Paper 1 Theme 5

Question 1

Context: What was Britain like in 1979 before Thatcher? What were some events in Thatcher era?

Answer 1

economy in 1979: high taxation, 83% for high earners- due to full employment and nationalised industries funded by the govt, high public expenditure by govt caused high taxation

• high inflation- people spent more money due to full employment so prices went up e.g in 1978 inflation was at 11%
• govt regulation of the economy- on interest rates, limits on foreign currency (stop-go economics and govt control of money)
• trade unions had millions of members and were very powerful e.g Winter of Discontent 1978-79
• councils funded by rates- local govt

politics in 1979: consensus politics- Labour and Conservative agreed with eachother
- powerful local govts e.g the GLC (Greater London Council) which promoted left-wing ideas

society in 1979: social divisions- poorest 10% of people had 4.3% of the wealth in the UK, richest 10% had 20%

events:

• became PM in 1979
• 1980 Iranian embassy siege- protestors took people hostage, right to buy your own council house
• 1981- mass unemployment in Britain caused riots and Thatcher’s popularity dropped
• 1982 Falkland’s War- success helped her reputation
• 1983 Thatcher won general election by landslide
• 1984 miners’ strike because govt wanted to close down mines, Brighton bomb- IRA tried to assassinate Thatcher
• 1985- miners’ strike ended and mines were closed, Greenham peace protests about missiles in Britain, privatisation of British telecom, railways etc
• 1986 Big Bang- deregulation of London
• 1990 Saddham Hussein invaded Kuwait, resigned in Nov due to unpopularity of the poll tax

Question 2

Economic: What were Thatcher’s views and policies on inflation and what was the impact?

Answer 2

• sound finance- believe in not spending too much and avoiding inflation
• there was too much money in circulation which caused inflation- Thatcher cut public expenditure and raised interest rates by cuts to borrowing and stopping printing of money
• used Milton Friedman’s idea of monetarism which argues that govts should prioritise low inflation by controlling the amount of money in circulation in the economy- Thatcher wasn’t sure exactly how it worked e.g how much money was in circulation?
• monetarism was abandoned in 1983 but the principle was kept
• a range of supply side policies were introduced- govt encouraging production by removing regulations and cutting taxes e.g there were cuts to income tax, cuts to welfare payments and deregulation

impact: (negative)
- businesses went bankrupt which caused 14% fall in production
- high unemployment (3 million in 1982)
- cuts in govt expenditure in 1980 and 1981- spending on housing and social security was cut
- all of these led to riots in 1981- the most severe were in Handsworth in Birmingham, Chapeltown in Leeds and Toxteth in Liverpool- partly sparked by racial issues but there were also tensions due to poverty

(positive)
- by 1982 inflation was reduced and remained below 10% for the whole decade

Question 3

Economic: What were Thatcher’s views and policies on privatisation and what was the impact?

Answer 3

• Thatcher believed in greater ownership of property and shares
• Thatcher wanted to remove govt monopolies and start ‘contracting out’ of services where projects would be offered to private companies and funded by govt to reduce costs

benefits of privatisation: public expenditure was cut by selling off nationalised industries e.g before 1983 British Aerospace, British sugar and British petroleum had been sold off, British telecom was sold off in 1984

• entrepreneurship was stimulated which caused competition and innovation- Thatcher argued privatisation would reinvigorate the economy and give people an incentive to work- shares were sold cheaply and between 1979 and 1990 number of shareholders increase from 3 million to 11 million
• govt earned money from sales
• created a capitalist, property-owning democracy- ‘popular capitalism’ was the idea that everyone should have opportunity to own a property and have shares in companies

negatives of privatisation: companies were sold off cheaply and quickly

• shares were also sold cheaply and quickly just to make a profit e.g individuals owned 38% of shares in 1975 but only 20% in 1990
• shares usually owned just by middle class people- 9% of unskilled male workers owned shares compared to 50% of middle class professional males
• £19 billion raised by sales of companies but this funded tax cuts for the rich, didn’t help w.c
• chief executives became shareholders, not regular people

after Thatcher (impact)
- John Major continued privatisation e.g British Rail was privatised between 1994 and 1997- bad because govt had to subsidise private companies that operated trains

• Tony Blair continued privatisation with ‘public-private partnerships’ (collaboration between public sector and private companies to provide a govt service)- projects were given to private companies to build hospitals, schools etc which meant they could be built cheaper and faster BUT profit was more important than providing services so they were low quality

Question 4

Economic: What were Thatcher’s views and policies on deregulation and what was the impact?

