The impact of Thatcherism 1979-1987: Political Flashcards
What was Thatcher’s ideology heavily influenced by?
The New Right (suggested economic theories of Keynsian were flawed and promoted the free market and monetarism as essential to prevent further decline)
What ideas did Thatcher want to promote?
More conservative ideas of a traditional family in society
What were the 2 groups within Thatcher’s government?
Wets- Cautious of Thatcher’s economic ideas and their impacts on British society
Dries- supported her to the cabinet
When was the SDP created and who by?
1981 by the ‘Gang of Four’ (Owen, Jenkins, Williams, Rogers)
Who did the SDP form an alliance with?
The Liberals (SPD-Liberal alliance)
Who replaced Foot as Labour leader?
Neil Kinnock
What process did Kinnock begin as Labour leader?
Militant tendency- removing extremists from the Labour Party
What did the IRA do in 1984?
- Explode a bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton during a Conservative party conference
- Targeted Thatcher but instead 5 people were killed
What was Thatcher accused of doing to the police?
Politicalising them (especially during industrial disputes)
What were the disagreements between Thatcher and Prior?
- Mainly over anti union legislation as Thatcherites believed Prior was too friendly with trade union leaders
- Thatcher demoted Prior to the Northern Ireland office in 1981
Which dries eventually became wets?
John Biffen and Norman Tebbit
What was the most serious challenge to Thatcher’s authority and who did it involve?
- Michael Heseltine
- Heseltine stormed out of a cabinet meeting, resigned and claimed that Thatcher was acting unconstitutionally
- Heseltine became a focus of discontent for the Conservative MP’s who were unhappy with Thatcher’s rules
Which party led to Labour experiencing catastrophic defeats in the 1983 and 1987 elections?
SDP
What started the crisis within the Labour Party?
Foot was elected leader of the Labour Party in 1980 instead of the ‘obvious’ candidate Denis Healey
How many Labour MP’s followed the SDP?
28
Why was the SDP created?
- Believed it was the best way to save the Labour Party was to build a new centrist alternative which appealed to the middle ground instead of fighting a losing battle against the Bennite left
- SDP leaders and its followers believed they had been driven out of the Labour Party by extremists who were taking over
How did sections of Labour’s support decrease?
- Some Labour voters became Thatcher Conservatives
- Some voted Liberal or SDP
- Some supported the far Left in attacking the Labour leadership from within
- Some didn’t vote at all
How did the Labour parties demographic change after they lost support?
- Parties basic foundations were deteriorating and this change loosened the traditional loyalties of the working class
- Unions were no longer a source of strength
- Many traditional Labour strongholds in the local government lost touch with the people they were supposed to serve
What were the Labour divisions?
- When Kinnock replaced Foot in 1983, Labour was in danger of being marginalised by Thatcherism and the rise of the SDP
- However, Kinnock dragged Labour back into the political mainstream and took on the extremists militant tendency, the bennites and the union leaders
- Kinnock criticised Scargill for failing to hold a strike ballot in the 1984 miners strike
- In 1986 Kinnock successfully expelled militant tendency from the Labour Party, but was still seen as dominated by the Left and trade unions
How did the Falklands War influence the Conservatives winning the 1983 election?
- Falklands invaded by Argentina in 1982
- Thatcher’s immediate response was a full scale military effort to recover the islands
- British forces achieved it with complete success
- Seen as a demonstration of Thatcher’s bold leadership and unleashed a wave of patriotism across the UK
What are 2 reasons for the Conservative victory in 1983 other than the Falklands war?
1.
- Labour weakness
- Foot struggled to deal with divisions within the party and performed bad on TV
- Labour election manifesto was dominated by left wing promises (unilateral disarmament, withdrawal from EEC, abolition of fox hunting)- labelled as the longest suicide note in history
2.
- Large political opposition
- Anti Conservative vote was 16 million
Why was there a less of momentum for the SDP-Liberal alliance?
- Ideological differences: opposition to Thatcher wasn’t enough to provide unity by itself
- Personal differences between the 2 leaders
- Alliance got 24% of vote in 1987, nowhere near its 40% in 1982
What happened to the SDP in 1988?
Formally merged with the Liberal Party to create the Liberal Democrats
What type of protests began in 1980 and how did Thatcher respond to them?
- Campaign for special category status by IRA prisoners who wanted to be recognised and treated as political prisoners
- Led to hunger strikes led by Bobby Sands
- Gained lots of attention and support
- Sands was nominated to stand in a by election and won a seat
- 10 people died of hunger strikes including Bobby Sands before them being called off in 1981
- Thatcher claimed the hunger strikes were a defeat for the IRA because their main aim wasn’t granted, but they did have a big impact
What did Thatcher’s refusal to change her views about the IRA lead to?
- Her becoming a hate figure for republicans in Northern Ireland
- Bobby Sands and other strikers became republican heroes
- Unionists and republicans hardened their stances
What were the secret contacts between Thatcher and the IRA?
- 1985- Anglo Irish Agreement was signed: set up permanent intergovernmental cooperation between UK and Republic of Ireland
- Conservative government hoped it would enhance security cooperation between UK and Irish Republic
- Aimed to strengthen moderate nationalists against Sinn Fein - Hillsborough Agreement
- Gave Irish government an advisory role in Northern Ireland (200,000 people protested against this)
What was set up in response to the Hillsborough Agreement and when was it?
- 1986
- Unionist paramilitary organisation: Ulster Resistance
- Led to a series of atrocities
