interpretations of thatcher
introduction — key ideologies of thatcherism
Conviction politics — believed political decisions were privilege of those in charge, shouldn’t be limited to consensus or compromise. Thatcher was opposed to abandoning her personal policies.
Individual enterprise — everyone should work hard to earn a living. Income tax decreased to give more money to the people and VAT levied to boost gov funds. Believed too much economic intervention from state would equal people being dependent on welfare
‘The rule of law’ — people had duty to obey law, democratic processes only way to change legislation. Rejected radical forms of protests like marches/strikes as associated with violence and brute force to overrule law
Nationalism — Britain could be stronger economic power w/o interference from European nations in EEC who impose social legislation. Objected progress social movements like ‘black power’ and feminist as felt diversity was a threat to social harmony and will lead to moral panic
to what extent did thatcher’s monetary policies improve the performance of the British economy
monetarism — economic ideology of reduced public spending
Thatcher (and chancellor Geoffrey Howe’s) priority was controlling inflation, initially with tax rises and spending cuts
Tax rises:
Raised VAT from 8% —> 15%, cut standard rate of income tax from 33% —> 30% and top rate 83% —> 60% as an incentive for people to work hard
Decision targeted poor people who spent a higher proportion of their income on VAT and helped rich by income tax cuts
Spending cuts:
Public spending dropped from £11 bil in 1980 to £9 in 1981 to encourage private sector to do more and control inflation
In 1981, taxes went up by $4 bil, new taxes introduced such as north sea oil and windfall tax on banks
Introduced cuts in education and health, benefit increases downgraded. Deflationary budget — shrinking economy and unemployment rising was not helped
364 economists wrote letter to The times protesting gov budget policy. Cabinet rebellion in July 1981 rejected a further $5 bil spending cuts that would have further deepened recession
privatisation — response to nationalisation, selling off national companies to create competitive industries and reduces gov spending
Thatcher was suspicious of state-run industries because she believed they were less efficient since they didn’t need to make a profit. She also thought gov money shouldn’t be used to keep failing industries afloat in the long term (many nationalised companies were running at a loss, requiring gov subsidies, e.g British airways)
Keith Joseph, secretary of state for industry, allowed that gov would no longer support loss-making British steel, 53,000 made redundant 1979. However, led to gov pay-outs to the steel industry to finance redundancy settlements
Privatisation fit Thatcher’s convictions, decreased state involvement in economy allowed room for private initiative
Encouragement of ordinary people to buy shares. In 1990, 25% of the country owned shares
The sale of British telecom in 1984 brought £3.7 bil into the treasury, accompanied major advertising campaign to promote ownership
deregulation — removing control over financial markets allowed free market trade and big profit
Thatcher was confident that her economic vision for Britain was working: mid-1980s, economy started growing again, inflation low and unemployment beginning to decline
City of London, 1986 under Nigel Lawson chancellor
‘Lawson boom’ — relaxation of credit controls to allow people with lower incomes to borrow large sums of money, decreased interest rates by half from 1985 to 1988 to make burrowing cheaper
1986: financial services act made trading stocks and shares easier in an attempt to attract foreign investment
Lawson’s plan was to raise interest rates when inflation began to rise to decrease spending
Stock market crash in Oct 1987 ‘black Monday’ wiped £50 mil off the value of shares
He cut interest rates to 7.5%, and cut top rate of income tax 60 —> 40% and standard 27%-25%
However, this led to rising inflation. John Major increased interest rates, which hit everyone who borrowed money in mid-1980s, recession and unemployment started rising again but succeeding in reduced inflation
thatcher’s monetary/economic policies overview
Successes/transformation:
Privatisation of national industries
B.T — £3.7 bil
North sea oil — £41 bil
Popular capitalism ‘tell Sid’ campaign
Income tax reduced for higher earner's, top rate: 83-60% down 1980
Trickle down economics, the wealthiest will have more money to invest in their business which will give more jobs and improved standards for working people
Full employment/consensus ended
Attempts to make heavy ind. more efficient through redundancies and investments
British steel, Leyland motors £1 bil
Failures/continuity:
Unemployment reaches lowest since great depression 1980-91, 9.1% vs 3.4% under Heath and Callaghan
Riots in Liverpool and London, areas w/ heavy ind. or ethnic minorities
Failure to control inflation by the end of her gov, mostly due to deregulation
5%-9.5% 1988-90
Consumerism ‘loadsamoney’ and ‘yuppie’ culture
to what extent was state intervention and public sector spending ‘rolled back’ by thatcher?
State intervention — gov intervenes with legislation to control economic, political or social issues. Thatcher’s economic ideology was for ‘individual enterprise’ but initially had to support state intervention to overhaul industry (which was inefficient due to union control and heavily subsidised due to nationalisation.
The public sector — part of economy, provides large-scale services such as healthcare, welfare, education, policing and defence. Also included heavy industry, gas, council housing and telecommunications in 1979.
public sector
healthcare
1990: 10% had private healthcare, people dependent on NHS = Thatcher couldn’t slash spending
Thatcher believed NHS needed competition w/ private sector to boost efficiency. 1989 white paper ‘working for patients’ — hospitals should outsource equipment from private suppliers to ended monopolised markets
1983 Griffiths report: gov executives audit hospitals and GPs to ensure high quality service. Executives wages £25 mil 1985 increased to £400 mil in 1990
35% increase in NHS spending
housing
Thatcher believed selling off council houses would create ‘property owning democracy’, Britons would have sense of status and worth and would beat dependency culture
1980 housing act: council house tenants who lived in property for more than 3 years could buy at 33% below market value. Lived more than 20 years could buy 50% below. ‘Right to buy’ policy bought in over £700 mil to the treasury
5 mil state owned houses sold to private tenants 1980-97. Opponents argued it lead to huge rent increased due to escalating demand and declining supply
education
Thatcher and Keith Joseph believed in shifting from ‘child-centred learning’. National curriculum 1981, GSCE 1986
1988 education act ‘grant maintained schools’ able to opt out of LEA funding and receive backing from gov. Usually independent grammar schools that wanted to be freed from ‘leftist’ local gov. Spending £5 mil every year 1979-89
1988 education act introduced SATs to track progress, exam results used to create league tables to help parents select better schools and drive up standards of failing schools
local gov
30% of annual spending carried out by local gov, Thatcher wanted to reduce. 1984 rates bill to stop local gov spending actually increased Thatcher’s intervention
‘Red Ken’ Livingstone leader of Greater London council, £1 mil to build London lesbian and gay centre and invited activists like Darcus Howe, Nelson Mandela and Gerry Adams to speak. Abolished council in 1986 for ‘excessive gov spending’
‘Poll tax’ 1988 local gov finance act. Britons paid the same local council tax regardless of household income, around £400 annually for local community services
corporatism, keynesianism + union policy
Corporatism — gov negotiation w/ business and unions on pay, prices and industrial development
Argued to be undemocratic, and stifle innovation + growth
Abandoned 1979, prices + income policies and stopped negotiating with major unions
Keynesianism — cutting taxes and increasing spending during low growth
Thatcher rejected it as leading to inflation
Budgets cut spending, Lawson cut taxes and manipulated interest rates instead
Union policy
Employment act 1980 — criminalised secondary picketing
Employment act 1982 — could only close shop if backing of a majority in secret ballot
Trade union act 1984 — need majority support prior to strike action
defence
1979 — US cruise missiles stationed on British territory
1980 — trident weapon, cost $7.5 bil a year for first 15 years
Defence spending committed to increasing 3$ every year in 1981 defence review the way forward
Falkland islands military operation 1982
1986, US bomber carry out bombing raid in Libya
20% increase in spending 1979-86
Thatcher reduced mid-80s as greater costs of trident
1984-86: 18,000 troops redundant
Plans to buy RAF fighter plane scrapped 1986
Decreased 7% 1979-89
law and order
Operation swamp ‘81 used sus laws to stop and search black people in London, 10 days of continuous stop and searches
Brixton riots —> argued police need more power
Police and criminal evidence act 1984 — stop and search cars and properties
Public order act 1986 — arrest demonstrators and picketers
Upgrading riot equipment like shields, plastic bullets, CS gas
GCHQ
Secret intelligence monitored communications
1984 — ban from joining unions after 1981 strikes
Thatcher saw unions as socialist and sympathetic to USSR
zircon affair
Banned TV documentary on secret spy satellite Zircon
Journalist Duncan Campbell in 1985 found gov launching satellite that would intercept transmissions
Gov put pressure on BBC not to broadcast, agreed in late 1986
Campbell gave story to Observer newspaper, his office was raided and research confiscated and court order to stop him talking about it
Gov didn’t inform public accounts committee about satellite spending — gov willingness to interfere with media and ignore constitution
to what extent did Thatcherism cause further social divisions in an already ‘broken britain’?
1979 ‘broken nation’:
Social divisions
Employees and employers — unions
Immigration vs multiculturalism
Republicans and unionists in Ireland
Liberal approaches to sexuality and feminism vs permissiveness = moral decline
Thatcherism = moral ideas, ‘convction politics’, ‘rule of law’ and nationalism
Thatcherism became outdated and offensive to more tolerant British public
thatcher vs miners
Winter of discontent
1978-79, Thatcher wanted to reduce state subsidies to many industries, thought unions broke social harmony
1984 trade union act
Unions required to conduct secret ballot w/ strike approved by majority
Scargill chose not to have a vote in 1984 because miners in pits that weren’t closing would vote against
NACODS chose not to strike, resentment over those who worked
1984 summer, violent clashes
Battle of Orgreave
5,000 miners, 5,000 police
Steel plant picketed by NUM
Over 100 miners and police were injured
Public response
Race today collective, women against pit closures and lesbians + gays support miners all organised support and rallies
Labour split, right-wing thought it was out of hand but left-wing supported
Critical tabloids = opinion polls show majority disapproved
Gov stockpiling of coal meant called off 1985
thatcher and colonialism
The new cross fire
1981 fire on new cross road killed 13 black teenagers at a party
Believed to be a racist attack from national front
1,000 locals committee w/ Darcus Howe as head
Black people’s day of action march of 20,000
Operation swamp ‘81 and Scarman report
Stop and search in predominantly black areas like Brixton
Mass riots after black teenager said to have died in police custody'
300 youths and 1,000 police with 299 officers injured
Scarman report — disproportionate stop and searches, poverty and discrimination lead to riots
Bobby Sands
High profile IRA prisoner part of Dunmurry bombing
1981 protest for terrorist for terrorist prisoner rights
Stood as MP. Died in 1981 after hunger strike, 9 other prisoners died — Thatcher gov condemned for ‘letting them die’
Brighton hotel bombing
1984 bombing of grand hotel in Brighton targeting Thatcher
Several MPs and wives killed
thatcher and sexuality
Section 28/46
Section 46 — 1986 education act: sex education should promote ‘value of life’
Section 28 — 1988 local gov act: ‘promotion’ of homosexuality banned
‘Stonewall’ activism
Famous actors like Ian McKellen and activists formed Stonewall 1989
Campaigned for repeal of section 28, recognition of violence/hate crimes and repeal ban of homosexuality in armed forces
HIV/AIDS epidemic
1981 — first case of HIV
Initially associated with gay men, 1990s: more straight people diagnosed
1987: ¾ people thought homosexuality was ‘always or mostly wrong’
Thatcher’s gov launched safe sex campaign and condoms promoted in schools and media
Media ‘normalisation’
1985 — ‘my beautiful laundrette’ about two gay men nominated for Oscar and BAFTA
1989 Eastenders first gay kiss
Singers like boy George and pet shop boys ‘it’s a sin’
1994 four weddings and a funeral — gay couples can’t get married
thatcher and feminism
Women’s rights and values
‘Feminists have become far too strident’
She wanted talented women to earn money and make a difference
Little interest in women’s roles or problem of the nuclear family
English collective of prostitutes
Selma James, spokesperson
Demanded decriminalisation and recognition and financial alternatives so sex work isn’t the result of poverty
‘Wages for housework’
Selma James 1970s
Housework is unpaid work but as hard as manual labour
Greenham common peace camp
Campaign to stop US cruise missiles station at Greenham common air base
Women-only, peaceful protest
Vigils of 10,000s
Tabloid printed them as abandoning their family, naive etc
Thatcher spoke out against them
to what extent was thatcherism embraced by british political parties in the years 1990-97
conservatives
John Major resolved poll tax by increasing gov grants to local councils that reduced bills by 50% — against conviction and increased public spending
Major continued privatisation policies, sold British rail 1992. Water bills increased 40% (limitations/not successful)
Major’s commitment to universal, state healthcare, but reduced subsidies from the treasury and created ‘internal market’ in NHS, 1990 NHS and community care act
Major’s 1993 ‘back to basics’ campaign promoting ‘decent’ and family values against social ‘discord’. Failed due to ‘sleaze’ like Steve ‘Shagger’ Norris having 5 affairs and Stephen Milligan’s death from autoerotic asphyxiation (limitations/not successful)
Major continued British security/policing and moral decline. ‘Acid house’ rave and availability of LSD/ecstasy led to 1994 criminal justice and public order act gave power to target raves and ‘maximum’ tariffs for criminals found guilty of withholding information in court
labour
‘Tony Blair ‘new labour’/’centrism’, borrowed Thatcher’s policies to help win votes from traditionally tory voters. Rejection of nationalisation (removal of clause 4), internal markets within NHS (AstraZeneca), tackling anti-social behaviour with ASBOS and tagging 1998
1990 Neil Kinnock manifesto (‘meet the challenge, meet the change’) to expel radical left-wing ‘militant tendency’ members. Shift from Michael Foot ‘loony left’ policies for nuclear disarmament, re-nationalisation and increased welfare spending
Blair ‘third way’ taking successful elements of conservative and labour ideology. Introduced minimum wage 1998, repeal section 28 and gender act 2004. Scottish devolution in 1999
Blair targeting ‘mondeo man’, w-c who benefitted from privatisation, home-owning and shares, by dropping desire for nationalisation (clause 4) and ensuring efficiency in NHS and education
SDP-liberal
‘The gang of four’ led by David Owen who left when party became known as ‘loony left’, had Thatcher’s ideals for efficient NHS and education while avoiding dependency culture in social welfare
David Owen wanted European bill of rights in British legislation, though SDP more influential when Blair became PM in adding European union policy than Thatcher