Answer 4

deregulation = ending govt control

benefits:
- October 1979- Thatcher ended controls on buying foreign currency- fuelled greater overseas investment which returned profits to Britain BUT this also led to huge increase in spending on foreign goods which drained wealth

• Big Bang 1986- ended govt restrictions on banks and borrowing e.g they could offer different types of mortgages that required more interest- riskier but earned more money

negatives:
- City of London became world’s premier financial centre

• deregulation meant institutions could offer riskier financial products (schemes which help consumers manage money) and individuals could make lots of money in an unsustainable ways- led to the financial crisis of 2008 because this was not managed by Labour govt after 1997

impact:
- rise in private household debt- £47 billion in 1989

• rise in mortgage debt- £235 million in 1989
• personal debt was at £1.3 trillion in 2003
• in 2003 20% of families (6 million) had debt problems
• by 1980 there were 10 million credit cards in Britain and by 1990 there were 27 million

Question 5

Economic: What were Thatcher’s views and policies on taxation and what was the impact?

Answer 5

• Thatcher believed taxation gave the incentive to work hard and have rewards, encouraging more hard work
• 1980- income tax for high earners was cut from 83% to 60% and cut to 40% in 1988
• basic rate was reduced from 33% to 25%
• inheritance tax was cut from 75% to 40%
• indirect taxation was increased
• 1979- VAT increased from 8% to 15% on food, cars, clothes etc
• national insurance contributions increased
• these were all regressive so those with the lowest incomes ended up paying more tax, the rich weren’t taxed as much

Question 6

How was Thatcher’s economic policy SUCESSFUL?

Answer 6

inflation: inflation fell in the early 1980s and it remained low from 1983-89, it was 13.4% in 1979 and 4.6% in 1983

economic growth: Thatcher aimed to improve economic growth , in 1983-92 it was 2.5%- better than Heath’s govt which was in recession

productivity: wanted to improve labour productivity which did improve compared to the 1970s

industry and finance: financial services expanded greatly, boosted the economy of London and the South East

Question 7

How was Thatcher’s economic policy UNSUCCESSFUL?

Answer 7

inflation: in the 1980s and 90s, inflation was still higher than the rest of Europe- 6.1% in the UK compared to 5.8% in Europe in 1985

economic growth: Thatcher’s growth was weaker than Macmillan and Wilson’s govt in the 1960s- average growth 3.3%, her policies were unable to halt Britain’s economic decline- in 1950 UK was 5th in GDP by 1997 UK was 14th

unemployment: huge rise in unemployment, peaked at 3.2 million in 1985- historically high

the state and economy: Thatcher wanted to reduce the state’s role in the economy- failed because it actually rose, wanted to reduce public expenditure but this also failed- 37% in 1979 rose to 44% in 1997

productivity: worse compared to the rest of the world, in the 1970s UK production was 50% of the USA’s

industry and finance: industrial production declined, 1960s UK produced 40% of GDP, by 1997 it was 21%, UK manufacturing exports declined- balance of payments of manufactured goods went from a surplus of £5 billion in 1979 to a £20 billion deficit in 1989

Question 8

Why was Thatcher opposed to Trade Unions and what legislation was passed to curb TU powers?

