Domestic Politics

Question 1

What happened to the poll tax?

Answer 1

• After lengthy discussions it was scrapped in November 1991 in favour of a new council tax - similar to the old rates system but placing houses in valued bracket systems to determine tax rates.
• Doing this meant £1.5 billion was wasted but it allowed Major to rid the unpopular policy from staining his new government .

Question 2

What was the Citizen’s Charter?

Answer 2

• Introduced 1991 as an attempt to give public service users more power over the quality of services they received by giving info on the standards they should expect.
• E.g. more testing in education and schools would publish the results.

Question 3

Impact of the Citizen’s Charter?

Answer 3

• Some elements like the ‘Cones hotline’ became elements of much derision.
• Some criticised the policy for bringing private methods of management into the public sector such as the internal market in the nhs.
• However, the initiative did bring more transparency and improve the culture of the public sector.

Question 4

Majors privatisation continuations?

Answer 4

• Privatised the coal industry in 1994 and the railways in 1996.
• The gov set about privatising the Post Office but ran into opposition and abandoned it.

Question 5

What were Majors education policies?

Question 6

Why did Major win in 1992?

Answer 6

• Ran a good campaign with impromptu and traditional ‘soapbox’ politics, connecting with the people in the streets of towns like Luton.
• Labours faults such as Kinnocks triumphalism and peoples wariness over his apparent modernist radicalism swung voters to the conservatives.
• The Sun newspaper also ran a tireless campaign vilifying labour, running the headline ‘It was The Sun wot won it’ the following day.

Question 7

What were the economic issues before the 1992 election?

Answer 7

• unemployment had risen by from 1.6 to 2.6 million in a year (91-92).
• Many homeowners were trapped in negative equity because of the stark drop in the housing market.
• Major resorted to high public spending before the election, huge borrowing was used however and PFIs were introduced.

Question 8

What was the ‘cash for questions’ scandal?

Answer 8

• Neil Hamilton and other Tory MPs accepted bribed for lobbying on behalf of Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed.
• Hamilton was ruined by losing a public libel case but he refused to resign, angering and tarnishing John Major.

Question 9

What was the ‘Arms to Iraq’ scandal?

Answer 9

• The 1994 Scott Inquiry set up by Major found that government ministers had enabled arms company Matrix Churchill to supply arms components to Iraq.

Question 10

What were the two major perjury cases during Majors premiership?

Answer 10

• Jonathan Aitken was jailed in 1999 after lying repeatedly during a libel case against the Guardian over his dealings with Saudi arms dealers.
• Jeffery Archer won damages against the newspaper accusing him of paying a sex worker in 1987. In 1999 he was tried for perjury and went to prison.

Question 11

Who were the ministers involved in sex scandals?

Answer 11

• David Mellor and Tim Yeo, both were forced to resign.

Question 12

What exacerbated the scandal and sleaze?

Answer 12

• Majors call for the country to go ‘back to basics’.