Thatcher Governments Flashcards
What style of leadership did Thatcher pioneer
Conviction Politics
Which religous sect may have been responsible for much of Thatchers personal ideology
Methodism
Why was Thatcher not a typical Tory candidate
Suburban, from Trade and a woman
What famous phrase did she utter at the 1981 party conference, at the peak of discontent, and who was this a criticism of
you turn if you want to, the lady is not for turning
This criticised Heaths goverment, who in 1972 did U turn on their selsdon policies
What was the core idea behind the ‘new right’, something Thatcher was very much influenced by
The rejection of Keynsian economics and embracement of Milton Friedman and Hayek style monetarist policies, promoting free market policies and less goverment involvment in the economy
What did Thatcher declare there was no “such thing as that”, highlighting her beliefs in personal, rather than collective responsibility
Society; she declared that there are only people and families.
What did Michael Foot describe Trade Secretary and later Conservative Party Chairman as
A semi-house trained pole-cat
What did Norman Tebbit declare in 1985 was the root cause of that eras increase in crime and violence
the post-war funk that gave brith to the permissive society, that then generated their violent society
What accusations did the police face, under Thatchers regime
That they had been politicised, esepcially during industrial disputes, due to her strong interest, throughout the entirety of her career, on being strong on law and order
What were the Wets in Thatchers first cabinet and give some examples
Those left over from the old policiy of one nation conservatism; peerhaps apprehensive towardss the social consequences of Thatchers Monetarist policies or those willing to cooperate with the trade unions
Willie Whitelaw was Home secretary and jim Prior was employment minister
What were the drys and give some examples
Drys were people fully onboard Thatchers monetarist train and also hated poor people. Included Ch of Exq Geoffrey Howe And head of the Departmen of Industry Keith Joseph
What happened to Jim Prior in 1981
He was demoted to the NI office and replaced by Norman Tebbit
What new party was formed in 1981 by breakaway elements of the Labour Party
The Social Democratic Party
Which far-left politician was elected as head of the Laboour party in 1980 instead of the obvious choice, Denis Healey
Michael Foot
Who did Denis Healey beat in 1981 in a bitter contest for deputy labour leader
Tony Benn
Who were the gang of four and which political party did they create
David Owen, Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers
They created the SDP
How many labour MPs joined the newly created SDP
28
Why was the SDP formed
Because its members beleived that Labour was no unelectable due to the far left influence from the Bennites, and their best chance to beat Thatcher was to start from a new party capable of appealing to the middle ground
What event helped encourage labour moderates such as Shirley Williams to leave and create the SDP
The 1981 Wembley labour conference, where heckling and disruption from far left elements left many centrists marginalized
Which two SDP members won seats in Parliament in the early 80s
Williams won Crosby and then Jenkins won Glasgow Hillhead
The Liberals also won the previously safe labour seat of Bermondsey
What alliance did the two non-members of the classical two party mould form
SDP-Liberal alliance for both the ‘83 and ‘87 elections
However, there were tensions between the two davids (steel and owen) but the allianecc had largely overtaken labour as the credible opposition to Thatchers tories
Why could Labour no longer depend on its working class support
Huge media criticism of the labour party
The alliance drew away their moderate voters
Traditional working class was eroded
Unions no longer a source of strength
Many saw labour as having lost touch with the electorate
When did Neil Kinnock replace Michael Foot as leader of the labour party
1983
What actions did Neil Kinnock take, despite being on the left wing of the labour party, against extremists within the labour party
He challenged the group Militant Tendency, active within certain city councils, notably liverpool, preaching trotskyite socialist revolution, and expelled them from the party in 1986
He criticsed Arthur Scargill for failing to hold a strike abllot during the 1984 Miners Strike
He challenged the Trade Unions and Bennite Left of the party
Why did Thatcher undeservedly win the 1983 election
Falklands war
Why was labour not a credible force for the 1983 election
Foot could not deal with the divisions within his own party
Foot also could not perform well on television
The labour manifesto was dominated by relatively extreme propositions, inclusing unilateral disarmament, withdrawal from the EEC and banning fox hunting(i have no idea how this is on the same level as the other two but ok). The manifesto was called the longest suicide note in history
What were the relative vote counts for Conservative and anti conservative parties, and how did this benefit Thatcher
Conservative-13 Million Non conservative-16 million
However, the anti-conservative vote was extremely split between labour and the Alliance, meainng conservatives won 397 seats
Why, by the 1987 election, did the Alliance not fare so well
Ideological differences-Opposition to Thatcher was not strong enough to keep cooperation
Personal differences between david steel and owen
Falklands war reinforced Thatchers credibility and the
alliance never recovered(went from polling ~40% to 24%)
Kinnocks improvements to the labour party made them more electable
Why did the SDP begin to shrink after ‘87
Only came into existence in ‘81 because of Foot making labour unelectable; Kinnock was fixing this so there was little point in continuing as labour reverted to moderate socialism
When did the Liberal party and SDP merge, what did they form and who disagreed and resigned
1988, formed the social democrats, and David Owen resigned as he disagreed. Many MPs returned to Labour
