thatcher Flashcards
thatcher and her ideologies
thatcher was a conviction politician
she adopted policies from the new right and adopted free market economics
all out rejection of post-war consensus politics
she was imperious
however the PWC was alr being undermined and heath adopted similar policies from the new right the subsequent u turn and accelerated decline lead thatcher to label Britain as the sick man of Europe
what were her main policies
- to carry out free market policies
- less government intervention
early policies
she seemed to carry out the same policies of her predeccsors giving subsidies to british leylnd it was not until 1981 that she emarked on full new right policies
what did she refer her ministers as
dries and wets
attitiudes towards terrorism
she was unfazed by an IRA prisnor who starved himslef in order to be known as a war hero
the IRA bombing in 1984 a day bedore a conservative party conference in brighton attempted assasination attempy. and she still carried on the following day
labour dissary
the falklands factor was why thatcher won the second term election in 1983
but also labour dissary, caused conservatives to win a majority 144 setas labour lost 10 million votes and 10 percent pof voters
people didnt want to vote labur with their precived handelling of the economy and assosaition with WOD
the party adopted policies that seemed largerly irrelevent to voters such as nucelar dissarment withdrawal from EU and nationalisation
the party itself becmae more democratic with voters having to get re elected by their constinecy parties
which gave more power to loacl activitsts radical grouos like militant tendancy scared off moderate voters
the 1983 labour mnaifesto was described as the longest suicide note in history by a senior labour MP
formation of SDP
after foots election the party had split the party with senior right wingers leaving to form the spd
the gang of four
the formally joined the liberlas in 1990 called liberal democrats as the first past the post system worked well against other smaller parties
its alliance with the liberals saw 22 seats combined and gain 25 percent of the vote
monetrism
monestrism was assosaited with the ideas of chicago ecocmist milton friedman. it stated that inflation was the biggest econmic ill and was characterised by public spending cuts and hugh intrestrates to avoid people taking out loans and credit
however it came at a human cost as it also was accompined by unemployment. althoygh inflation idi drop by 1979 at 16 percent by 1983 at 5 percent
umeployment rose to one millioon and alot of social unrest in brixton for example
Uturns
british leyland and their subsidies
and also before 81sheallowed above ingflation pay settlemets for steel workers
econ problems
many felt thats tahcters econ policies wereent working as the cabinet was split into wet and dries
the ladys not for turning speech and she contiuned with monestrist policies depsite tyehs coial unrest
1981 budget
the chancellor geoffery howe in 1981 set out a new budget and pulled out 4 billion from the econmy many economists pubically called out agsiant a uturn that the conservatives will loose the next election more then 300
second term econ develop.
by mid 1980s monestrism became less sigificanty as the focus was on supply side economics whioch was done by creating creater deman this includes
tax cuts
credit extention
the demise of unions
and deregulation
deregulation
less government intervention which many believed caused economic decline
deregulated public transport which enabled the formation of private transport
abolished credit controls and gave more financial will to institutions
privitisation
privatization was government collected revenues from popular capitalism
this meantthat odinary people could own shares from companies
so british airways was sold off
7,000 million was made from 1988-9
this was also helped by north sea and gas oil who contributed to 15 percent of natioal income
divisiveness of policies
thatcher made society more divided
