thatcher Flashcards
how successfully did thatcher manage industrial relations?
- industrial legislation had to be refomed because, according to gher, existing industrial relations laws had been abused to protect weak industries, therefore British firms were uncompetitive,
- legislation. learned from the industrial relations act and social contract. she didnt compile all legislation in one act. Employment act 1980: outlawed secondary picketing and offered protection of those who didnt want to strike by increasing their rights, government money was made available to encourage unions to hold secret ballots
1982: restricted sympathy strikes, 83% ballot support dor closed shop needed. Anyone sacked for not joining a union became entitled to high rates of compensation
1984 trade union act: required a secret ballot
Thatcher’s legsilation was very successful:
1979: working days lost: 29m and union membership was 12m 1.4m
1981: 4 million working days lost. Union membership 11million 2.7m
1990: 1.9m days lost. Union membership 8.4m. Unemployment 1.8m
This shows high levels of unemployment deterred strike action
Trade union membership fell because of thatchers economic policies.
minsers strike 1984-5
caused because the national coal board faced a loss of £250m. strike in 1984 after 20 pits and 20k jobs lost
-1981 secret whitehall commitee organised stockpiling of coal.
- the central electricity generation board built up large stocks of oil and coal in power stations
- the home secretary set up a national reportinb centre to ensufe central control of policing.
why did the strike fail?
miners weren’t united Dec 1984 some formed Union of Democratic Mineworkers
the strikes began in the summer when there was less demand and stores remained adequate
- Labour didnt support the strikes because of the leader (arthur Scargill) as he was seen as an extremist and the violent incidents decreased support
- April 1984: Scargill refused to hold a national ballot this deprived the legal legitimacy of the strike and thus alienated many workers
What was the impact of the strike?
Num membership declined from 250k in 1979 to under 100k in 1987 and union became basically bankrupt by the end of the strike
Thatcher was successful in terms of forcing the minders to come to terms with the fact that the industry couldn’t be supported and demonstrated that union power should not overpower the government
However her haters felt that she had destroyed livelihoods and communities from which she never overcame.
why did thatcher resign as PM in Nov 1990?
MOST IMPORTANT REASON WAS FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES, THIS LEAD TO DIVISIONS OVER EUROPE. LEAST IMPORTANT REASON WAS UNPOPULARITY
- isolation and unpopularity:
- labour was 16 points ahead by June 1990
- April 1989 by election in vale of Glamorgan Labour overturned the 6200 Tory majority and won by 6000 votes
- European Parliament elections: tories won 33.5% but labour won 38.7%
- Anthony Meyer was largely unknown, challenged Thatcher and won 33 votes whilst 30 abstained. This was because many tories began to wonder whether they could win the next election with thatcher in power
Geoffrey Howe resigned and attacked Thatcher. He had been one of her strongest allies since 1979 but he had endured years of bullying by thatcher. His resignation speech was televised and made it clear that thatchers government was badly divided and called for a challenge to her leadership.
Divisions over Europe: T had accepted single European act and worked towards a freer market. But then she cayanged her mind because it would result in closer monetary and poloiticql union which she did not want this frustrated ministers .
She initially agreed to joining the ERM as encouraged by Geoffrey and Lawson because of Britains economic difficulties, but then abandoned this idea, leaving ministers frustrated. But she was supported by her unelected advisor Alan Walter’s
Demoted Howe in June 1989 by removing him from the foreign office and giving him the meaningless title of deputy PM
- oct 1989 lawson was exasperated by thatchers reliance on Walters resigned as chanchellor
These events weakened her authority and made her isolated as she had lost two very close political allies
- in 1990 reluctantly joined the erm on the advice of new chanchellor major as he believed it would reduce high interest rates but she turned down future European integration with no no no which frustrated some ministers.
- Poll tax: more than ahld people didn’t pay rates because they found it to be unfair especially according to conservatives thatcher promised to fix this. Thatcher introduced the community charge - known as poll tax with the local government finance act 1988 an increase in people paying tax would increase interest in local politics. however, poor people owned homes that didn’t match their income, the value of homes had also increased and did not match people’s income. However, the community charge required that people had to pay a flat rate.
