Thatcher governments
Cards (37)
- 1981 conference: 'you turn if you want to- the lady's not for turning' which created her reputation of a conviction politician and criticised Heath's U-turn
- There is no such thing as society and there are only individual men and women who are families. Threats to these families were also threats to order in society.
- She wanted it to have a bigger role to combat law and order issues. However, by the mid-1980s this led to accusations of it becoming politicised.
- Nickname given to a member of the conservative party by Thatcher and her supporters for being soft about the social consequences of monetarism, one-nation tories. Some examples are Willie Whitelaw.
- Nickname for conservatives who were firms in their support for monetarism. Thatcher regarded them as 'one of us' and some examples are Howe and Lawson
- They were so bad that the labour party split and formed another branch, the SDP (Social Democratic Party) in 1981. Many commentators believed that the labour party would not hold office again.
- Michael Foot: left-wing supporter of the unilateral nuclear disarmament and was elected in 1980 instead of the ;obvious; candidate Denis Healey who was more centrist.
- 'Gang of Four': David Owen, Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers. Alongside these ew leaders, 28 labour MPS followed who believed they were driven out of the party by the extremists who took over the labour party.
- Before the SDP was formed, dominated by the Labour Left which was notorious for it's hostility to the centrists.
- Seemed that the labour Party lost touch with the people they were supposed to serve and that it has passed the point of no return.
- Became leader in 1983, Labour was at risk of being marginalised by Thatcherism and rise of the SDP. Although he had come from the left, he needed to tackle militant tendency and criticised Scargill in 1984 for failing to hold a strike ballot during the miners' strike.
- Landslide victory due to: Falkland's war, Labour Party's leadership lacked credibility and splintering of the opposition as a whole due to the FPTP.
- Reasons: economic success, backing from majority of the press, Labour credibility still limited and opposition still splintered
- Faced criticism over ongoing campaign for Special Category Status for IRA prisoners held in H-block of the Maze prison in Belfast because they wanted to be recognised and treated as political prisoners.
- Both unionists and republicans hardened approach
- Focused on winning parliamentary seats from 1983 as they saw it as advantageous.
- IRA exploded a bomb in Grand Hotel in Brighton during the conservative party conference. The main target was Thatcher but 5 people were killed.
- London and Dublin governments proposed constitutional settlements in NI which led to the signing of this agreement in Hillsborough. The purpose of this was an agreement between the two governments which was supported by the SDLP and the alliance. Republicans were opposed however as it confirmed NI was part of the UK.
- There seemed no way out of the violence and retaliation.
- 9 more hunger strikers died before the protest was over in October 1981.
- This resulted in Thatcher becoming a hate figure for republicans while Bobby Sands became a hero and both unionists & republicans drifting further away from each other.
- Republicans such as Gerry Adams used the victory in Fermanagh and South Tyrone as a sign that they should take advantage and use the ‘ballot box and the gun’ as a twin-track strategy. This meant that Sinn Fein was increasingly focused on winning more parliamentary seats.
- During this time there was a lot of ‘go-betweens’, secret contacts, and discussion between London and Dublin on a constitutional settlement in Northern Ireland.
- The man that was behind the scheme was arrested but released 5 years later under the Good Friday Agreement
- It also aimed to strengthen moderate nationalists against Sinn Fein, supported by the SDLP and the Alliance.
- 200,000 attended a rally in Belfast where Ian Paisley (the leader of the DUP) addressed the crowd saying: terrorists operate from the Irish Republic and how Thatcher is allowing them to have a say in their province is something they are not going to let happen.
- In response: a new unionists paramilitary group was formed (Ulster Resistance) in 1986 which showed that there was no way out of the cycle of violence and retaliation.
- Fair Employment Act 1989: required employers who had more than 25 employees in their books to not discriminate when allocating jobs and promotions.
- This showed that the government was not consumed by terrorism in the province, and it had time for smaller issues. The deaths and agonies pilling showed that these measures weren’t that effective in the end.
- Effect: The reason that the IRA gave for doing this is ‘The British Army did not leave Ireland after Bloody Sunday.’
- At their funeral, 5000 attendees were present and were fired up by Micheal Stone which resulted in 3 other people dying and 50 being injured.
- Thatcher imposed a broadcasting ban on the IRA so they wouldn’t get any more publicity, which involved things like substituting actors’ voices but this didn’t have that much of an effect as the IRA officers could still be heard and able to pass their message around.