Heath

• The period of the 1970s saw the end of post-war consensus and the rise of conservative governments
• The conservative government of Ted Heath came into power in 1970 and remained in power until 1974
• New Right ideology

  • Motivated by concerns relating to economic deregulation and removal of government intervention in the market
  • Belief in the concept of the free market
• The New Right ideas were adopted by the Conservative Party at the Selsdon Park conference in January 1970
• Despite adopting New Right ideology

  The government still intervened in the economy, e.g. nationalising Rolls Royce and subsidising Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
• The 1973 oil crisis was caused by the Yom Kippur War and OPEC's response of reducing oil exports and increasing prices
• The oil crisis

  Led to the debasement of the British currency, increasing inflation and unemployment
• Inflation grew up to 16% from 1970 to 1974, and unemployment rose from 785,000 in 1973 to 1.6 million by 1978
• The Heath government also had to deal with the Troubles in Northern Ireland, including the events of Bloody Sunday in 1972
• The IRA responded to Bloody Sunday with a series of terrorist bombing campaigns across Britain
• The Troubles in Northern Ireland continued to be a major issue throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998