Answer 8

• trade unions went on strike and caused the Winter of Discontent and the collapse of govts- TUs had too much power
• 1980 Employment Act meant workers did not have to join a union when they joined a particular firm, they were only allowed to strike against their direct employers, not in sympathy with other workers
• 1982 Act meant unions could be sued for illegal strikes
• 1984 Act meant a strike had to be approved by a majority of union members in a ballot before it was legal, Thatcher also built up coal reserves so if miners did strike, they would not have to resort to another 3 day week

Question 9

Why did the miners strike in 1984 and what happened?

What was the impact?

Answer 9

• govt wanted to close down 10 pits, miners felt this was enough of a reason to go on strike
• strike began on 6th March 1984
• the leader of the NUM, Scargill, did not ballot NUM members and striked with flying pickets- caused miners in Nottinghamshire to leave the NUM and set up their own union which voted to keep their mines open
• Scargill did not benefit from public sympathy and his disapproval rating never fell below 79%
• 1985- the strike was defeated in 3rd March after almost a year, workers in Kent lasted for another 2 weeks

impact: unions became far more willing to work with govt legislation
- total number of trade union members fell from 13.5 million in 1979 to under 10 million in 1990

• total number of working days lost to strike action fell from 10.5 million in 1980-84 to 0.8 million in 1990-94
• series of Unemployment Acts in 1988, 1989 and 1990 further weakened TUs- after Thatcher’s resignation in 1990 TU membership fell again to 6.7 million in 1997
• removal of govt subsidies for older industries saw a decline in manual labour from 47% in 1974 to 36% in 1991, number of miners fell from 200,000 to 10,000 in the same period
• many local communities were greatly affected by the end of major local industry e.g shipbuilding- critics argue Thatcher caused unnecessary suffering to communities

Question 10

Context: what was the state like before Thatcher and what were Thatcher’s views on state rollback?

Answer 10

• post-war political consensus favoured state intervention, a welfare state and a ‘safety net’ of insurance for British people e.g NHS, unemployment programmes
• Thatcher believed many people were lazy and dependent on the state as a result- the govt had become a ‘Nanny State’ which led to high taxation, waste in govt expenditure and high inflation
• Thatcher believed state ownership crushed innovation and competition, that taxation for state control drained wealth of successful individuals and there should be private entrepreneurship
• Thatcher disliked ‘creeping socialism’ of the post war consensus in the UK and wanted the Conservatives to move away from the centre-ground
• was inspired by Fredrich von Hayek’s idea of neo-liberalism- argued that there should be a free market which is better at allocating goods than the state, also that individuals can make their own choices so welfare should not be provided because it leads to state dependence
• overall Thatcher was popular because the Winter of Discontent meant the British public agreed something different had to be done and it is argued that ‘there was no alternative’ to Thatcher’s controversial policies

Question 11

Rolling back the state: How did Thatcher want to reduce the civil service?

Answer 11

• Environment minister Michael Heseltine introduced the Management Information System for Ministers which allowed him to closely monitor cost and responsibilities of civil servants
• job losses followed- 1 in 4 workers in the environment ministry were sacked in 3 years
• Thatcher abolished the civil service department in 1981- it existed to protect members but Thatcher saw it as a trade union
• by 1988 22.5% of civil servants had been sacked which saved about £1 billion
• 1988 ‘Next Steps’ report promoted a less centralised civil service and the rise of more flexible agencies- by 1991 there were 57 agencies like this
• rise of agencies which work with the private sector- by 1997 76% of civil servants worked in 100 different agencies e.g the prison service (for the home office)
• overall govt control was reduced

Question 12

Rolling back the state: How did Thatcher want to reduce local govt?

