3.3.

2 – Case Studies of Two PMs

Margaret Thatcher – 1979-1990

THATCHERISM:
- greater independence of the individual from the state
- end to allegedly excessive government interference in the economy
- privatization of state-owned enterprises and the sale of public housing to tenants
- reductions in expenditures on social services such as health care, education, and
housing
- limitations on the printing of money in accord with the economic doctrine of
monetarism
- legal restrictions on trade unions
- Refers not just to these policies but also to certain aspects of her ethical outlook and
personal style, including moral absolutism, fierce nationalism, a zealous regard for
the interests of the individual, and a combative, uncompromising approach to
achieving political goals
- V. radical after the post-war consensus

BACKGROUND
 Born in 1925
 She was a grocer’s daughter, and her origins were made prominent in her 1975
campaign for leadership
 Historian Richard Vinen calls the lower middle class label misleading: her upbringing
was prosperous and her parents could afford to pay school fees
 Her intellectual ability led her to the University of Oxford, where she studied
chemistry and was immediately active in politics, becoming one of the first woman
presidents of the Oxford University Conservative association
 Post graduating she worked for 4 years
 as a research chemist, reading for the bar in her spare time
 From 1954, she studied as a barrister
 1951- married a wealthy industrialist, a millionaire. Had twins in 1953
 Thatcher first ran for Parliament in 1950, but was unsuccessful, despite increasing
the local Conservative vote by 50%
 In 1959 she entered the House of Commons, winning the “safe” Conservative seat of
Finchley
 Rose steadily within the party, serving as a parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of
Pensions and National Insurance (1961–64), as chief opposition spokesman on
education (1969–70), and as secretary of state for education and science (1970–74)
in the Conservative government of Edward Heath.
 While a member of the Heath cabinet, she eliminated a program that provided free
milk to schoolchildren, provoking a storm of controversy and prompting Labour
opponents to call her “Thatcher the milk snatcher”
  She also created more comprehensive schools- introduced by Labour in the 60s to
make rigorous academic education available to working class children, though they
were undermined during her tenure as PM
 After Heath lost two successive elections in 1974, Thatcher, though low in the party
hierarchy, was the only minister prepared to challenge him for party leadership
 Thatcher led the conservatives to electoral victory in 1979, following a series of
major strikes during the previous winter (“the winter of discontent”) under the
Labour Callaghan government
 PM representing the newly energetic right wing of the Conservative Party (the
“Dries”)

KEY EVENTS
 1979: Thatcher becomes PM after the ‘Winter of Discontent’ under Labour PM
Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43
 1979-81: Thatcher reduced governmental regulations and subsidies to businesses,
purging the manufacturing industry of many inefficient firms.
o Unemployment increased from 1.3 million in 1979 to over double that in
1981. At the same time, inflation doubled in just 14 months, to more than
20%, and manufacturing output fell sharply. She was v. unpopular and were
riots all over England
 April 1982 - The Falklands War:
o Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a British territory. Thatcher used the
royal prerogative to declare war on Argentina and the eventual recapturing
of the territory helped to create the image of the Iron Lady
o However, she faced outrage from anti-war MPs and campaigners – a key
moment in the conflict was the sinking of the General Belgrano, an Argentine
ship. Thatcher personally ordered the torpedoing of the ship which, it later
transpired, was sailing away from an exclusion zone
o General public was supportive => massively increased her popularity
 1983: Thatcher won the general election in a landslide victory, gaining a
parliamentary majority of 144 with just over 42%
 1984: The Miner’s strike
o National of Union of Mineworkers (NUM) went on strike in opposition to the
closure of a large number of pits
o went on for over a year, with bloody scenes of conflict such the infamous
Battle of Orgreave
o eventually, the miners went back to work without having their demands met
o the government pressed ahead with its legislation restricting trade union
rights, greatly reducing union power and militancy
o public were divided over the strike, with many on the left and in the north
firmly backing the strikers
  1984: the IRA bombed the Grand Hotel in Brighton, during the Conservative Party
conference, in an attempt to assassinate Thatcher
 1986: the Westland Affair 
o Row over helicopters
 o Exacerbated the disagreements between Margaret Thatcher and cabinet
member Michael Heseltine
o Heseltine resigned and became a focus of anti-Thatcher feeling on the
government backbenches and an alternative leader in waiting
 1987: Thatcher wins another general election against Neil Kinnock’s Labour Party with a
majority of 101 seats.
 April 1990: riots in London as people protested the Community Charge, which was popularly
known as the Poll Tax
 Nov 1990: Thatcher resigns after losing the support of the party over differences on
European Economic Community policy (which Thatcher adopted a steadily more hostile
attitude toward throughout her premiership) and the poll tax. Although she defeated her
most senior opponent, Michael Heseltine, in the leadership race, her total fell short of the
necessary majority, and she decided not to contest the election in a second ballot.

DOWNFALL
 The Community Charge, or Poll Tax, was a system of taxation introduced by
Thatcher’s government in replacement of domestic rates (council tax) in Scotland
from 1989, and then introduced in England and Wales in 1990.
 The policy misjudged public reaction – it was met with resistance from all classes in
Britain, One Nation Conservatives rebelled and there was a violent anti-poll tax
demonstration in London in March 1990
 The tax was introduced to help fund war
 This tax alienated many in her party and many supporters
 Her combative style led to increasing policy and personality difficulties with her
Cabinet ministers, who were becoming increasingly irritated and exasperated with
her and her style of leadership. This can be seen through the policy and
presentational disagreements over Europe and the forerunner to the Exchange Rate
Mechanism, leading to the of Howe and Lawson
 This market the beginning of the end for Thatcher’s government
 This poll tax was a disaster:
1. It was dependent on people staying in one place long enough for the tax to be
collected
2. A campaign of non-compliance put numerous cases before the law courts
3. The paperwork created by trying to find non-payers and enforce payment grew
and the costs of implementing the tax grew
4. The move from rates to a poll tax simply meant that large numbers of people
who had previously not paid a local tax, now paid one
5. Despite the government’s trying to make the tax lower for poorer people and
higher for richer ones, the tax was widely seen as unfair by comparison with
income tax, also a universal tax but based on the ability to pay because
proportional to income
6. It turned out to be much higher than predicted