Topic 4: Social (1979-87) Flashcards
4
Describe the ‘right to buy’ scheme
- Enacted through Housing Act 1980
- Allowed 5m tenants who had lived in their council property for 3 years to purchase it for 33% (house) discount on market price or 44% (flat)
- Gave 50% discount to 20-year tenants
- Tax relief on interest-free mortages raised from £25k to £30k in 1983 budget - this is where receipts were funnelled!
3
Describe the impact of the ‘right to buy’ scheme
- by end of 1984, 800k council tenants had bought own home
- Home ownership grew from 55% (1980) to 64% (1987)
- Grew middle-class and held popular electorate backing
3
Describe limits to the ‘right to buy’ scheme
- Thather froze receipts councils gained from sales due to distrust of local authorities
- Revenues not invested into new public housing to aid future householders
- Collapse of public housing doubled number of homeless families with children between 1980-82
2
Describe youth unemployment in the early 1980s
- Between 1981-82, u25s made up of 40% of unemployed
- Only 50% of British school leaver were trained compared with 80% in France and 90% in Germany
3
Describe Youth Training Schemes (YTS)
- 1981, YTS created as a result of youth riots
- Guaranteed all young people paid training
- Employers participating recieved financial help
3
Describe limits to YTS
- Standard of training was low
- Iniated to remove youth from unemployment figures
- Exploited for cheap temporary labour (trainees not retained)
2
Describe health policy in Thatcher’s first term
- Cabinet considered private health insurance and extension of user fees in 1982
- Thatcher realised such proposals would amount to political suicide
user fees - drug costs, etc
5
Describe education policy in Thatcher’s first term
- 1980, assisted places scheme introduced
- 1981, full-cost tuition fees for international students introduced
- Keith Joseph made cuts that saw a 15% reduction in university funding
- No return to triparite system against what Conservatives had long campaigned for
- Shelved plans to entirely end state funding of higher education to appease aspirational tory voters
5
Describe the assisted places scheme
- Introduced 1980
- means-tested government financial support for place at independent school
- added to sense of aspiration that bolstered electoral chances
- ironically furthered the breakdown of class barriers
- critics argued that funding should have been directed to the wider comprehensive system
6
Describe inner city riots 1981
- April 1981, Brixton riots saw fighting breakout between black youths and Met Police over racial tensions
- At time, over 50% of the black population in Brixton were unemployed
- July 1981, riots in Toxteth, Liverpool, Manchester, etc
- 4k arrested (2/3 u21 and majority unemployed)
- yet 2/3 already had criminal records
- Scarman report
3
Describe the Scarman Report 1981
- condemned rioting
- yet detailed alienation of unemployed black males due to social and economic difficulties
- deplored intolerance of the Met police
5
Describe the Greenham Women
- CND organised mass protests against 1979 decision to place American cruise missiles at British bases
- 1981, group of women set up camp outside RAF Greenham Common, Bekshire which would remain for 19 years
- 1983, women formed 14 mile chain as missiles were due to arrive
- Linked feminism with pacificism
- 1984, Newbury local council evicted women and demolsihed camp (though set up again)
4
Describe education policy in Thatcher’s second term
- Pressure to apply short-term profit making measures
- ‘brain drain’ of academics to USA
- Growing gap between old intellectuals and Thatcherite welath creators
- 1985, OU voted deny Thatcher an honorary degree, against convention, due to ‘systematic damage’ she had done on education (had only previously denied President Bhutto of Pakistan)
4
Describe the Social Security Act 1986
- Sought to reduce ‘dependency culture’ by introducing more rigorous means-testing
- Grants to poorest claimaints replaced with loans
- Family credit payments for low income families
- Permitted employees to opt out occupational pension scheme ran by employers and create own personal pension scheme
2
Describe the CND in the 1980s
- Greenham Women
- New enthusiasm after Thatcher’s backing of deterrent policy
3
Describe arts/media opposition to Thatcher in the 1980s
- Playwrights such as David Hare attacked culture of selfishness engendered by Thatcherism
- 1982 drama ‘Boys from the Blackstuff’ detailed sympathetic view of hard-labourers
- 1984, Spitting Image first broadcast satirically criticising Thatcher and her government
3
Describe CoE opposition to Thatcher in the 1980s
- Archbishop Runcie criticised ‘jingoistic’ policy in Falklands War
- Runcie’s 1985 ‘Faith and the City’ report concluded that spiritual and economic poverty in inner cities could be attributed to government
- Bishop of Durham criticsed handling of miners’ strike
jingoistic - patriotic
2
Describe Thatcher’s response to CoE opposition
- Personally addressed CoE and Methodist assemblies
- Criticised hostile approach to material gain, seeing it as Christian Act
3
Describe the ALF in the 1980s
- 1982, switched from NVDA to ‘ecoterrorism’
- Carried out arson attacks on pharmaceutical companies that tested on animals
- 1982, sent letter bombs to public figures including Thatcher
4
Describe limitations in attitudes towards homosexuality (AIDS) 1979-87
- Negative attitudes and peaked in 1987 with AIDS epidemic
- First AIDS case recorded in 1981
- Gay men particularly at risk
- Referred to as ‘gay plague’
3
Describe progress in attitudes towards homosexuality (AIDS) 1979-87
- Govt started prevention campaign in 1985
- 1987, Princess Diana shook hands with AIDS patient at Royal Middlesex Hospital
- Hugely significant in in de-stigmatising disease
4
Describe the AIDS prevention campaign in 1985
- Needle exchanges set up
- Leaflets distributed to households and schools
- billboards and advertisements: ‘don’t die of ignorance’
- regarded as scaremongering by some, adding to stigma
4
Describe the concern over contraception given to the youth 1980s
- Concern over underage sex
- Victoria Gillick led campaign against availability of contraceptive advice to girls under age of consent without parent’s knowledge
- High Court initially ruled advice could only be given with parental consent
- overturned by HoL in 1985 - Gillick lost case
3
Describe Mary Whitehouse and Thatcher
- Powerful allies
- Whitehouse coined phrase ‘video-nasty’ - low budget horror/exploitative films
- 1986, discussed ban of sex toys in 2 meetings with Thatcher
2
Describe a limit to Mary Whitehouse’s work in the 1980s
- Sex toy ban a problematic concept for legal action
- Rejected by Home Secretary Brittan