Answer 12

• 1985 Local Govt ACt enabled Thatcher to abolish councils she found to be troublesome (left wing)
• the Greater London Council and 6 others were dissolved
• Thatcher was concerned by left wingers in the councils and cut central govt payments from 60% to 49% funding
• introduced rate ‘caps’ on 18 councils in the 1984 Rates Act- local rates were only paid by people who owned or rented property, some councils could give welfare and benefits to people who weren’t paying for it which Thatcher didn’t like, she felt that by capping local rates she was encouraging people to be less lazy and dependent on the state
• Thatcher tried to widen sense of financial responsibility by introducing the ‘poll tax’- the charge was the same for everyone which meant poor people paid a higher percentage of their income than the rich- hugely unpopular and their were mass protests when the tax was rolled out in 1990
• she used the example of Conservative councils like Wandsworth in London to promote greater efficiency through ‘contracting out’ council services- private firms were encouraged to bid for contracts to supply services such as rubbish collection by 1985, staff numbers fell by 1/3 in Wandsworth
• 1980 Housing act gave people the ‘right to buy’- enabled people living in council houses for 3 or more years to buy a new house from the council- 204,000 houses bought in 1982-83 and home ownership rose from 55% to 63% in 1979-1990

Question 13

Rolling back the state: How did Thatcher want to reduce govt role in the NHS?

Answer 13

• Thatcher wanted to abolish tax funding for the NHS by enforcing private healthcare BUT the vast majority of British people approved of the NHS’ free, expert care to those in need regardless of wealth
• between 1980-87 NHS spending rose by 60% and NHS’ share of govt spending rose from 12 to 15% between 1979 and 1996- Thatcher didn’t reduce role of the state here
• 1989 White Paper ‘working for patients’ called for creation of an ‘internal market’ where health authorities would purchase healthcare services from hospital trusts- the idea was that better providers would attract more demand from GPs HOWEVER it was only implemented after Thatcher resigned
• reforms to the NHS were very unpopular with doctors and money spent on NHS managers increased from £25.7 million to £383.8 million- not reducing state role
• 34 of NHS trusts were in debt by 1996, attempts to cut costs affected quality of care e.g 2% of hospital beds were lost 1990-94
• requirement to meet targets led to demoralisation among doctors and nurses who felt they spent less time on patients and more time trying to please managers
• Thatcher was unable to roll back govt provision of healthcare, NHS still remained- while numbers of people with private healthcare increased from 500,000 in 1955 to 6.6 million in 1990, the majority of the British public relied on the NHS

Question 14

Rolling back the state: How did Thatcher want to reduce govt role in the education?

Answer 14

• Thatcher wanted to raise educational standards and delivery more value for money, she thought Local Education Authorities (LEAs) were trying to protect inadequate teachers and promote ‘soft’ ‘child-centred’ learning instead of encouraging measurable academic success
• Keith Joseph, education minister, began the process of raising standards and creating a national curriculum by merging the old O-level and CSE to a single GCSE- the plans were announced in 1984, new courses were first taught in 1986 and were first examined in 1988
• 1988 Education Act- Kenneth baker imposed a national curriculum and new methods of assessment at several ‘Key Stages’, including the GCSE examination at the end of Key Stage 4
• exam results formed the basis of league tables which aimed to empower parents to select better schools- ‘good’ schools quickly became oversubscribed
• the Act allowed schools to become grant-maintained and directly funded by the govt, not by LEAs- increased the dependence of 1,200 schools (19% of all secondary schools)- this and introduction of the National Curriculum meant there was an increase in central govt control

Question 15

Overall how was Thatcher SUCCESSFUL in rolling back the state?

Answer 15

• Civil Service- overall govt role was reduced in this area, 22.5% civil servants were sacked which saved around £1 billion, rise of different agencies, abolished civil service department
• Local govt- overall role of local govt was reduced- 1985 Local Govt Act, cuts to central govt payments, ‘contracting out’, right to buy
• Defence- 1984-1986 18,000 troops made redundant — plans to buy a new RAF plane were scrapped in 1986 - the Navy was reduced in size- Chatham dockyard and the Royal dockyard in Gibraltar were closed

Question 16

Overall how was Thatcher UNSUCCESSFUL in rolling back the state?

