Heath's government

• He had very clear goals for the modernisation of Britain, he was the very first conservative leader who went to a state school. He was seen as stiff and wasn't as devious as Wilson. Many of his enemies didn't see him as efficient enough in creating political allies and being too honest for his own good.

  Heath
• Lame duck industries: industries that are in decline and will soon be replaced by new industries without the support of the state.
• • Tax reform
  • Better law and order
  • Reforms to trade unions
  • immigration controls
  • cuts to public spending and other lame duck industries

  Manifesto of conservatives in 1970
• Came into force in 1971, the new British currency would have 100 new pence which made it more in line with other European currencies

  Decimalisation
• Chancellor who introduced cuts in public spending and tax cuts to encourage investment which triggered the 'Barber boom' with a rapid increase in inflation. However, this did not cause economic growth and actually resulted in unemployment increase at the same time as inflation also increasing. This marks the birth of stagflation.

  Anthony Barber
• A reversal of previous policy from 1971-72, a retreat from his previous policy pledges (move from free-enterprise economic principles).

  U-turn
• • Unemployment started to reach a million
  • Rolls Royce was nationalised in 1971
  • Gov' Money was poured into Upper Clyde Shipbuilders going bankrupt

  Why did Heath U-turn
• By 1973, unemployment had fallen back down to 500,000 


  Unemployment
• • Yom Kippur War in the Middle East which prompted OPEC to embargo on oil
  • Exports suddenly stopped and oil prices quadrupled
  • There was long queues outside of gas stations.
  • National Unions of Miners (NUM) demanded new pay rise in November which strained their relationship with the government.

  Oil prices crisis October 1973
• Disputes to deal with: dockers strike, large pay settlement for dustmen, postal workers strike and 'go-slow' by power workers which led to power cuts.

  Why did the government bring in the Industrial Relations Act
• • Set up an industrial relations court
  • provided ballots and a 'cooling-off' period before official strikes could take place.
  • Both TUC and CBI were opposed to it
  • Result: huge amount of strikes in 1972, highest number of working days lost since the General Strike in 1926 of nearly 24 million days 


  What did the industrial relations act do
• • Time of harsh winter conditions
  • Led by Arthur Scargill who used flying pickets in Yorkshire which stopped the movement of coal around the country
  • By February, there was a state of Emergency declared, schools were closed and 1.2 workers were laid off
  • Announcement of the 3-day week to save electricity and the NUM leader was able to negotiate a wage settlement.

  Miners strikes of January 1972
• The Industrial Relations Act was meant to manage wage demands and aimed to encourage negotiations between the government and TUC and CBI in agreeing with such things.
• After the failed attempt of moving Willie Whitelaw into the ministry of employment, miners refused to accept pay offer and government refused to treat miners as a special case. So, in 1974 the NUM called a national strike. 


  How did the NUM deal with the government
• • Fuel was rationed and speed limit of 500 miles per hour imposed on all roads
  • deep cuts on heating and lighting of public buildings, TV closed before 10:30pm
  • Many companies laid-off their staff so people signed up for unemployment grants and others worked for longer on working days to make up for lost hours
  • Shortage of coal and oil crisis lead to a balance of payments crisis,

  The 3-day week
• • Opinion polls showed a favour to the conservatives but in the end Labour won by 5 seats. It lead to a hung Parliament.
  • This was time of political crisis at voters did not who to trust and chose and there was a higher representation for the smaller parties as Liberals had now 14 seats
  • Labour formed a minority government with the Liberals as the conservatives failed to do so

  1974 election
• • Explosion of sectarian violence
  • British army struggling to keep the peace
  • Political situation in Belfast very bad
  • Paramilitary groups rose: IRA, INLA, UDA and UVF

  What issue did Heath inherit in Northern Ireland
• Heath backed UUP leader Brain Faulkner who introduced internment and night time curfews. This was unsuccessful as it alienated nationalists and was discriminative against catholics, 95% of those interred between 1971-75 were catholics 


  Internment 1971
• 300 people interred 


  August 1971
• 13 killed by British army

  Bloody Sunday 1972
• Sunningdale Conference

  December 1973
• Regarded as the enemy, occupying power of catholics and nationalists which was worsened by Bloody Sunday. This happened as Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association organised a peaceful march against internment which resulted in British soldiers using ammunition. 


