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• Thatcherism


  Conviction politics - someone with strong opinions who acts out of principle rather than political expediency
• Friedrich Hayek


  • Economist, major critic of Keynesian economic policies, role of state not involve itself in the welfare of citizens but provide conditions of liberty in which individuals free to make choices, strong supporter of the free market, distrust of trade unions
• Keith Joseph


  • A leading Conservative thinker who introduced Margaret Thatcher to the ideas of Hayek and encouraged her to adopt monetarist policies
• Thatcher was especially critical to Heath


  Thatcher was critical of Heath's policies
• Monetarism


  Cause of inflation is government spending, restrict amount money in circulation and reduce public expenditure
• PSBR (public sector borrowing requirement)


  The gap between government revenue and government needs, always in deficit in UK
• Interest rates kept at a high level


  To deter irresponsible borrowing and keep pound strong, leading to fall in inflation rate
• Monetarism was successful in reducing inflation but led to job losses and unemployment
• In April 1981, hundreds of black youths in Brixton rioted, burning shops and looting property
• Reasons for the Brixton riots


  • Poor job prospects in deprived inner-city areas, alienation of young black people who felt discriminated against by the police
• Tebbit


  • Minister for employment, one of Thatcher's staunchest supporters
• 'Wets'


  Those in the government and Conservative Party who opposed or were uncertain about the tough measures that Mrs Thatcher adopted
• Reasons for the Falklands War


  • Disputed sovereignty over the islands, failure of leaseback proposal, Argentinian invasion on April 1982
• Thatcher's response to the Falklands invasion


  Sovereignty no longer negotiable, a matter for UK not UN to decide, democratic right of islanders to be protected, task force dispatched, exclusion zone imposed, order sinking of Belgrano
• The Falklands War outcome: naval supremacy gained, islands retaken by task force, islands permanently garrisoned
• The Falklands War politically: upsurge in Mrs Thatcher's popularity in country at large, wrongfooted the opposition, prepared the way for 1983 election
• The miners' strike 1984-85


  • Long-term cause: decline in marketability of British coal, key players: Scargill (committed socialist revolutionary) vs McGregor (unflinching managerial enforcer)
• The miners' strike failed due to: not well led tactically by Scargill, NUM not backed by key unions, government consistently backed NCB, Employment Acts weakened NUM's legal position, violence accompanying the strikes lost miners public support
• Supply-side economics


  • Reducing taxation to provide employees incentive, encouraging competition to lower prices, limiting powers of trade unions
• Deregulation under Thatcherism


  Credit and exchange controls abolished, bus companies deregulated, schools right to opt out of state sector, hospitals 'internal market'
• Housing Act 1980


  Allowed council house tenants to buy homes they were renting, critics: undermined social housing, defenders: provided incentive and rewards for poorer members of society
• Home ownership increased by 15% between 1981 and 1990
• Privatisation


  Increasing 'popular capitalism', chance to become shareholders, encouraged banks and building societies to advance larger loans
• Between 1980 and 1989 the balance of payments deficit rose from £16 billion to £47 billion
• Selling off of North Sea oil brought billions of pounds into the Treasury
• Britain's GDP growth rate was lower than the European average in 1950-79 but higher in 1979-89
• The Education Reform Act 1988 made schools more responsive to the needs of children and parents
• Thatcher's misjudgment over poll taxes and opposition from her own Cabinet over policy towards Europe led to her end in 1990
• The Adam Smith Institute was a Conservative think-tank
• Social progress of the 1960s and 1970s

  • Gay rights, Wolfenden Reports, abortion, contraception, Divorce Reform Act, Race Relations
• Sir Keith Joseph: '"Since the end of the Second World War we have had altogether too much Socialism... For half of that 30 years Conservative Governments...did not consider it practicable to reverse the vast bulk of the detritus of Socialism which, on each occasion, they found when they returned to office. So we tried to build on its uncertain foundations instead"'