Answer 16

• Education- Thatcher’s aim to raise standards resulted in more govt intervention- national curriculum, GCSEs, key stages, grant-maintained schools
• NHS- Thatcher could not privatise the NHS and most British people trusted in and relied on it- NHS spending rose between 1980-87, NHS’ share of govt expenditure increased, money spent on NHS managers greatly increased, demoralisation of doctors/nurses
• Defence- bought Trident in 1980 which were on-board nuclear submarines- cost £7.5 billion a year
• 1981 defence review ‘The Way Forward’ meant a 3% increase in govt spending in the 1980s
• defence spending rose by 20% in 1979-86 (in real terms after inflation)

Law and order- 1984 Police and Evidence Act expanded police stop and search powers- giving them rights to search cars and enter properties

• 1982 and 1986 Criminal Justice Act introduced shorter prison sentences for young offenders but had tough conditions
• ‘sus laws’ were used to stop and search black people in London
• spending increased by 36% in 1979-89

Civil liberties- in 1984 the govt banned GCHQ workers from forming a Trade Union, Thatcher argued TUs were socialist and sympathetic to the USSR
- the ‘Zircon Affair’- govt used its powers to restrict liberties to protect national interest- 1985 BBC documentary on a new British spy satellite was censored, details were passed over to The Observer newspaper and their offices were raised to stop publication- censorship increased govt control

Media- ‘Spycatcher’, a memoir of a former MI5 officer was banned in 1985- censorship

• 1988 govt banned the broadcast of interviews of IRA members
• govt put broadcasters under pressure to drop programmes on the SAS and the conflict in N.Ireland- censorship increasing govt intervention

Question 17

Social divisions: How did Thatcher cause regional divisions in N.Ireland and Wales?

Answer 17

Northern Ireland:

• Thatcher govt inherited an ongoing conflict with N.Ireland
• Conservatives wanted to restore law and order and defeat the Irish Republic Army (IRA)
• Bobby Sands was one of Britain’s highest profile IRA prisoners- sentenced to 14 years for a bombing, he won a seat in the Northern Irish Assembly in April 1981
• Sands and other IRA prisoners went on hunger strike in 1981 and demanded to: not wear prison uniform, not do prison work and have visits every week
• Sands died on 5th May 1981, 66 days into the hunger strike and another 9 IRA members also died
• resulted in negative publicity for the govt
• people in Europe, Asia and America thought Thatcher’s govt ‘let strikers die’
• Brighton Hotel bombing in 1984- IRA placed a large bomb inside the Grand Hotel in Brighton, attempted to assassinate Thatcher as revenge for Bobby Sands
• several Conservative MPs and party members died
• the bomb strengthened her resolve to continue fighting without compromise
• in mid 1970s the IRA carried out bombing campaigns on mainland Britain, there were bombs in crowded pubs in Guildford and Birmingham in 1975
• pressure to arrest people quickly resulted in innocent people being arrested- several campaign groups in Britain, Ireland and America demanded the convictions be overturned

Wales:

• South Wales suffered due to declining industry- 73,000 people unemployed in 1979, rose to 166,000 by 1986
• although a lot of mines closed before Thatcher (34,000 in 1974 to 28,000 mines in 1980) just 3,000 people were working in mining in Wales by 1990- over the whole country 90% of the workforce was lost
• social problems created by unemployment- 1308 drug offences in Wales in 1990 compared to 605 in 1979
• however there was some growth in Wales- NHS spending rose from £500 million in 1979 to £1.5 billion in 1990, number of school leavers seeking further education rose from 20% to 47%, GDP increased from around £7000 in 1979 to around £20,000 by 1990

Question 18

Social divisions: How did Thatcher cause divisions between the rich and poor?

Answer 18

• Thatcher is criticised for widening the gap between richest and poorest sections of British society
• introduced regressive taxes which took a higher percentage of income from the poor- everyone was taxed the same amount so poorer people ended up paying more of their income
• privatisation benefited the more financially stable middle and upper classes
• policies to cut inflation cut spending for the poor and led to unemployment, mainly of manufacturing workers
• there were uneven benefits from cuts in income tax- in 1989 the bottom 10% of earners paid £400 million less in income tax than they did in 1979, whereas the top 10% paid £9.3 billion less
• by reducing welfare payments, Supplementary Benefits was equivalent to 53% of average earnings in 1987, down from 61% in 1978, cuts to housing benefits also led to divisions- was reduced for those whose employment was sufficiently low paid enough to render them eligible for assistance with rent
• the proportion of pensioners living below the poverty line increased from 13% to 43%
• income changes were uneven- income of the top ten percent increased by 61% between 1979 and 1992, while the bottom ten percent’s income was reduced by 18%
• in 1979 the richest held 20.6% of UK wealth, increased to 26.1% in 1991- the poorest saw a reduction in how much wealth they held
• Yuppies- wealthy London citizens usually working in the financial sector- benefited from Thatcher’s policies
• middle class were divided over Thatcher- in 1987 only 55% voted Conservative, fewer than any time since 1918

Question 19

Social divisions: How did Thatcher cause divisions in Trade Unions?

Answer 19

• Thatcher wanted to end socialism and class division to replace it with national unity- people embracing traditional British values of hard work and independence
• saw TUs as undermining British values and national unity- believed they put the interests of the working class over the rest of the nation
• inequality caused by Thatcher led to development of the underclass who have no property and limited income, an example that created class conflict was the ‘right to buy’ council houses, opened up a gap between the working class who could afford property and those who couldn’t
• the NUM was one of the most powerful TUs in the country, brought down the Conservative govt under Heath in 1974
• Winter of Discontent 1978-79 turned British public opinion against TUs, so Thatcher felt she had public backing
• Thatcher was determined to reduce state subsidies going to the mining industry as she believed it was unprofitable and a waste of taxpayer’s money- caused conflict with miners
• 1984 Trade Union Act took away some rights of the traditional union movement, they were now required to conduct a secret ballot prior to strike action which had to be approved by the majority of members
• Scargill feared he may lose a ballot because some miners felt they needed to work to earn a living so Scargill did not hold a ballot and used flying pickets- the strike was not legitimate
• strike began in May 1984- there were strikes and protests at mining pits that stayed open- strike was illegal so govt were able to confiscate some NUM funds and the MI5 were used to find out the NUM’s plans- thousands of officers sent to Yorkshire, had horses and riot shields
• half the Labour party, tabloid and broadsheet newspapers were against the miners, claimed they were ‘bullying’ the country
• stockpiling of gas and nuclear power meant the strike did not have the desired effect, NUM began to run out of funds, new unions were created (Union of Democractic Mineworkers UDMW) and most miners went back to work, mining industry as a whole reduced
• the strike caused a lot of political divisons, some Conservative MPs had preferred to work with the unions but Thatcher preferred direct confrontation, also increased support for Thatcher with her hard line approach and her willingness to use govt power to end power of the unions- led to further w.c support

Question 20

Social divisions: How did Thatcher cause divisions between gay and straight people?

Answer 20

• Thatcher wanted to promote traditional values of heterosexual, monogamous marriage, didn’t want to re-criminalise homosexuality but argued it was an erosion of moral standards and breakdown of self-discipline
• LGBT activists argued against Thatcher
• 1981- first diagnosis of HIV, associated with gay men- led to increase in anti-gay attitudes, Princess Diana tried to counter this view, shook hands with HIV+ people
• there were press campaigns demanding children should not be exposed to material about homosexuality- came after there were books such as ‘Jenny lives with Eric and Martin’ which were seen as ‘homosexual propaganda’
• section 46 of the 1986 Education Act specified that sex education should ‘promote the value of family life’
• section 28 of the 1988 Local Govt Act outlawed promotion of homosexuality or publication of material with ‘intention of promoting homosexuality’- couldn’t promote it in schools, govt, workplace etc
• laws led to protests including the invasion of BBC 6 o’clock News Studios

Question 21

Social divisions: How did Thatcher cause divisions between the left and right?