  Change in attitude towards British army in NI
• Member of provisional IRA in the early 1970s, claims he left organisation in 1974, was elected an MP in 1997 for Sinn Fein.

  Martin McGuiness
• • Burning down of the British embassy in Dublin
  • Support for IRA grew and they were able to raise a lot of funds from the US
  • Bloodiest year: 1300 explosions, nearly 11,000 shooting incidents and 480 people killed 


  Response to Bloody Sunday
• Heath had suspended Stormont and imposed direct rule from Westminster. He looked for a way to find peace which did start negotiations between political parties in NI.

  Direct Rule March 1972
• Loyalists opposition leader to the Catholic civil rights movements in the 60s and involved in setting up loyalist paramilitary groups, outspoken against catholics

  Ian Paisley
• Involved in Irish Civil rights movements in the 60s, co-founded the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) and became its leader in 1979, worked with Sinn Fein to bring IRA ceasefire in 1990s and bring it to talks with British government

  John Hume
• • power-sharing Executive of both nationalists and unionists- both sides guaranteed representation
  • New northern ireland assembly under a system of proportional representation
  • Council of iReland would have some input from the Republic of Ireland

  Sunningdale Agreement
• • UVF and UDA opposed
  • UUP voted to pull out of it, Brain Faulkner replaced as leader by Harry West who opposed the agreement
  • prospect of settlement of problems in britain such as minster strikes in 1974
  • 11/12 constituencies pulled out their leaders to those who opposed it
  • Conservative government could do rely on support from the UUP in the election which lead to partially them loosing

  Response to Sunningdale
• Selsdon Man: in reference to a new type of Conservatism, called New Right. This is an anti-Keynesian, pro-market individual. 


  How could Heath's approach to the economy be described
• • Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1970
  • His early measures: income tax cuts, reductions in government spending, scrapping of Prices and Incomes Board and cuts in subsidies paid to local authority. 


  Anthony Barber
• • abandoning the mixed economy
  • weakening the welfare state
  • undermining the principle of full employment
  • putting economy before society 


  What did the opposition attack Heath for:
• • Done within 18 months of attempting the new style of governing economically
  • Inflation rose to 15% by the end of 1971, making the government go back to trying to control controlling prices and incomes. 


  Heath's U-turn:
• • Despite John Davies warning the government that it would not help with lame ducks, Rolls Royce was hitting hard times during this period and needed help.
  • Its orders were failing so rather than seeing the company fail (as it was seen as one of the successes of Britain's industry) it was nationalised in 1971. 


  Rolls Royce
• • Granted subsidies due to the threat that the Scottish company might be forced to close led a determined resistance from the workers.
  • Fearing industrial action, the government backed down and gave them a £34 million subsidy to keep the company going. 


  Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
• • The unions became increasingly hostile
  • Asked if the government genuinely wanted partnership then why did they pass the act in the first place?
  • The TUC consistently voted against the government and called on all individual unions to refuse to register.
  • They did so which meant the act was impossible to enforce
  • Just in 1972, there was nearly 24 million working days lost.


  How did the Industrial Relations Act affect the relationship between the unions and government
• • Heath hoped to defeat the miners by imposing limits on fuels
  • He calculated that the government would survive the strike longer than the miners
  • This resulted in austerities from the war time in the 40s to be recalled
  • Eventually, the miners got a 21% wage increase and this success caused Scargill to call another strike in 1974 which made Heath resign 


  3-day week: 1973
• • none of the economic goals Heath had set have been met which marked him as a failure with problems such as unemployment still rising and being as bad as it had been since the Great Depression


  1974 election
• • Labour: 37% of the vote, 301 seats and 11.6 million votes
  • Conservatives: nearly 38% of the vote, 297 seats and 11.8 million votes 


  Result of the 1974 election
• • access to EU markets
  • being a part of the bloc means it has access to global business
  • Britain's regions were entitled to European grants
  • British workers had the right to work in other EU countries
  • Greater opportunity for movement

  Advantages of Britain joining the EEC: