British History 1979-90

1979 Election

Conservative Leadership: Margaret Thatcher

  • Strong powerful leader

  • Manipulated her image > lowered her voice, hair went up hats came off

  • First female PM

  • Seen as capable leader to take on the unions

Labour Leadership: James Callaghan

  • Seen as powerless and out of touch

  • Winter of discontent firmly tied to him and Labour

  • Lost a vote of no confidence forced to call the election

  • ‘Crisis what Crisis?’ Misquote reported in the Sun whilst he was pictured swimming in Guadaleope

Winter of Discontent

  • Unions out of hand

  • Imagery of rubbish piling up in the streets

  • ‘Crisis what crisis’ quote

Timing

  • Forced due to a vote of no confidence

  • Winter of discontent fresh in peoples minds

  • Government had failed to deliver on Scottish or Welsh devolution which lost them support of Scottish and Welsh nationalists

Conservative Campaign

  • Saatchi and Saatchi posters e.g. ‘Labour isn’t working’ with a picture of a line of people under the banner unemployment office

  • All major newspapers backed Thatcher

  • Targeted working class voters with right to buy scheme

  • Offered a harsh line on the unions

1983 Election

Conservative Leadership: Margaret Thatcher

  • Strong image as a capable effective leader

  • Helped to limit union power

  • Falklands success helped to hugely boost popularity

Labour Leadership: Michael Foot

  • Had a poor image of a crazy left wing professor

  • Arrived to a Remembrance Day service wearing a green coat

  • Viewed as old and out of touch

  • Took a while for Callaghan to resign after 1979 election defeat

Falklands

  • Huge factor in election victory

  • Strong leadership

  • Solidified British world power

  • Changed opinion polls

Labour Manifesto

  • Described as the longest suicide note in history

  • Heavy focus on nationalisation and the economy which was not well received by voters

  • Proposed getting rid of the the UKs nuclear commitment and reversing trade Union legislation

Conservative campaign

  • Thatcher overcame the ‘wets’ with a cabinet reshuffle

  • Council House sales proved popular

  • Rebate with EEC negotiated proving Thatcher was a strong leader

The Gang of Four

  • Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodger’s, Shirley Williams formed the SDP

  • Split the anti-Tory vote taking votes away from Labour

1987 Election

Conservative Leadership: Margaret Thatcher

  • Solidified her ‘Iron Lady’ status

  • Falklands victory still popular

  • Defeat of the NUM and unions also proved popular

Labour Leadership: Neil Kinnock

  • Kinnock viewed as a continuation of left wing Labour

  • Failed to modernise

  • Inexperienced > never held a cabinet position

Campaign/Press

  • Labour had a more professional campaign, produced ‘Kinnock the movie’

  • Saatchi and Saatchi and the Murdoch press continued to back Thatcher > Poster ‘Labour’s policy on arms’ with a soldier surrendering to highlight Labour’s continued unpopular defence policy of getting rid of Britain’s nuclear deterrent

Policies

  • Privatisation had proved successful

  • Big Bang in London and economy slightly improving

  • Sale of council houses proved popular

  • Labour’s nationalisation, high tax and removing nuclear deterrent still highly unpopular and showed an overall failure to modernise

The Alliance

  • Liberal and SDP coalition party, unclear who the leader would be

  • Spitting Image highlighted Steel as a puppet of Owen

  • Lost votes and Labour was now firmly the second party still

1979-90 Economy

Privatisation

  • Thatcher privatised many businesses during her time in power

  • 1979 BP privatised

  • British Telecom 1984, British Gas 1986, British Airways 1987

  • MacMillan’s ‘selling of the family silver’ speech highlighted the unpopularity of the policy from some more traditional Conservatives

  • Treasury made 5.1 billion 1987-88 from privatisation alone

  • More than 21 million pounds spent on British Gas privatisation advertising ‘get a move on sid’

  • By 1989 80% of the adult population owned shares

Unemployment

  • Rose lots under Thatcher

  • Remained above 3 million between 1983-87

  • Liverpool unemployment reached as high as 25%

  • Led to riots in 1981

Inflation

  • In 1980 it was 22%, 1986 down to 2.5% but by 1990 back to 11%

  • 1987 Lawson boom failure led to an increase increase in inflation and ultimately a recession

Miner’s strikes

  • 1983 strikes government not prepared for so payed of miners

  • 1984-85 strike was in the summer, they had stockpiled coal elsewhere, had North Sea oil, had legislation in place to limit things such as secondary picketing, had invested more money in the police and riot gear

Sale of council houses

  • Sold council houses which proved to be a highly popular scheme

  • Often sold in middle class and wealthy areas

  • Were not rebuild leading to long term housing crisis

Monetarism (only ever tried in Chile)

  • A policy of low inflation often at the cost of high unemployment

  • Tax cuts > Highest rate of income tax reduced from 83% to 60%

  • By 1980 the economy was in a recession, inflation high and unemployment at 2 million

  • Thatcher famously said ‘You turn the Lady’s not for turning’

  • 1981 budget further monetarist policies and Howe described it as the ‘most unpopular budget in history’

Deregulation

  • 1986 ‘Big Bang’ deregulated the London stock exchange and created ‘yuppie’ culture

1979-90 Society

Women

  • Despite being the first female PM she did little for the rights of women

  • She only had one woman in her cabinet

  • The total number of female MPs only made up 6.3% of the total MPs in parliament

