Introducing Thatcherism E-Book

Peter Pugh

• Herausgeber: Icon Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Graphic Guides
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 115

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Margaret Thatcher's political career was one of the most remarkable of modern times. She rose to become the first woman to lead a major Western democracy, serving as British Prime Minister. Admired by Ronald Regan and the United States Congress, "Introducing Thatcherism" looks at the political philosophy behind this influential and controversial woman.

Leseprobe

Published by Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre, 39–41 North Road, London N7 9DP Email: [email protected]

ISBN: 978-178578-012-7

Text copyright © 2012 Icon Books Ltd

Illustrations copyright © 2012 Icon Books Ltd

The author and illustrator has asserted their moral rights

Originating editor: Richard Appignanesi

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Britain Before Thatcher

Brief History of Post-War Britain

The Beveridge Report

The Welfare State

Nationalization and Social Security

Keynesianism

The Trade Union Movement

Who Rules?

“Butskellism”, or Consensus Politics

Caution and Restraint

What’s Wrong With Britain?

The Rise of Heath

The End of “Selsdon Man”

Downslide and Paranoia

The Intellectual Roots of Thatcherism

A Free Market Philosophy

Free Market Democracy

Social Justice

Individualism and Equality

Privatization

The Institute of Economic Affairs

Joseph and the IEA

Enoch Powell

The Centre for Policy Studies

Thatcher’s Roots

Upbringing

Becoming an MP

A New Leader in 1975

Who Helped Thatcher to Power?

Thatcher’s Early Allies

Thatcherites in the Late 1970s

Inventing the Thatcher Image

Early Champions of Monetarism

In Power – May 1979

“The Lady’s Not For Turning”

Battling the Unions

The Falklands Rescue

The Second Administration, 1983-7

Tackling the Unions Again

How to Curb the Unions

The Miners’ Strike, 1984

Profile of Arthur Scargill

The NUM Defeated

Murdoch vs. the Printers’ Union

The Westland Affair

Economic Success

Thatcherism in Practice

The Civil Service

The Welfare State

The NHS

The Arts

Europe

Friendship With Reagan

The Speech at Bruges

Privatization

Individual Home and Share Ownership

Does It Benefit the Individual?

Greed is Good

A New Breed – A New Language

Thatcher’s Children – or Orphans?

The Poll Tax (1989)

A Big Mistake

Thatcher’s Disregard of the Cabinet

Thatcher’s Downfall?

Black Monday

Thatcher Resigns

The Economic Results of Thatcherism

Public Expenditure

Monetarism

The Thatcher Style

Not Ideas But Action

Authoritarian

Conclusion

Thatcher’s Influence on New Labour

Britain Before Thatcher

In February 1974 the Conservative Party, led by Edward Heath (1916-2005), was defeated in a General Election which had been precipitated by the government’s failure to cope with the trades unions, most especially the National Union of Mineworkers. Keith Joseph (1918-96), a member of Heath’s cabinet, attributed Britain’s ills to the harmful effects of socialism:

WE ARE NOW MORE SOCIALIST IN MANY WAYS THAN ANY OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRY OUTSIDE THE COMMUNIST BLOC, IN THE SIZE OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR, THE RANGE OF CONTROLS AND THE TELESCOPING OF NET INCOME.

He went further, saying that Tory governments had travelled this path as surely and enthusiastically as Labour ones.

Was Joseph right? Was Britain socialist in the 1970s, and if so, how did it get that way?

Brief History of Post-War Britain

The Labour Party had grown in the first half of the 20th century into a mass party, and had won a decisive victory in the General Election at the end of the Second World War. The Election was held in early July 1945 when the Allies had achieved victory over Hitler in Europe but were still at war with Japan. Conservative Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) came back from the peace negotiations in Potsdam with his deputy, Labour leader Clement Attlee (1883-1967), for the announcement of the results on 25 July 1945.

THREE DAYS LATER, AS PRIME MINISTER, I RETURNED TO POTSDAM WITHOUT CHURCHILL.

Furthermore, the Labour victory was overwhelming. They captured 393 seats in the House of Commons to the Conservatives’ 189.

Some were surprised that the war leader and hero, Churchill, should be booted out, but others who had followed the findings of Mass Observation, had listened to the ordinary voter and seen the reaction to the Beveridge Report, were not.

THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY IS THE PARTY OF THE PRIVILEGED AND THE BUSINESSMAN. THE PEOPLE WHO FAILED THE COUNTRY IN THE DEPRESSED 1920S AND 30S. ORDINARY PEOPLE WANT A FRESH START!

