Making Thatcher’s Britain Making History Block 1: 1979 and All That, Writing Contemporary History Making Thatcher’s Britain

1. A moment in history: 4 May 1979 ‘Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.’ Conservatives won 339 seats, Labour 269, the Liberals 11, Ulster parties 12 and Nationalists 4 Re-election 1983, 1987 Thatcher resigns as PM 1990 Conservatives hold power until 1997 election of ‘New Labour’

2. The view from 2013: the critics, the faithful, and transformation

8 April 2013, death of Margaret Thatcher: the critics

Deindustrialisation and breaking the power of organised labour Miners’ Strike 1984-5 following announcement of closure of 20 pits Further closures follow defeat of miners, followed by privatisation in 1994 Production falls by 50% 1986-1995 Decline of heavy industry and shift to new industries, part-time work and service industry see fall in trade union membership from 12.6 million in 1979 to 10.3 million in 1984, and 7.8 million by 2000

Dole Queue Britain Unemployment rises to 3 million by 1982 (drop of commitment to full employment) Decline of North which is particularly hit by deindustrialisation (7.1 million employed in manufacturing in 1979, falls to 4 million by 1993) A new type of economy: retreat of state; turn to markets

Revival of little England jingoism Falklands/Malvinas War 1982 (The Sun shifts support from Labour to Conservatives in election of 1979). Cold War – ‘Iron Lady’ Anti-Europeanism

Tributes: 1979 as point of rescue Televised ceremonial funeral with full military honours at St Paul’s Cathedral David Cameron: she ‘made Britain great again’ Andrew Roberts (historian): ‘she liberated Britain from sclerosis and socialism’ Tony Blair: she changed the political landscape of Britain and influenced the creation of New Labour Talk of importance of never returning to the 1970s

Rescuing Britain from the ‘crisis’ decade of 1970s Symbolised by the strikes of the ‘winter of discontent’ of 1978-9 (eg rubbish-strewn streets) Government stand-down to National Union of Miners in 1972 Oil crisis and threat of miners leads to three-day week in 1973-4 and period of power cuts Conservative Edward Heath loses 1974 election when he asks ‘Who Governs Britain’ Inflation peaks at 24% in 1975 British government forced to seek IMF bail out in 1976

Making a property-owning democracy Sale of council houses from 1980 1 million sold by 1987 Home-owners benefit from spiralling property prices (council houses bought often for £10,000 could be worth ten times this by end of decade) (Public house building at same time collapses)

Privatisation and popular share-ownership Sale of British Telecom shares 1984 ‘Tell Sid’ campaign (1986) to sell British Gas shares aims to encourage popular capitalism (4 million apply) Thatcher calls it a chance to ‘give power back to the people’ Continues with privatisation and share sales on other utilities including water, electricity and rail ‘Big bang’ deregulation of City of London, 1986 A Britain of share owners not trade unionists? Lower top-rate income tax

Rolling back the welfare state? Introduction of internal market and private contractors to National Health Service 1986-9 reforms in education introduce market principles, league tables, and reduce power of local education authorities Levels of expenditure fail to fall because of high levels of unemployment

3. Making Thatcher’s Britain? Questions for the historian.

i) Coherence of ‘Thatcher’s Britain’? Is there a coherent political ideology of ‘Thatcherism’ (is there inconsistency at its heart eg between liberal economic policy, and conservative morals/’authoritarian populism’?) How far does support of this philosophy extend? How successful? (Persistence of welfare state; increasingly liberal morals) And was Thatcher more pragmatic and opportunistic than ‘Thatcherism’ suggests?

ii) Broader, structural causes of change The big bang, deindustrialisation, shifting nature of the economy linked to globalisation The role of new technology in speeding up transactions, facilitating choice, and shifting the direction of economic and social life Demographic time-bomb of ageing population predetermines direction of changes to welfare state and continuity of scale Some big cultural and moral changes in tension with Thatcherism, eg in realm of morality and personal relations, multi-culturalism, and gender

iii) Accidents of history Not clear that Labour Party would be defeated in 1978; signs of recovery; for the majority the 70s a time of rising affluence, not ‘crisis’ Conservative victory not a landslide and not a vote for ‘Thatcherism’ Fragile position of Margaret Thatcher at first; importance of Falklands War in strengthening Importance of divisions and mistakes on left and formation of Social Democratic Party

UK Polling 1975-9

UK Polling 1979-84

v) Thatcherism before 1979? Historians such as Ewen Green trace back much of the agenda for Thatcherism well before 1979 Famous policy of council-house sale had even been considered by Labour Historians now more alert to earlier divisions within ‘post-war consensus’

vi) Was it so bad in the 70s? Britons’ reported well-being in fact peaks in 1976 Should we focus on this, and on the experience of affluence such as holidays abroad, rather than on crisis? Dominic Sandbrook’s history of the 1970s If conditions not so bad in the 70s, why was sense of crisis so marked?

vii) Thinking globally Should we also recognise that the British story may be part of a broader international phenomenon and global economic and political fault-line? The shock of the global? 1970s Britain in fact only mid-table internationally in terms of strike days lost

1979: Soviet troops enter Afghanistan

1979: Trump Tower deal

Adam Curtis film (BBC iplayer)

viii) The Forward March of Labour (already) Halted? Essay by Eric Hobsbawm (1978) Focus on long-term changes that weaken Labour party, left, and union movement Working class less united; decline manual labour; more interest in sectional wage claims than in class as a whole; division between affluent worker and poor; new divisions of gender and ethnicity Decline of organised socialism; activists increasingly students and white-collar

ix) The Great Moving Right Show Essay by Stuart Hall (1979) in Marxism Today, where he is one of the first to use the term ‘Thatcherism’; argues that left need to take seriously the new appeal of the right Appeal of ‘moral authoritarianism’ in context of crisis (importance of anxieties around race, gender, and permissiveness) Thatcher avoidance of language of ‘class’; instead language of ‘ordinary’ people and ‘nation’ against those who threaten it via ‘crisis’, strikes etc; identification with ‘people’ against the ‘state’ (which Labour is associated with); likewise in eg education support for values of people against ‘loony left’ Right more successful in response to crisis; deep cultural shift - ‘New Times’

PART 4. Assignment: Did Britain change in 1979?

What do the MRC documents tell us about: Perceptions of change at the time? Whether change precedes or follows 1979? The nature of changes; areas of continuity? Whether change follows or breaks with the script of Thatcherism? How is change implemented and resisted? What are the limitations and potential of sources in addressing these questions?