Thatcherism : the first stage Flashcards
Thatcherism
Thatcher was a conviction politician. She had a strong aversion to the consensus politics.
Her Methodist upbringing and the influence of the idea of Friedrich Hayek and Keith Joseph, gave her a set of beliefs that inspired her upbringing.
Her government can be regarded as the new right. She ended consensus politics.
Result of inefficiency and low growth was made worse by a welfare system which underpinned personal responsibility and created a dependency culture.
Ending the post war consensus
Her intended solution to the problems which she inherited was a return to the principle of individual accountability. She believed that the state could no longer reward the incompetent and the half hearted.
She was critical of Heath, who she believed that pushed Britain even further towards socialism.
Thatcher’s economic revolution
Changed the economic basis on which Britain was run.
She identified the most serious problems:
High levels of government spending.
Unnecessary government interference.
Combination of weak management and powerful union that has resulted in continual increase in wages but decline in productivity.
Her economic policy was an attempt to reverse the harmful trends that the governments since 1945 had allowed to develop.
She expressed it as, ‘taking the government off the backs of the people.’
Monetarism
To bring inflation under control, she adopted monetarism.
Root cause of inflation was government spending.
In order to control inflation, the government had to restrict the amount of money in circulation and reduce public expenditure.
Interest rates were raised in order to deter irresponsible spending.
It was successful in reducing inflation, it did so at the price of job losses.
In 1981, falling orders for manufactured goods had seen the start of an economic recession.
Social unrest
In April 1981, in Brixton, hundreds of black youth ran riot, burning shops and looting property.
Similar violence occurred in cities such as Bristol, Liverpool and Manchester.
Although local conditions helped to explain the disturbances, they were a result of Thatcher’s tough monetarist policies, which had led to increased unemployment.
Common factors:
Poor job prospects in the deprived inner city areas.
Alienation of young black people. In a 6 day period in Brixton, police had used the Sus laws on more than 1000 people, most of whom were black.
High incidence of unemployment among school leavers.
Unemployment for black youths in Brixton stood at 55%.
By 1982, the mounting social and economic problems had begun to threaten Thatcher’s continuance in office. Opinion polls showed popularity had declined.
Tibbet
Portrayed in the satirical television programme, Spitting image, as a leather-clad, ,cosh wielding enforcer, he was one of Thatcher’s supporters. He urged her not to allow the riots to deflect her from her policies.
Ango-Argentinian dispute
Legal ownership of the Falklands has been long disputed between the UK and Argentina.
98% of some 2000 islanders wanted to remain under the British flag.
Thatcher’s government was first willing to discuss a compromise with Argentina.
Nicholas Ridley had promised a leaseback agreement, by which Britain, while maintaining sovereignty over the Falklands, would allow Argentina to administer the region as its own.
2nd April, 1972
Some 4000 Argentine troops invaded the islands and quickly overcame the resistance of 80 Royal Marines.
This act of aggression was condemned by all parties in Britain.
Thatcher was adamant that it was entirely a matter for the British to resolve.
She ordered the retaking of the islands.
The conflict, April to June 1982.
On 8th April, a British task force had been assembled and sailed from Portsmouth and Southampton.
On 25th April, South Georgia was recaptured.
Air strikes began on the 1st May.
Having placed a 200 mile exclusion zone around the islands, Britain began its naval campaign on the 2nd May.
British troops landings began on the 21st May. By the end of the month, 2 key areas, San Carlos and Goose Green had been recaptured.
On 14th June, they liberated the capital, Port Stanley.
The Argentines surrendered.
Thatcher was likened to Churchill in her ability to inspire the nation in wartime.
Britain established a permanent garrison on the islands to guarantee their security.
Political benefits of Falklands
Reward came in the 1983 election.
She won an overwhelming victory by the surge of popularity that the war brought her.
The opposition who had opposed military action found itself in the position of trying to attack the government while supporting the serviceman and women who were fighting the war.
She recovered lost support.
Real explanation of the 1983 election, was that poor performance of Labour, which saw its total vote drop by 3 million and its share of the vote drop by 9%.
Crisis in the coal industry
Throughout the 20th century, they had been in crisis.
Coal was becoming increasingly costly and difficult to mine.
For some time, Britain had been importing coal from abroad.
With the exception of a few pits producing particular types of coal, British mines were running at a loss.
Government’s case for pit closures
Government had declared its unwillingness to put public money into an industry which had little change of being able to recover its place in a competitive market.
It was better to face the situation now and lessen the consequences by large redundancy settlements than pretend it could get any better.
The miner’s case against pit closures
They asserted that a proper investment programme backed by government commitment, would insure that the coal industry had a profitable future.
Social consequences would be catastrophic.
Whole communities were dependent on coal, so if the mine closed, then the whole community would cease to exist.
Development of the dispute
The NCB appointed Ian McGregor, who was determined to cut out the non-profitable parts of the coal industry.
He was faced by the uncompromising NUM leader, Arthur Scargill.
Tebbit, had already steered though 2 employment acts in 1980 and 1982, intended as the first steps in weakening union power:
Forbade mass picketing
Outlawed the closed shop, requirement that all workers in a particular plant had to be union members.
Declared industrial action illegal, unless workers had voted.
Government stockpilled coal at fuel stations and drafted emergency plans for importing further stocks should the need arise.
Battle of Orgreave
June 1984.
Strikers tried to prevent coke-filled lorries leaving Orgreave coking works.
An estimated 6000 picketers struggled for hours against 7000 policemen before being overcome.
