Thatcher's rolling back the state

Question 1

name 2 Thatcher quotes that show her attitude to the role of the state in welfare?

Answer 1

• ‘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’

Question 2

what do the 2 quotes Thatcher said in 1987 and 1993 show about her attitude to the role of the state in welfare?

Answer 2

• that she believes in self help
• she believes there was a cultural dependency (where the state does too much and you become lazy)

Question 3

what was the 1980 housing act?

Answer 3

-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

Question 4

by 1988 how many people had taken advantage of the 1980 housing act? what was the publics opinion on the act?

Answer 4

2 million and it was popular amongst the public

Question 5

where were most of the council houses sold?

Answer 5

in the more desirable areas

Question 6

what was done with the proceeds from the sales of the council houses?
what was the effect of this?

Answer 6

• 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

Question 7

why did the conservative party want to allow people to own their own homes?

Answer 7

• reduces the role of the state
• home owners typically vote conservative

Question 8

what did the NHS represent in regards to Thatcher?

Answer 8

everything Thatcher rejected

Question 9

what was Thatcher’s opinion on the NHS and how was this shown?

Answer 9

• 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

Question 10

how much did government spending on the NHS rise by in 1967 and what was Thatcher’s opinion on it?

Answer 10

government spending rose by 60% in 1967 and Thatcher described the NHS spending as a a ‘bottomless pit’

Question 11

instead of NHS spending what were the Thatcherite ideals that would have been preferred?

Answer 11

• people taking greater responsibility for their health
• taking out private insurance

Question 12

how much did health insurance grow from between 1955 and 1990

Answer 12

1955= 500,000
1990= 6.6 million
but the numbers still remained small as their was a ‘cultural dependency’ as thatcher thought

Question 13

what was the Griffiths report in 1983?

Answer 13

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

Question 14

what did the national health service and community care act of 1990 allow hospitals to do?

Answer 14

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 )

Question 15

how much more money was being spent on the NHS between 1985 and 1991?

Answer 15

1985= £25.7m
1991= £383.8m

Question 16

what was Thatcher’s opinion on vouchers for education?

Answer 16

she felt they ‘went too far’

Question 17

what did Thatcher introduce which was the biggest change to education since the 1944 Butler Education act?

Answer 17

1988 education act

Question 18

who were education reforms driven by despite Thatcher being secretary of state for education in the Heath government?

Answer 18

Kenneth Baker

Question 19

what 5 things did the 1988 education act include?

Answer 19

• 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.

Question 20

what was Thatcher’s opinion of local governments and what did she plan to do with them?

Answer 20

• she didn’t trust local governments to impose thatcherite values
• she wanted to reduce the size of local government but also increase control

Question 21

what did Thatcher do to try and reduce the size of local government?

Answer 21

her first attempt included reducing the amount of funding to local governments

Question 22

how did local governments respond to Thatcher’s first attempt at trying to reduce the size of local government?

Answer 22

local governments responded to the reduction of funding by increasing local taxes.
as a result of this the government introduced rate capping in 1984

Question 23

what did the 1985 local government act allow Thatcher to do ?

Answer 23

• 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

Question 24

what did thatcher introduce in 1990 to replace local rates ?

Answer 24

-the poll tax
-every person pays the same amount regardless of incomes, instead of the local rate which was based on property value

Question 25

what was the impact of the poll tax?

Answer 25

the poll tax was a regressive tax which meant it hit the poorest hardest

Question 26

what does the central gov deal with vs the local gov ?

Answer 26

local gov:
- council tax
-poll tax
- community change such as pot holes, rubbish collection

central gov:
- income tax
- london
- healthcare, defence, education, police

Question 27

what was the estimation of how much people were paying poll tax and what year?

Answer 27

-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