The End of the Post-war Consensus

1970 – 1979

Heath as leader
 Experienced, having been leader of the Conservative Party since 1965.
 Was the first Conservative leader to have been chosen through a formal election
process.
 He came from a different background to previous Conservative leaders and had been
educated at state schools.
 He won the 1970 election with a clear programme of reform especially around
industrial relations and economic modernisation.
 He was a Europhile, was committed to Britain’s entry into the EEC, and was in a
strong position to achieve this having been a key negotiator during the 1961
application.
However:

 He was seen as aloof and irritable and wasn’t personally popular, either with the
electorate or members of the party.
 He lost the 1966 and both the 1974 elections.
 His premiership was marred by industrial disputes and economic problems.
 He was defeated in the leadership election of 1975 by Margaret Thatcher and there
was ongoing antipathy between them and their supporters.
 Thatcher’s domination of the politics in the 1980s and of the Conservative Party for
even longer has meant that Heath’s reputation and legacy has tended to suffer by
comparison

Political and Economic Policies

In January 1970, the Conservative Party held a conference at Selsdon Park to produce
policies. These formed the basis of their manifesto at the 1970 election.
The Selsdon Park Policy Programme:

 Tax reform
 Improved law and order
 Trade union reform
 Immigration control
 Cuts to public spending
  End of public subsidy to ‘lame duck' industries
But there was no repudiation of the post-war consensus. This became apparent by Heath’s
response to economic issues that arose.

 Chancellor Barber introduced tax cuts to stimulate economic growth. The ‘Barber
Boom’ saw inflation starting to rise but at the same time unemployment also went
up towards 1 million. This stagflation was a new phenomenon.
 In response, Heath nationalised the struggling Rolls Royce in 1971 and then in 1973
put public subsidy into the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders to stop it from going bankrupt.
This was a U-turn.
 Continuing public subsidy to lame duck industries went against what was set out in
the Selsdon Park programme but supported the post-war consensus aim of full
employment.
By 1973, the crisis seemed to have been averted. Unemployment fell back to 500,000.
Government investment into modernising industry appeared to be working.

The 1973 Oil Crisis

In October, the Yom Kippur war broke out between Israel and a coalition of Arab states.
OPEC responded with an oil embargo which led to the price of oil quadrupling. Fears about
oil shortages led to queues at petrol stations and the rising price of oil hit economic growth
and caused a sharp rise in inflation.

Industrial relations and the miners’ strikes

From the beginning of Heath’s premiership there were industrial disputes: dockers;
dustmen; postal workers; power workers.
Heath’s government’s response was the Industrial Relations Act 1971.

 It had some similarity to in Place of Strife.

 It provided for strike ballots
 It introduced a ‘cooling off’ period before the strikes could begin.
 It was opposed by both the Trades Union Congress and the Confederation of British
Industry
It didn’t succeed in improving industrial relations. 1972 saw the largest number of days lost
to strikes since the General Strike in 1926 with disputes involving ambulance drivers,
firefighters, civil servants, power workers, hospital staff and train drivers.

The 1972 Miners’ strike

  Started 9 January 1972 during a harsh winter
 Flying pickets stopped the movement of coal around the country leading to severe
shortages.
 The Yorkshire miners, led by Arthur Scargill, were particularly militant and effective.
 By 9 February the government declared a state of emergency: schools were closed,
and 1.2 million people were laid off work.
 A three-day week was introduced to save electricity.
 The Wilberforce Committee, set up to examine the miners’ demands, agreed with
their case and the miners gained a generous pay increase.
The Industry Act 1972 was another attempt to improve industrial relations. It aimed to go
back to the policy of involving the government, the TUC and the CBI in agreeing wages,
process, investment and benefits to avoid dispute. But it did not prevent disputes with
firefighters and power workers.

The impact of the 1973 oil crisis

The chronological order of the crisis:

 Rising inflation
 Increased wage demands
 Miners start overtime ban to put pressure on coal supplies and strengthen their
hand
 Heath announces that a 3-day week could be introduced to save electricity
 Heath moves Whitelaw to be key negotiator
 Miners reject offer put forward by Whitelaw
 Jan 1974: miners call a general strike
 3-day week imposed: fuel rationed; 50mph limit on roads; TV off at 10:30pm
 Heath calls a general election for 28 Feb; central question ‘Who governs Britain?’
 Heath loses power as the election results in a hung parliament; Labour take control
as a minority government

The Troubles in Northern Ireland, including the Sunningdale Agreement

Heath inherited a difficult situation in Northern Ireland. There was a great deal of sectarian
tension and violence and the British army had been sent in 1969 to keep peace.
Paramilitary organisations had been set up on both sides of the sectarian divide.

IRA Irish Republican Army Republican

INLA Irish National Liberation Republican
Army
UDA Ulster Defence Association Loyalist
UVF Ulster Volunteer Force Loyalist
The political parties were also split on sectarian lines.
Unionist and Loyalist parties

UUP The only major unionist party in Northern

Ireland until the Troubles; it ruled Northern
Ireland between 1921-1972
DUP Formed in 1971 by the Reverend Ian Paisley
and other unionists disillusioned with
moderate unionists in the UUP; Paisley
remained its leader until 2008
Alliance Formed in 1970 to be a moderate unionist
party and aimed to gain support from both
Catholics and Protestants; over time it has
become neutral in its view about the future
of Northern Ireland

Nationalist and Republican parties

SDLP Formed in 1970 by nationalists such as John

Hume to fight for civil rights for Catholics
and a united Ireland but rejecting violent
methods
Sinn Fein A republican party that dated back to 1905,
splitting in 1970. The new Sinn Fein Party
supported the Provisional Irish Republican
Army; it was excluded from negotiations.

