Topic 3: 1979 election

Question 1

3

Describe the results of the 1979 election

Answer 1

• Con 339 (+55), Lab 269 (-40), Lib 11 (-3)
• Swing of 5.2% to Con (higher in SE)
• Nationalist parties suffered severely - SNP lost 9/11 seats and the Welsh nationalists 1/3

Question 2

5

Describe the role of Thatcher’s personality in the 1979 election victory

Answer 2

• Written off in 1975 as unelectable (first woman leader and right-wing)
• Union distaste bred support of Thatcher’s dictatorial style
• Housewife anecdotes had widespread appeal, esp among middle-class
• Received training in political presentation
• However, trailed Callaghan in preffered PM ratings

Question 3

5

Describe the role of Conservative party unity in 1979 election victory

Answer 3

• Factional divisions between ‘dries’ of Thatcher and Joseph and ‘wets’ of Tory ‘grandees’ like Heath, Macmillan
• William Whitelaw served as deputy leader (de facto DPM)
• Prior experience as NI Sec, Employment Sec, Party Chairman
• Reflected ON ideas and hailed from old upper class
• Helped win over Heathites

Question 4

6

Describe the role of Conservative policy in 1979 election victory

Answer 4

• Influenced by Powell and Joseph and monetarism
• Council house sales (‘Right to Buy’) proved hugely popular
• End to incomes policy to appease higher wage earners and skilled workers
• Trade Union reform
• Tax cuts (at both ends) and lower public spending
• Firmer on immigration issues

Question 5

2

Describe the demography based voting swings in the 1979 election

Answer 5

• ABC1 workers voted Tory twice as much as Lab in marginal areas
• End to incomes policy led to West Midlands and industrial SE turning blue

Question 6

4

Describe the role of the Conservative campaign in 1979 election victory

Answer 6

• Unemployment hit 40yr high of 1.5m in 1978
• PR firm Saatchi and Saatchi hired: ‘Labour isn’t working’
• ‘Crisis? What Crisis?’
• 300 full-time elec agents compared to Lab’s 70

Question 7

4

Describe the role of the Winter of Discontent in Labour 1979 election defeat

Answer 7

• Images of Trade Union militancy exploited mercilessly by Tory party
• Disenchanted middle class
• Gallup poll in Jan 1979 found 84% felt unions held too much power
• Tories placed trade union reform at centre of their manifesto

Question 8

6

Describe the role of Labour policy in 1979 election defeat

Answer 8

• Demand for HoL abolition at 1977 conference rejected
• Future nationalisation in ports and cargo
• Comprehensive edu finished in 1980s + end of public support for independent schools
• Reintroduction of free prescriptions
• More moderate than NEC wanted
• Too moderate comapred with Tories; monetarist reform

Question 9

4

Describe the role of the collapse of the liberal vote in the 1979 election

Answer 9

• Liberal reformist proposals for PR and indirect taxation (e.g. VAT)
• Thorpe affair - allegations former leader had been engaged in homosexual affair and conspired to murder his ex-boyfriend
• Lost 3 seats
• Con benefited most from liberal desertions