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Politics and Party Development 1979/90 - The Impact of Thatcher 1979 - 1990

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Conservatives UNITED PARTY: Gained support from a divided conservative party ·        Careful not to criticise Heath’s U-turn before 1974 ·        Enlisted a ‘wet’ (one-nation tory) Willie Whitelaw, to her side - ‘everyone needs a Willie’ ·        Rallied the Conservatives around her free-marked, patriotic views before the 1979 election ·        Was careful not to ignore the back-benchers ENDING CONSENSUS POLITICS: introduced new political ideas of individualism, low taxation choice and free market liberalism ·        Ended conservative support for full employment and nationalised industries ·        Fought to save Britain from ‘creeping socialism’ ·        These ideas continued to post Thatcher conservative governments . -    E.g. privatisation of British Rail 1994-1997 -    Extension of trade union legislation – trade union and labour relations consolidation act of 1992 -    Commitment to lower direct taxation – basic income tax reduced from 25%to 23% in
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Political and Social Division 1979/90 - The Impact of Thatcher 1979 - 1990

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Divisions between Right and Left 1945-1970 ·        Post War Consensus - centre ground shifted left, socialist policies prevail 1970-1979 ·        Centre ground still to the left, but failure of post-war consensus and rise of neoliberalism pushing things to the right, political titans Wilson and Health both centrist, pro-European 1979-1990 ·        Centre ground shifts to the right under Thatcher, conservatives support her free market policies and reject the post-war consensus 1990-1997 ·        Centre ground to the right, Labour adopt Thatcherite policies, particularly regarding the economy Special advisers and career politicians ·        Thatcher accelerates trend to use outside advisers rather than career civil servants for policy advise ·        Voter turnout fell - linked to the rise of elite, career politicians ·        Number of politicians with a university degree r
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Rolling Back of the State 1979/90 - The Impact of Thatcher 1979 - 1990

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Thatcher’s views ·        Strong moral values rooted in Methodist upbringing ·        Felt state intervention was to blame for Britain’s decline; high taxes discouraged entrepreneurship, state ownership crushed innovation and competition, welfare state bred dependancy ·        Welfare state = nanny state ·        Wanted to break from consensus ·        Inspirations: o    Keith Joseph - new right conservative o    Friedrich von Hayek - economist, published a book advocating against a large welfare state o    Neo-liberalism - free market economic thinking, against state intervention and regulation, became popular among conservatives in the 70s ·        Aims: o    Reduce the size of the state - small government o    Reduce government interference in people’s lives o    Promote efficiency through privatisation and ‘contracting out’ Civil Service ·        Originally 732 000 civil servants in Britain - 3x more than comparable nations ·        Thatcher brought
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