The general election,1979

Question 1

at 1978 labour party conference what did Jim Callaghan do?

Answer 1

teased the delegates about the tiiming of the election
-in the event=decided to wait, turned out to be a mistake

Question 2

by spring of 1979 political landscape had been reshaped by?

Answer 2

‘the winter of discontent’

Question 3

economic situation had deteriorated and reputation of trade unions had been damaged-

Answer 3

even many skilled and unskilled workers began to consider voting conservative

Question 4

what happened in March 1979?

Answer 4

the government lost a vote of no confidence in parliament on the issue of Scottish devolution

Question 5

the images of the ‘winter of discontent’ dominated?

Answer 5

the media and the press for weeks on end

Question 5

the government was forced to resign - the first time since 1924 that?

Answer 5

a government was brought down by a confidence vote

Question 5

most of the press were supporting the conservatives- this included?

Answer 5

the times, the sun, the mail and the express

Question 6

conservatives were able to fight the campaign mostly by?

Answer 6

hammering away the unpopularity of the government especially on the issues of unemployment,law an order and excessive power of the unions

Question 7

in fact many of the strikes in 1979 showed?

Answer 7

the weakness of the old union leaderships and their failure to control the new militancy of their workers

Question 8

even with all these problems for labour, the outcome of the election was not a foregone conclusion- how much did it dip overall?

Answer 8

labour vote actually held up quite well dipping by 3% overall

Question 9

however, what did conservatives benefit from?

Answer 9

benefitted from a sharp drop in support for the liberals and for the Scottish Nationalist Party

Question 10

conservatives won with a comfortable working majority of

Answer 10

43 for the conservatives