The UUP was strongly linked to the Conservative party, so Heath supported their leader
Brian Faulkner who was the leader of the governing party was introducing measures such as
internment and night-time curfews in an attempt to restore law and order. But these
actions only succeeded in alienating the nationalist communities, who were
disproportionately targeted, even further.

Bloody Sunday, 30 January 1972

 British army was already starting to be seen as an occupying force by nationalists
because of the British government’s support for the UUP
 The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association organised a march against internment
to be held on 30 Jan 1972
 British soldiers fired live ammunition into the crowd, killing 13 people
 Anger at the events led to the British Embassy in Dublin being burned down
 The IRA gained support and was able to increase its fundraising, especially in the US
  The Widgery Tribunal was held in April 1972 and ruled that the army had acted in
self-defence. This was widely believed to be a whitewash, angering the nationalist
community, and worsening trust
 The Saville Enquiry was set up in 1998 to look again at Bloody Sunday. It ruled in
2010 that the deaths had been ‘unjustified and unjustifiable’ and the British
government issues an apology for the army’s actions
The violence intensified. During 1972, 480 people were killed. Heath suspended the
Northern Irish Stormont parliament and introduced Direct Rule from Westminster with
Whitelaw appointed as the Secretary of State.

The Sunningdale Agreement

1973: Heath and Whitelaw, the leadership of the UUP, the SDLP and the Alliance parties
negotiated the Sunningdale Agreement that would create a new government in Northern
Ireland where power would be shared.
The Sunningdale Agreement proposed:

 A power-sharing Executive of both nationalists and unionists – both sides would be

guaranteed representation
 A new Northern Ireland Assembly elected under a system of proportional
representation
 A Council of Ireland that would have some input from the Republic of Ireland
However, there were a number of problems:

 Extremists, both loyalists and republicans, saw the Sunningdale agreement as a sell-
out
 The UVF and UDA opposed and Faulkner was replaced by an opponent of the
agreement – Harry West
 The political crisis in Britain caused an early election in Feb 1974. 11/12 Northern
Ireland MPs returned were opposed to the Sunningdale Agreement
 The links between the UUP and the Conservative Party were so weakened that the
Conservatives did not have guaranteed support in Parliament and as a result lost
power at the 1974 election

Labour Governments of Wilson & Callaghan

Political, economic and industrial problems and policies
The incoming Labour government faced a difficult political and economic situation in
February 1974.

Problems Attempts to solve problems

Inflation was at 15% The Social Contract, which aimed to
constrain wage demands and was
negotiated with the TUC whilst in

Productivity remained weak and the
balance of trade deficit was £3 billion
Industrial relations were poor
There was a hung parliament: the Labour
government did not have an overall
majority
Labour was divided
opposition, came into effect
Tony Benn set up the National Enterprise
Board to run the state’s interest in
companies and provide aid including public
subsidy when necessary
1975: the Chancellor, Denis Healey, raised
taxes and cut public spending
Agreement with the NUM brought an end
to the strike and the 3-day week
Tony Benn and Michael Foot were put in
charge of the departments of Industry and
Employment
October: Wilson called another election,
and the Labour government won a small
majority
Wilson balanced his cabinet between left-
wingers such as Tony Benn and Michael
Foot and right-wingers such as Dennis
Healey
Referendum was held in 1975 on one of the
big dividing issues, membership of EEC

Not all of the problems were fully solved:

 The Labour Party’s majority was very small and had disappeared by 1977.
 The Social Contract failed to constrain wage demands.
 There was concern over the use of public subsidy to rescue lame duck industries
such as British Leyland in 1975.
 Fears over the extent of the balance of payments crisis led the Labour government
to approach the International Monetary Fund for an emergency loan.
 These issues highlighted the divisions in the Labour Party.
But by 1978 the economic situation was improving. The discovery of oil in the North sea
helped to bring down inflation to 10% and improved the balance of payments. Both
unemployment and the number of industrial disputes were falling.
Devolution
Nationalist feeling in Scotland and Wales had been growing since the 1960s. The Liberal
Party also supported devolution for Scotland and Wales.

 March 1977: Labour loses its majority in Parliament and later Labour forms the Lib-
Lab pact with the Liberal Party. Liberal MPs agree to support the Labour Party in
Parliament and in return Labour agrees to allow Scotland and Wales to hold
referendums on devolution.
 1978: Devolution Acts passed but include a clause that requires 40% of the
electorate to support devolution for it to pass.
  1 March 1979: Referendums held, In Wales the majority were opposed to
devolution. In Scotland the majority of those who voted wanted devolution but
because this was less than 40% of the whole electorate, devolution was defeated.
+ Scottish Nationalist MPs were disappointed and would no longer support the Labour
government in parliament. This and the end of the Lib-Lab pact in August 1978 meant that
the Labour government was now a minority government.
The winter of discontent, 1978-79
In autumn 1978 the TUC rejected the Labour government’s proposed wage limit increase of
5%. There followed a series of strikes, sometimes unofficial, during one of the coldest
winters on record, involving Ford Lorry drivers, train drivers, hospital porters, dustmen and
gravediggers amongst others.
The disputes came to an end in March 1979 with an average 10% wage increase. The scale
of action and its challenge to the government was far less than the industrial disputes of the
early 1970s but its political impact was significant.
The election of 1979

The 1970s saw the breakdown of the post-war consensus. The election of Margaret Thatcher was
the final blow that brought the consensus to a definitive end. The 1979 UK general election ushered
in the tide of Thatcherism, which came to define the period from Thatcher’s win of the 1979 general
election to 1990 when she resigned. It also marked the end of ‘Old Labour’. The politics of the
Labour Party changed after Thatcher’s premiership: no longer was Labour the party of
nationalisation and trade union power.