Answer 21

• policies associating with the Labour govt e.g NHS, were all accepted by Conservative govts in 1951 and 1964
• both Wilson (Labour) and Heath (Conservative) agreed on the same things and had the same ideas in the 1960s and 70s
• Thatcher changed these ideas as more viewed were centred away from the left and away from previous Labour ideas and policies
• because of Thatcherism, many Conservative politicians went more towards the right- towards free market, away from state control and liberal attitudes
• Labour party and Lib Dems accepted Thatcherite policies to an extent
• more radical left wing ideas were seen as unusual and they didn’t get much support in the 1990s
• radical left wing ideas were promoted by Michael Foot as the Labour leader in the 1983 general election but they lost support and became seen as unusual

Question 22

Social divisions: How did Thatcher cause divisions between local and central govt?

Answer 22

• power of local govt reduced- part of Thatcher’s policy was to reduce size of govt and roll back the state
• after 1997 general election, Labour continued Thatcher’s ideas and capped local spending, allowed local govt to raise only 30% of its own funding
• Thatcher’s distaste for the Left meant Labour-controlled councils, such as the GLC, were targets for local govt cuts, many Northern councils saw themselves as ‘warriors’ against Thatcher’s govt in the 1980s
• economic powers were taken away from local councils in Merseyside and London, were replaced with introduction of development corporations, controlled by central govt- this style of urban regeneration directed by national govt has been this way ever since
• 6 metropolitan councils were abolished including the GLC in 1986
• GLC leader, Ken Livingstone (major figure on the left of Labour Party) came to embody everything Thatcher disliked about local govt

Question 23

Social divisions: How did Thatcher cause divisions between North and South?

Answer 23

• divisions in wealth increased- London and the South East got richer and more productive while North East and North West were poor and productivity declined
• enterprise zones- gave more govt funding to private firms in poor areas as an incentive for people to move there and generate growth- limited success
• number of economically inactive people increased in former industrial areas- in 2005 1 in 5 men in former coalfields were unemployed
• South Wales suffered in particular- 90% of workforce lost, 1979- 73,000 unemployed, 166,000 by 1986
• Conservatives were popular in the South and East but lost a lot of support the North, Scotland and Wales
• Conservatives won 21 out of 71 available seats in Scotland in 1979, fell to 10 by 1987, around 2 MPs in Wales
• by 1997 there were no Conservative MPs in Scotland
• Scottish and Welsh nationalism boosted due to local reaction of the decline of their traditional industries- helped cause devolution under New Labour

Question 24

Social divisions: How did Thatcher cause divisions between black and white people?

Answer 24

• Thatcher believed in traditional British values which were being ‘swamped by immigrants’
• cuts in govt expenditure and increased unemployment- heavily impacted poor urban areas with a lot of immigrants e.g St Paul’s in Bristol
• 1981 New Cross fire- fire at a house killed 13 black teenagers, concerns over the police not investigating, police didn’t investigate because they believed it to be an accident but the public believed it was deliberate and a criminal act
• 1981- 20,000 people marched in London and demanded police to investigate- weren’t listened to
• sus laws- police could stop and search anyone they thought to be suspicious- mainly used against black youths
• 1981 police carried out ‘operation swamp’ in Brixton (mainly black area) and searched black youths over drug concerns- caused widespread riots across Britain by ethnic minority communities
• 1981 Scarman Report- investigation into what caused riots in 1981, said they were caused by poverty and unemployment and partly due to police tactics e.g sus laws
• race riots continued into the 1980s e.g 1985 Broadwater riots- first time police officer was killed in a riot
• 1993 Stephen Lawrence- killed by a gang of white men- police believed it was gang/drug related just because he was black and they investigated the family
• 1999 Macpherson report found that the police were institutionally racist
• growing minority representation e.g Diane Abbott the first female black MP, Keith Vaz first Asian MP, Black people on TV with ‘Desmonds’ on Channel 4

Question 25

Impact on politics: How did Thatcher impact the Conservatives?