  • The Conservative Party had 17 female MPs, Labour had 21

  • Often Labour MPs were the ones campaigning for change such as Harriet Hartman campaigning for childcare provisions

Race Relations

  • April 1981 ‘sus’ law made stop and searches easier, these were often racially motivated

  • 1984 PACE Act meant all police officers were required to keep detailed logs of arrests and all police interviews had to have video and sound recording

  • 1981 riots were found to have a racial aspect

  • Labour had three black MPs

Industrial Disputes/Strikes

  • The steel strike

  • The Wapping dispute > newspapers

  • Miners strike 1983 > miners paid of as government not yet prepared

  • Miner’s strike 1984-85 > Happened in the summer, government able to lay down legislation to limit power of unions and striking workers such as stopping secondary picketing, North Sea oil helped, coal had been stockpiled

  • By 1990 union membership was only 2/3 of what it had been in 1979

Homosexual Rights

  • Section 28 which banned teaching about homosexuality in schools

  • Age of consent remained at 21

  • Attempts to educate about aids ’Aids: don’t die of ignorance’

  • Stonewall set up

  • First openly gay MP 1984

  • 1980 male homosexuality decriminalised in Scotland, 1982 in Northern Ireland

Poll Tax/ Sale of council houses

  • Council houses sold

  • Often only happened in wealthier areas and houses not rebuilt later creating a housing crisis

  • Poll Tax introduced in Scotland in 1989 and then 1990 across the entire UK

  • It proved widely unpopular, there was a march in Trafalgar Square against it involving 200,000 people, 30% of people refused to pay it

Pressure Groups

  • Such as CND campaigning for nuclear disarmament

  • Green peace campaigned for environmental change, Thatcher later drew attention to pollution and acid rain

  • Green Party achieved 2 million votes in the EU parliamentary elections

Other

  • C of E ‘faith in the city’ calling on the government to do more in deprived communities

  • Public spending cuts to the arts and education

1979-90 Foreign Policy

The Falklands - 1982

  • Argentina were keen to regain control of the Falklands but many of the Islanders wanted to remain British

  • The HMS endurance left the island and the Argentinians took this as a sign that Thatcher was willing to let the Falklands go

  • Argentina sent a force to invade and Thatcher said Britain would respond with military action

  • This was a gamble, unemployment was around 2 million, the support for the SDP was growing but if Thatcher didn’t invade it would look personally week

  • The British sank the Belgrano as it headed out of the military zone ending any chance of a peaceful end to the war

  • The invasion was difficult to keep up, hard to fund and get equipment to an Island so far away, chile was the only country in South America to support the British the Americans initially did not give support to either side. Eventually America agreed to allow Thatcher to use an island as a military base

  • The British victory was quick and swift

  • Thatcher gained support at home and Britain on the world stage

  • It was a huge factor in the 1983 election victory, only once after the Falklands did the Conservative Party fall below 40% in opinion polls

Special Relationship

  • Poor relations with Carter and Bush

  • Strong relationship with Reagan ‘ideological soulmates’

  • Still moments of high tension e.g. Grenada, Falklands, SDI/Star Wars and sceptical over Star Wars

Europe

  • Pro European Initially:

  • 1975 referendum campiagned ‘yes’, good working relationship with french president, single European act 1986

  • Moved towards eurosceptic:

  • 1988 Bruges speech, rebate over EEC, difficult relationship with German chancellor, ‘No no no’ speech

USSR

  • Soviet media referred to her as ‘Iron Lady’

  • 1986 ‘I like Mr Gorbachev’

  • Strong defence on media deterrent

Rhodesia and Hong Kong

  • Agreed to hand over Rhodesia and Hong Kong > 1984 signed an agreement that would transfer Hong Kong to China in 1997

The commonwealth

  • Had little time for the commonwealth and did not sanction South Africa

1979-90 Northern Ireland

1979 Assassinations

  • Before Thatcher became PM the shadow Home Secretary Airey Neave was killed in a car bomb at the House of Commons, toughening her stance on Northern Ireland as he was a close personal friend of Thatcher’s

  • Lord Mountbatten the queen’s cousin was killed on a boat in Northern Ireland

  • 18 soldiers were killed in a booby trap

Anglo Irish Agreement 1985

  • Both governments would have a conference over issues such as security and services

  • Would give Dublin a say in Northern Ireland

  • Republicans supported this, unionists felt betrayed held protest marches and refused to take up their seats in Westminster, the loyalists turned to violence and created the ulster resistance force in opposition

Violence of the 1980s

  • Bomb and the Dropin Well which killed 11 soldiers and 6 civilians

  • 1984 Grand Hotel in Brigton bombing killed 5

  • 1987 Enskillen bombing on Remembrance Day, after the bomb the IRA announced ‘deep regret’ for their actions, Russia refused to continue to fund them and it began a movement towards some form of peace talks

Hunger Strikes

  • 1986 Bobby Sands went on hunger strike to protest

  • Stood for election in a by election and won, died a few weeks later

  • Whilst Thatcher kept her tough stance it ultimately made her more unlikeable and angered Northern Ireland

Events of late 1980s/90s

  • 1990 Conservative MP Ian Gow murdered by IRA in car explosion

  • November 1990 Peter Brooke gave an important speech to signal the government was open to compromise and peace