public sector

make these better

Bruges speech, 1988,

‘We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state only to see them re-imposed at a European level, with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels’ 

Thatcher and state intervention 

Wanted to increase the power of the state in some areas and reduce in others: 

• The free market would ensure economic liberty 

• End Keynesianism 

• End corporatism 

• Cut welfare spending 

• Cut direct taxes 

• The strong state would protect political freedom from: 

• USSR 

• Trade unions and vested interests  

• Terrorists, hooligans and insurrectionists  

Corporatism

the Department for Trade and Industry reorganised in 1979 to break its links with the Confederation of British Industry. Prices, wages, investment and production were to be left to the market. 

union policy

• The Employment Act, 1980 – criminalised secondary action and secondary picketing 

• The Employment Act, 1982 – closed shop required a majority vote  

• The Trade Union Act, 1984 – secret ballot and majority support for strike action 

defence

• US cruise missiles based in the UK to deter Soviet aggression 

• 1980 purchase of Trident at a cost of £7.5 billion for the first 15 years 

• 1981 Defence Review, The Way Forward committed to 3% defence spending  

• 1982, war to re-take the Falklands Islands 

• 1986 bombing of Libya  

• As a consequence, defence spending rose by 20% in real terms between 1979 and 1986 

Spiralling costs of Trident led to defence spending reductions from the mid-1980s 

• 1984-1986 18,000 troops made redundant 

• Plans for a new RAF plane scrapped 

• Navy reduced and Chatham dockyard and Royal Dockyard Gibraltar closed 

• Defence spending fell by 7% in real terms, 1979-1989 

• Defence spending fell by 12% in real terms, 1990-97 

law and order

• Operation Swamp, 1981 – stop and search – ‘sus laws’ nickname for the Vagrancy Act, 1842 

• The Police and Criminal Evidence Act, 1986 – expanded stop and search 

• The Public Order Act, 1986 – created a new offence of ‘disorderly conduct’ targeting people in demonstrations and pickets  

• The Criminal Justice Acts, 1982 and 1988 – ‘short, sharp, shock’ – shorter but tougher prison sentences 

• The Prevention of Terrorism Act, 1989 – extended stop and search powers  GCHQ

GCHQ

banned union membership and strikes for its workers in response to a 1981 strike – restricting civil liberties to protect the national interest  

 

Zircon Affair

banned a 1985 documentary relating to a secret spy satellite codenamed Zircon. The journalist Duncan Campbell gave the research to The Observer and so the police raided his house. The government were constitutionally obliged to inform the Public Accounts Committee, but didn’t. 

Interviews

banned the broadcast of interviews with Sinn Fein, the IRA and the Ulster Volunteer Force. The government also put pressure on broadcasters to drop programmes on the role of the SAS in Ireland 

The European Court of Human Rights overruled government bans Spycatcher and Charter 88 campaigned for greater civil liberties 

 

• The law and order budget increased 36% between 1979 and 1989 

• The prison population rose from 42,000 in 1979 to 48,000 in 1989 – highest per capita in prison population in Europe 

Thatcher and the public sector  

• Anticollectivist: prioritised individual freedom and individual wellbeing over policies designed to promote the welfare of the whole society 

• Antistatist: claimed state action tended to be counter-productive and inferior to the action of individuals and private companies  

 

In spite of her stated aim, she did little to limit welfare spending 

Thatcher and the ‘right to buy’  

• Property-owning democracy  

• Property and freedom 

• Superiority of the private sector  

• The Housing Act, 1980

gave council tenants 3 year or more in their property to purchase it at 33% reduction on the market rate. Tenants 20 years or more in their property could get up to 50%  

consequence

• Half a million bought their home per year between 1980-89 

• 1990-97 the rate reduced to 160,00 per year  

• 1980-97 5 million state-owned houses were sold  

• The proportion of state-owned houses fell from 31.5% in 1979 to 23.6% in 1989 

• Owner-occupation increased from 50% in 1971 to 78% in 1989 

• 1988 Housing Act banned local authorities from using the money gained from house sales for the construction of new social housing 

The Civil Service 

Viewed as a powerful elite with its own vested interests. She aimed to cut it down to size: 

• Efficiency Unit 

• Management Information System – monitor and reduce costs 

• Next Steps – a report that led to a management culture  

• By 1989 £1 billion worth of efficiency savings and a 25% reduction in civil servants  

• She appointed civil servants receptive to change and reform – a break from the Yes Minister culture 

 

Local Government 

• Responsible for 28.1% of government spending and used as a back-door method of resisting Thatcherite policies and introducing socialist ones 

• Cut local government funding from: 1979 - £44 million to 1984 £39 million 

• 1981 – Michael Heseltine set targets for local government spending to prevent them increasing local rates  

• The Rates Bill, 1984 - gave the government the power to impose a cap  

• The Local Government Act, 1988 – forced local councils to contract-out services to the private sector and accept the most competitive offer 

• Rate capping – Derek Hatton, leader of Liverpool Council and part of Militant Tendency, defied the cap, along with 18 councils, but all complied in the end 

The Greater London Council (GLC) – led by Ken Livingstone (Red Ken) introduced a series of ‘urban socialist’ policies: 

• ‘Fares Fair’ subsidised London Underground travel 

• Financial support to the Race Today Collective and LGBT groups - £750,000 to build a London Lesbian and Gay Centre 

• Campaigned for nuclear disarmament 

• Government cafes providing subsidised meals 

• Published secret details of the government’s plans for a nuclear strike on London 

• Endorsed Nelson Mandela whilst the government still viewed him as a terrorist 

• Invited Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, arranging a meeting with Darcus Howe 

• The Local Government Act, 1985 - abolished the GLC

acts??

• The Local Government Finances Act, 1988 - the Poll Tax was introduced in Scotland in 1989 and England in 1990 

• 1979-1989 local government spending increased 15% in real terms 

• 1979 local government spending accounted for 10% of GDP, down to 8.3% in 1989 and 8.7% in 1997 

NHS

• Appointed Sir Roy Griffiths in 1983 to report on how to make the NHS more efficient 

• NHS hospitals forced to buy-in services from the private sector  

• 1989 White Paper Working with Patients proposed the introduction of an internal market 

• 1979-1989 NHS spending grew by 35% in real terms 

 

Social Security

introduced means testing to some universal benefits but spending rose from 10.6% in 1979 to 14.6% in 1995 

Pensions –

changed State Earning-Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) to make it less attractive and encourage private provision. Spending stayed almost the same: 1979 – 6.7%, 1990 – 6.5% 

Education –

strengthened central government control, introduced tests at 7, 11, 14 and 16. OFSTED created in 1992