Answer 25

end of consensus: after 1945 they accepted nationalisation, the managed economy and full employment- same as Labour

• Thatcher ended the consenus- the centre ground moved further to the right- privatisation, free market, reducing inflation
• Tory ‘wets’ who supported consenus e.g Willie Whitelaw, Lord Hailsham were sacked in 1981 and moved out of the cabinet
• Thatcherites such as Norman Tebbit and Nigel Lawson were appointed

effect on modern Conservatives: before Thatcher they were aristocratic and Oxbridge educated, Thatcher was ‘the grocers daughter’ and middle class- brought in more middle class Tories

• before, 75% of Tory MPs went to public schools, after Thatcher it was 66%
• Thatcher hired Saachi + Saachi (marketing company) to advertise the Tory party- in 1983 half a million voters were targeted with marketing, targeted specific groups
• Thatcher did little to advance women in politics- number of female MPs rose from 19 to 41 (only 17 were Conservatives)

impact on John Major 1990-97: lowered taxation- income tax fell from 25% to 23% by 1997

• British rail was privatised 1994-97
• 1990 internal market was introduced in the NHS
• VAT was raised from 15% to 17.5%
• TU legislation was extended- 1992 Trade Union and Labour Relations Act
• 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act wanted to stop rave culture
• HOWEVER Thatcher was disappointed about Major promoting closer European integration

Question 26

Impact on politics: How did Thatcher impact the Labour party?

Answer 26

lurch to the left 1979-83: Michael Foot became Labour leader- believed in nationalisation, increasing welfare benefits and post-war consensus

• Thatcher pushed Labour to the left
• group of extreme socialists called Militant infiltrated the Labour party and made it more socialist- led to declining support
• Labour did very badly in the 1983 election- only 28% of the vote

Kinnock’s reforms: wanted to modernise the party- unilateral nuclear disarmament was no longer a Labour policy, Labour became more pro-Europe, in 1989 the party dropped its support for workers having to join TUs- was helped by Thatcher, weakened union power meant less TU problems for Labour

• 1988 new rules of the party- TUs couldn’t pick Labour MPs
• Thatcher weakened power of left-wing councils e.g GLC

Tony Blair and New Labour: believed in being tough on crime, didn’t change anti-TU laws or nationalise anything which had been privatised- similar to Thatcher’s ideas because Blair saw how Old Labour had failed

• New Labour completely rejected any commitment to nationalisation, continued Thatcher’s policies of low inflation and low taxation, embraced big businesses and free market
• Blair wanted votes of ‘mondeo men’- people who owned a mondeo, owned their own home and read The Sun, wanted upper class and w.c Tory voters to vote Labour
• HOWEVER Blair didn’t completely follow Thatcher- increased minimum wage, increased spending on healthcare and committed to LGBT rights

Question 27

Impact on politics: How did Thatcher impact other parties?

Answer 27

SDP + Liberal party: some moderate MPs left Labour party to form the Social Democrat party in 1981, believed that with Thatcher representing the right and Foot representing the left, there needed to be a centre-left party, they hoped to get new members from the Labour party but also dissatisfied COnservatives

• SDP joined the Liberals in the 1983 general election- gained 1/4 of tje popular vote but only 23 seats due to FPTP
• 1988 Lib Dems were formed
• Lib Dems have always been socially liberal and pro-European but there has been some Thatcherite influence with some commitment to free market and low taxation

SNP: Thatcher’s policies led to high unemployment in Scotland

• poll tax was first introduced to Scotland which increased anti-Thatcher feelings
• 1992- Labour had 49 seats in Scotland and Conservatives had 11
• Scotland voted against Conservatives but there was a Conservative govt- increased demand for independence, devolution introduced in 1997

Plaid Cymru: generally left of the spectrum like the SNP

• increasing dissatisfaction with Thatcher led to Conservatives going into decline in Wales into the late 1980s- helped Labour more than any other party
• 1992 Labour had 27 seats in Wales, Tories had 6
• Plaid Cymru were able to secure a referendum on devolution in 1997 and the Welsh Assembly was formed