy

Answer 9

-Monetarism
-Privatisation
-Deregulation

Question 10

Thatcher’s economic policy
(Monetarism)

Answer 10

-Income tax was cut from 33%-30%, and from 83%-60% for the highest earners, in 1979
-VAT was raised from 8% to 15%, in 1979
-Interest rates were raised to 17%, in November 1979
-Many in the Conservative Party were unhappy with Thatcher’s monetarism
-Howe cut public spending by £900 million in 1980
-364 economists denounced the 1981 budget, in a letter to ‘The Times’

Question 11

Thatcher’s economic policy
(Privatisation)

Answer 11

-Encouraged individualism and economic growth
-1979: British Petroleum
-1981: British Aerospace
-1982: North Sea Oil
-1986: British Gas
-1987: Rolls Royce
-1988: British Steel
-The number of people owning shares went up from 3 million to 9 million between 1979-1990

Question 12

Thatcher’s economic policy
(Deregulation)

Answer 12

-The Loan Guarantee Scheme of 1981
-The Enterprise Allowance Scheme of 1981
-The ‘Big Bang’ on October 27th of 1986 deregulated the London Stock Exchange
-Led to a significant economic realignment, in which financial services became Britain’s biggest earner

Question 13

Thatcher’s domestic policy

Answer 13

-The ‘Right to Buy’ scheme (The Housing Act) of 1980 gave people the right to buy their council house for a discount of between 33-50%, depending on how long they had lived there
-The Poll Tax was introduced in 1990, as a necessary charge paid by all in society. However, it was highly unpopular, and was deemed harsh and unfair on the poorer in society. Riots and protests occurred, including a demonstration of 200,000 people at Trafalgar Square in 1990. The tax was abolished by John Major in 1991, and replaced with the Council Tax

Question 14

Thatcher’s foreign policy

Answer 14

-The Falkland’s War of 1982
-Hong Kong
-The ‘Special Relationship’
-European policy

Question 15

Thatcher and Hong Kong

Answer 15

-95% of the Hong Kong residents to remain under British control
-The Sino-British declaration agreed that Britain would hand over all of Hong Kong back to China in 1997
-Thatcher giving up China showed the limits of Britain’s ability to defend its colonies

Question 16

Thatcher and the ‘Special Relationship’

Answer 16

-Thatcher and Reagan shared a close bond due to their similar politics and beliefs around issues such as communism
-Britain allowed the USA to store nuclear cruise missiles at the US Airforce base in Greenham Common in Surrey
-Thatcher gave permission for the US to use British Air Force bases to bomb Libya, despite it being an unpopular decision in Britain
-Britain bought Trident Missiles from the USA for £10 billion
-The 1983 US invasion of Grenada angered Thatcher, as she had not been warned about the attack by Reagan

Question 17

Thatcher and the Falkland’s War

Answer 17

-1982
-Argentina believed that the islands belonged to them, and in April 1982, the Argentines invaded the Falklands with 4000 troops
-Britain sank the Argentine cruiser, ‘General Belgrano’ on May 2nd 1982
-Argentine forces surrendered on June 14th 1982
-It was a major success for Thatcher and Britain, and showed that the Western armies were not as weak as believed
-The event led to a surge in national pride, and increased Thatcher’s support in Britain significantly

Question 18

Thatcher and Europe

Answer 18

-Thatcher was initially a Europhile, but became increasingly Euro-sceptic throughout her tenure
-Thatcher was cautious of European ‘federalism’, and was wary of Europe becoming a ‘superstate’
-Thatcher achieved a rebate in 1984, as she complained that Britain was putting in more than it was getting back out of Europe
-Thatcher established a good working relationship with the French president, Francois Mitterand. They collaborated over The Channel Tunnel Project in 1986
-Thatcher accepted the Single European Act in 1986, which brought Britain closer into a more centralised Europe. The act later caused significant divisions within the Conservative Party
-The 1988 Bruges Speech infuriated other European leaders, who doubted Britain’s commitment to further European integration
-Thatcher’s “No, no, no!” speech in 1990 was targeted towards the centralising European leaders, and displayed her Euroscepticism blatantly. Howe resigned over the speech, in 1990