Some Tory cabinet members opposed the poll tax because they believed they would be huge,y unpopular . First introduced in scotland 1989 millions refused to pay, encouraged by the SNP. A week before the imtroduction of the tax, 31st March 1990 riot in Trafalagr square. It was extremely violent, 300 people arrested and. 400 policeman hurt. Thatcher still pressed on with the policy, showing that her style was increasingly directorial and alienated workers.
- Economic difficulties: Oct 19887: market crash wiped 24% off share process, lawson was worries about recession and decreased income tax. this caused an inflation to hit 8.3%. tried to control by increasing interest and October 1989 it hit 15%
Conservative leadership election: micheal heseltine followed heseltines speech and the next day announced his candidature Conservative Party leadership. Thatcher won but not by a large amount. Resigned on 28th November and was replaced by major.
what were thatcher’s social successes and failures?
+ council houses: propert owners less likely to support socialism and receive tax relief on mortgages. 12% increase in homeowners
- universities: more economically self sufficient, forced to accept increased number of students, staff lost security of tenure
- schools: became grant maintained, managed their own budgets and operations. teachers not subjective to quality control and the national curriculum was considered too restrictive. measures was inconsistent.
NHS: aimed to make more efficient by applying business principles. hospitals in charge managed their own budgets, - considered to be the first stage of privatisation. - increased competition between services. + financial discipline.
what where thatcher’s economic succeses?
+ high overseas confidence and the value of the £ increases. growth and productivity rate increases.
+ in 1983 wage demand and inflation fell. Inflation: shifted te burden of tac from direct to indirect and therefore VAT made inflation worse. this caused them to implement deflationary method. this included increased tax and cut govt expenditure. this was an unpopular policy but was the most successfully
tax cuts and deregulation: decrease top and base rates. increase indirect tax.
the Lawson boom increased inequality. London became the centre of global financial market. more people had takes in shares in privatised companies. too many run for profit rather than interest of customers
what were thatcher’s economic failures?
- reduction of government
- riots in April 1981 Brixton
- unemployment doubled between 1979-1983
- didn’t support struggling industries
how well did thatcher manage her cabinet?
opposition to her leadership: mastery of her cabinet made her intolerant of disagreement: 1986: the Westland affair: a ‘wet’ Heseltine had a power struggle, H was an alternative leader
- 1989: fell out with her allies: Lawson and Howe ( howe’s speech damage)
- first cabinet: appointed ‘wets’ Francis Pym, Prior, Heseltine. she replaced them with her allies, Howe and Keith joseph. sacked prior (wet) and replaced with dry Norman tebbit
1983: Pym replaced by howe as foreign secretary and Lawson became chancellor
successes in the first years: established small group of loyalists (Keith Joseph) + backed by Tory MPs in the HoC, popular with grassroots members ( antisocialist, Brit great)
problems faced: inner shadow cabinet were older and more experienced ONC. she had limited experience in government and her gender divided opinion
why did major lose the election in 1997?
- success of new labour: moved away from alienating policies like clause iv that they felt didn’t resonate with the public anymore. labour was now much less divided on issues like nuclear armament than previous leaders. labour manifesto was much better than previous years when it had been the ‘longest suicide note in history’. offered a lot of modern policies like reduction in class sizes, fast tracking punishment for presistant young offenders in comparison to major’s manifesto which promised that a non - working partner’s tax free status could be passed on to the working partner in attempt to hold on to the traditional nuclear family structure.
- conservative image and lack of governing competence.
- associated with sleaze: cash for questions scandal in which Tory mps had taken payments from Mohammed al fayed to ask questions in parliament. Johnathon aitken the treasury chief secretary had allowed aides of the Saudi royal family to pay his hotel bell. And he had admitted to committed perjury in court. Culture minister mellor had an affair with an actress who exposed him
- economic incompetency: Britain withdrew from erm which caused the pound to fall in value
- major’s image and media
media began to side with labour - the son wot won it. labour handed public relations very professionally
By how much did thatcher win the 1979 election?
