Thatcher's rolling back the state Flashcards
name 2 Thatcher quotes that show her attitude to the role of the state in welfare?
- ‘there is no such thing as society’ (1987) in an interview with Woman’s Own magazine
- ‘the root cause of society’s problems was that the state had been doing too much’ (1993) in her memoir ‘the downing street years’
what do the 2 quotes Thatcher said in 1987 and 1993 show about her attitude to the role of the state in welfare?
- that she believes in self help
- she believes there was a cultural dependency (where the state does too much and you become lazy)
what was the 1980 housing act?
-it gave tenants the right to buy their own council house
-the tenants received a discount between 33% and 50% depending on how long they had lived there
by 1988 how many people had taken advantage of the 1980 housing act? what was the publics opinion on the act?
2 million and it was popular amongst the public
where were most of the council houses sold?
in the more desirable areas
what was done with the proceeds from the sales of the council houses?
what was the effect of this?
- councils were forced by central government to use the money from the sales of the houses to reduce debts and not to build more council houses
- this meant that the number of council houses available for rent was reduced and the council had to house people in expensive emergency accommodation such as b&b’s
why did the conservative party want to allow people to own their own homes?
- reduces the role of the state
- home owners typically vote conservative
what did the NHS represent in regards to Thatcher?
everything Thatcher rejected
what was Thatcher’s opinion on the NHS and how was this shown?
- thatcher described the government spending money on it as a ‘bottomless pit’
- she was wary of it’s popularity
- a leaked CPRS proposal to end free universal healthcare was met with uproar
how much did government spending on the NHS rise by in 1967 and what was Thatcher’s opinion on it?
government spending rose by 60% in 1967 and Thatcher described the NHS spending as a a ‘bottomless pit’
instead of NHS spending what were the Thatcherite ideals that would have been preferred?
- people taking greater responsibility for their health
- taking out private insurance
how much did health insurance grow from between 1955 and 1990
1955= 500,000
1990= 6.6 million
but the numbers still remained small as their was a ‘cultural dependency’ as thatcher thought
what was the Griffiths report in 1983?
it created 200 NHS managers who were required to report to government ‘performance indicators’, such as waiting lists, appointments, referrals,
lengths of stay and mortality rates
what did the national health service and community care act of 1990 allow hospitals to do?
it allowed hospitals to govern themselves and control their own budgets
the budgets would be provided from the treasury ( the governments economic and finance ministry )
how much more money was being spent on the NHS between 1985 and 1991?
1985= £25.7m
1991= £383.8m
what was Thatcher’s opinion on vouchers for education?
she felt they ‘went too far’
what did Thatcher introduce which was the biggest change to education since the 1944 Butler Education act?
1988 education act
who were education reforms driven by despite Thatcher being secretary of state for education in the Heath government?
Kenneth Baker
what 5 things did the 1988 education act include?
- a government led national curriculum for children age 5-16 was introduced which focused on maths, English and science . what children now learnt was the responsibility of the central government and not the teachers.
- SATS for children at the ages of 7, 11 and 14. the results were published annually in league tables
- creation of Ofsted to inspect schools
- budgets to be transferred from local authorities to head teachers
- right of schools to opt out of local authority control and be directly funded by central government.
what was Thatcher’s opinion of local governments and what did she plan to do with them?
- she didn’t trust local governments to impose thatcherite values
- she wanted to reduce the size of local government but also increase control
what did Thatcher do to try and reduce the size of local government?
her first attempt included reducing the amount of funding to local governments
how did local governments respond to Thatcher’s first attempt at trying to reduce the size of local government?
local governments responded to the reduction of funding by increasing local taxes.
as a result of this the government introduced rate capping in 1984
what did the 1985 local government act allow Thatcher to do ?
- it allowed her to abolish the greater London council and 6 other metropolitan councils
- thatcher had a dislike for local governments in inner cities which tended to be labour run
what did thatcher introduce in 1990 to replace local rates ?
-the poll tax
-every person pays the same amount regardless of incomes, instead of the local rate which was based on property value
what was the impact of the poll tax?
the poll tax was a regressive tax which meant it hit the poorest hardest
what does the central gov deal with vs the local gov ?
local gov:
- council tax
-poll tax
- community change such as pot holes, rubbish collection
central gov:
- income tax
- london
- healthcare, defence, education, police
what was the estimation of how much people were paying poll tax and what year?
-in 1988 it was estimated 82% of people would pay more under poll tax
-the tax was withdrawn in 1991 due to uproar and riots
-in 1990 in london there was a violent riot with 300 arrests due to the tax