Question 19

The Labour Party from 1979-1990

Answer 19

-Michael Foot became leader in 1980, and he was firmly left-wing
-The party were accused of being too socialist
-Dubbed the ‘Looney-Left’ by the media
-The 1983 Labour Manifesto was dubbed “the longest suicide note in history”, due to its extreme socialist policies. It was also called “the communist manifesto”, due to its worrying similarities to that of the Russian’s
-Tony Benn was even more left-wing than Michael Foot, and played a significant role within the Labour Party at the time
-The ‘Gang of Four’, which consisted of Shirley Williams, David Owen, William Rodgers and Roy Jenkins, split from the Labour Party in 1981, due to its extreme left-wing behaviour. They went on to form the SDP, which saw 29 Labour MP’s join, and 1 Conservative MP join. The party were fairly successful
-Neil Kinnock became the Labour leader in 1983, and had tried to centralise the party once again, in order to make it electable

Question 20

Why did Thatcher fall from power?

Answer 20

-The Bruges Speech in 1988
-The “No, no, no!” Speech in 1990
-The resignation of Geoffrey Howe in 1990
-A worsening economy by the late 1980’s
-Increasing political isolation
-The Poll Tax in 1990
-The challenge from the Labour Party

Question 21

Economic statistics under Thatcher

Answer 21

GDP growth:
-1979: 2.1%
-1980: -4%
-1983: 4.7%
Unemployment figures:
-1979: 1.4 million (5.4%)
-1983: 3 million (11.4%)
Inflation rates:
-1979: 16.5%
-1983: 5.1%

Question 22

What is a conviction politician?

Answer 22

A politician who acts based on their own personal beliefs and opinions, rather than their political expediency

Question 23

Social unrest under Thatcher

Answer 23

-1981: Riots in Brixton, Bristol, Manchester and Liverpool by black youths, regarding issues such as scarce employment and the ‘sus law’, which was claimed to be racist. The ‘sus law’ was repealed in 1981

Question 24

Thatcher and the miners

Answer 24

-The mines were running at a loss by the 1970’s
-Scargill framed the pit closures as a class war and a fight against the Tory government
-The NCB warned of the plan to close 23 pits in 1981
-Thatcher had built up large stocks of coal, in order to prepare for a confrontation
-The NCB announced the plan to close a further 20 pits in 1984, but Scargill claimed that he had seen a secret plan to close 70 more pits during the 1980’s
-The Battle of Orgreave in 1984 saw violent clashes between the strikers and the police. There were 93 arrests, and 51 strikers and 72 policemen were injured. The strike was an overall failure for the miners
-In 1979, the coal industry employed 200,000 workers; by 1990, this number was 60,000 and falling

Question 25

1983 election results

Answer 25

-The Conservative Party: 397 seats
-The Labour Party: 209 seats

Question 26

The Westland Affair in 1986

Answer 26

Divisions over the takeover of a US company, instead of a British one. The event saw the resignation of Michael Heseltine

Question 27

The 1987 election results

Answer 27

-The Conservative Party: 375 seats
-The Labour Party: 229 seats

Question 28

Extra-parliamentary protests against Thatcher

Answer 28

-Greenham women at Greenham Common, in 1983, saw 70,000 women protest against the cruise missiles being held at the US Air Force base at Greenham Common
-In 1983, 200,000 people marched against nuclear weapons at a CND march in London
-The Church of England published a report called ‘Faith in the City’ in 1985, which encouraged greater help for deprived areas of the country
-Oxford University voted against giving Thatcher an honoury degree, despite this being given to every other previous Oxford-educated post-war Prime Minister
-‘Friends of the Earth’ environmentalist group grew in size
-The Poll Tax riots and protests in 1990