- t won 43.9% of the vote (13,697,690) : 339 seats
- labour won 36.9% of the vote (11,532,148) 269 seats
What were the reasons for thatcher winning the 1979 election?
- in London, south of England and the midlands, around 40 seats were lost by labour and gained by the conservatives
- this happened because voters were unhappy of labours ability to deal with inflation, unemployment and the over-mighty trade unions
- there was an enlarged middle class who felt resentful about strikes and union power: piling up of rubbish symbolic of falling standards
- total liberal vote declined by over a million: some voters blamed them for keeping callaghans government in power. They managed to hold onto their strongholds
- in the midlands and the south decline of the liberal vote allowed the conservatives to gain those seats- the labour vote didn’t significantly decline and even increased in some constituencies
- Labour Party retained traditional support in industrial areas of north, Scotland and wales and won twice as many seats as the conservatives in those areas
How many votes did thatcher win in the 1983 election?
- Conservatives: 42.4% of the vote. 13,012,315 votes and 397 seats
- labour: 27.6 of the vote: 8,456,934 votes and 209 seats
- liberal: 13.7% of the vote, 4,202,115 and 17 seats
- liberal and sdp alliance (25.4) votes (7,780,949) 23 seats
What was the reason for conservatives performance in 1983?
- by 1981, the government was much more unpopular because rise of unemployment and economic problems
+ victory in the Falklands war was a rare British triumph in foreign relations, made thatcher look powerful and increased British confidence and unity - weakness of the opposition: micheal foot of labour appeared weak on television. Britain no longer wanted the things that labour stood for: unilateral nuclear disarmament, further nationalisation of industry and government regulation
- the moderate elements in the party spilt away to form the SDP in march 1981
- Labour maifesto called the longest suicide note in history because it was out of touch - liberal and sdp alliance succeeded in splitting the anti- thatcher vote and allowed some conservative gains in traditionally labour seats in the north.
What happened in the 1987 election?
- conservatives won 43.4% of the vote. 13,763,066 votes and 376 seats
- labour 31.7% of the vote. 10,029,778 votes and 17 seats
The alliance won 22.6% of the vote, 7,341,633 and 22 seats
Can you explain what happened in the 1987 election?
+ conservatives were well ahead in the opinion polls. This meant that conservatives won more votes than 1979 or 1983 election but 1987 least amount of seats
+ won because of economic policies: selling council houses and shares in privatised industries: appealed to C2 and D1 classes
+ unemployment was falling and the pound was strong
+ in 1987 and 1983 conservatives benefitted from a split in the left wing vote
- labour
+ Neil kinnock criticised prominent left wing leaders and made the party more centre, labour pulled 1.5 million votes more than in 1983 and won 20 more seats - Neil kinnock was less appealing to votes, long winded in his speeches and thatcher appeared much stronger and had more control over her colleagues
How successful was thatchers economic policies (inflation)?
Thatcher abandoned consensus politics because of right wing influences such as sir Keith Joseph
Inflation:
Thatcher considered inflation necessary for economic recovery.
Inflation eroded middle class savings and caused strikes for higher wages.
Made British industry over priced due to spiral of rising prices and rising wages
Resulted in higher taxes, restricting business from being able to thrive
- was fuelled by government spending and lack of effective control of money in circulation, harmful result of Keynesian
- needs to be tackled by monetarism
How successful were thathers economic (taxation)?
June 1979 chancellor ir Geoffrey Howe significantly shifted the tax burden to indirect taxation
- government initially worsened inflation: government honoured some pay awards by callaghans government to some low paid workers
- the vat increase pushed up the price of goods
Howe resorted to deflationary methods: 1981 and 1980 budgets cut government expenditure, reduced government borrowing and increased taxes MOST UNPOPULAR BUDGET IN HISTORY
