Britain Pt. ii Flashcards
Name a ‘wet’ in Thatcher’s cabinet?
Willie Whitelaw appointed Home Secretary
Name three ‘dries’ in Thatcher’s cabinet?
Geoffrey Howe, Chancellor
John Biffen, Nigel Lawson, economic posts.
Who was Michael Heseltine?
A millionaire, Conservative MP, ‘One Nation’ and pro-Europe ideas caused him problems with Thatcher and he resigned from her cabinet over the Westland Affair in 1986
What was the SDP?
The Social Democratic Party, founded in 1981 after a divide in Labour
Who was Michael Foot?
A Bevanite Labour MP, who was on the far left and elected leader in 1980
Who was the ‘Gang of Four’?
David Owen, Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers
How many other Labour MPs joined the Gang of Four to start?
28
What happened at the Wembley Labour Party Conference in Jan. 1981?
The hard left heckled speakers they disliked and disrupted any progress.
What happened for the SDP in the 1981 by-elections?
Shirley Williams won a by-election in the Conservative seat of Crosby
They formed an alliance with the Liberals(the Alliance).
Who was Neil Kinnock?
The leader of the Labour Party from 1983 and focused on reigning in the Militant Tendency of the left and criticised union leaders and Bennites.
What had Kinnock expelled from Labour by 1986?
Militant Tendency.
What happened in South America, April 1982?
Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands.
What was the Total Exclusion Zone?
An area of 370 kilometres around the Falklands where anything that entered was liable to be attacked by the British
What happened at General Belgrano?
General Belgrano was a ship that British Navy Admiral Woodward ordered to be sunk despite being outside the TEZ
How many died because of General Belgrano?
323 people died, 2 of which were civilians.
How many people died on either side of the Falklands War?
649 casualties on Argentina’s side. 255 on the British.
How much was the anti-Conservative vote in 1983?
16 million. 3 million more than the Conservative.
How much of a majority did the Conservatives get in 1983?
144 seats
How many more seats did Labour gain than the SDP compared to votes?
Half a million more votes but 186 more seats in Parliament
Why did the SDP-Liberal Alliance struggle?(give three reasons)
Opposition to Thatcher did not provide unity
David Steel and David Owen had personal divisions
Unemployment was beginning to come down as of 1986
What percentage of the vote did The Alliance get in 1987?
Only 24%
In what year did the Liberals and SDP merge into Lib Dem?
1988
Who led the hunger strikes for Special Category Status for the IRA in the ’80s?
Bobby Sands, who would later be elected as the MP for Fermanagh South Tyrone
When and why did Bobby Sands die?
1981, just after being elected as an MP due to starvation
How many hunger strikers(not including Sands) died before the protest was called off?
9
What happened in Brighton, October 1984?
The IRA exploded a bomb, in an attempt to kill Thatcher during the Tory party conference
Who was Gerry Adams?
President of Sinn Fein, who developed the ‘ballot box and the gun’ strategy
What were the casualties of the Brighton bomb?
Five were killed
What was the Hillsborough Agreement?
An agreement between the UK government and the Republic of Ireland government, which as signed in November 1985. It gave the Irish government an advisory role in Northern Ireland and specified that Northern Ireland was part of the UK.
How many loyalists attended the protest rally for the Hillsborough Agreement in Belfast?
200,000
What was the Ulster Resistance?
A unionist paramilitary group set up in 1986
How many died in the Hyde/Regent Park bombings of July 1982?
11 soldiers killed by the IRA
How many were killed by the Droppin Well bomb in Ballykally, Northern Ireland, December 1982?
11 soldiers and 6 civilians killed by the IRA.
How many killed in the Harrods, London bombing in December 1983?
6 people killed by IRA
How many people were killed in Feb 1985 in Newry?
9 RUC officers killed an IRA mortar attack
How many were shot by SAS in May 1987?
8 IRA volunteers and 1 civilian
How many killed on Remembrance Day, 1987 by the IRA?
12 people killed in Northern Ireland by bomb
What was inflation in 1980?
15%
What was unemployment in 1980?
Above 2 million
What saved the British economy from a balance of crisis payments in 1980?
North Sea oil and gas
How did the 1981 budget change tax?
Top rate of income tax fell from 83% to 40% by 1988 and standard rate fell to 25% from 33%.
VAT went up from 8% to 15%
What was rate capping?
Reducing the local taxation charged by local councils on all privately owned businesses and houses.
Why was rate capping introduced?
To restrain Labour local authorities, considered the ‘loony left’
What was the Local Government Act of 1986?
Abolished big metropolitan local authorities that Heath had set up, centralising power in the government.
When was British Petroleum privatised?
October 1979
When was British Aerospace Privatised?
February 1981
When was Cable and Wireless privatised?
October 1981
When was Britoil privatised?
November 1982