They wanted what Sir William Beveridge (1879-1963), director of labour exchanges 1909-16 and a director of the London School of Economics 1919-37, had suggested in his report to the House of Commons in 1942. What was the Beveridge Report?

The Beveridge Report

Social insurance should be part of a general policy of social progress. Social security can only be achieved through co-operation between the individual and the state.

Special benefits should be provided for unusual expenses in connection with birth, marriage and death.

Pensions should be available for all.

There should be a free medical service.

The Welfare State

The Report was universally acclaimed.

AND EVEN I REALIZED I WAS MAKING A MISTAKE IN TRYING TO SUPPRESS IT.

The Labour Party elected in 1945 on a wave of enthusiasm for collective security and the effectiveness of planning – after all, the War had been won by planning, hadn’t it? – legislated in its administration up to 1950 to bring in what became known as The Welfare State.

The nationalization of the means of production, distribution and exchange – the famous Clause 4 of the Labour Party constitution – was tackled with vigour and enthusiasm by the incoming Labour administration.

Nationalization and Social Security

The following nationalizations took place under the new Labour government:

1946

Bank of England

1946

British Overseas Airways, British European Airways and British South American Airways

1946

Inland Transport Act (everything that ran on wheels for profit, except short-distance road haulage, lorries used by companies for their own products, and municipal bus companies)

1947

The Coal Industry

1948

Electricity

1948

Cable and Wireless

1948

Gas

1949

Steel

And, towering above all, the National Health Services Act (1946), providing “free” health care for all, described even by the Conservative MP, Derick Heathcoat-Amory (later Chancellor of the Exchequer) as: “By any test, a tremendous measure.”

Keynesianism

The intellectual justification for this planned approach to the economy came from John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946).

Keynesianism required that the large institutions, corporations and unions should drive the country’s economy and that the government should intervene constantly to balance the situation, increasing or decreasing financial stimuli where necessary.

OR RATHER FROM HOW MY WRITING WAS INTERPRETED. THE LABOUR PARTY GREW OUT OF THE WORKING MAN’S DESIRE FOR MORE POLITICAL SAY. AND OUR FIRST MEANS OF PROTECTION AGAINST THE CRUEL AND OPPRESSIVE EMPLOYERS OF LABOUR WAS THE TRADE UNION. THE PARTY GREW FROM THE UNIONS, AND THE UNIONS WERE ALWAYS A SIGNIFICANT FORCE IN THE PARTY, ESPECIALLY AS UNION FUNDS FINANCED THE PARTY.

The Trade Union Movement

After a shaky start in the last decades of the 19th century, both the trade union movement and the Labour Party were given a great boost by the outrage in the working class following a court decision in 1901.

AFTER A STRIKE AT TAFF VALE, THE UNION WAS FORCED TO PAY COMPENSATION FOR THE COSTS OF THE STRIKE. THIS INITIAL DECISION WAS REVERSED IN THE TRADES DISPUTES ACT OF 1906 WHICH GAVE IMMUNITY TO UNIONS IN CLAIMS FOR DAMAGES.

The first case was a great step forward for the unions and the Labour Party. The Act gave the unions formidable power to live outside the law, later to be greatly abused.

By 1945, the unions were a very powerful force within the labour movement and the Labour Party. Denis Healey (b. 1917), long-time Labour MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Foreign Secretary in Labour administrations, said in his autobiography, The Time of My Life…

THE TRADE UNIONS AFFILIATED OVER 5.5 MILLION MEMBERS TO THE LABOUR PARTY AND ELECTED 12 MEMBERS TO THE EXECUTIVE … UNION LEADERS ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO CONSULT THEIR MEMBERS ON HOW THEIR VOTES ARE CAST. IN PRACTICE, THE VIEWS OF THE UNION’S NATIONAL EXECUTIVE ARE USUALLY DECISIVE; SO A CHANGE IN ONE INDIVIDUAL ON THE UNION’S EXECUTIVE MAY SHIFT OVER A MILLION VOTES – AND FREQUENTLY HAS.

Who Rules?

But if the leaders of the unions could dominate the Executive of the Labour Party, ironically they were not as powerful within their own unions. Denis Healey again …

The real power lies not in the union headquarters but with the local shop stewards … Moreover, the TUC [Trades Union Congress, i.e. all the bosses of the unions] has no real power over its constituent unions, unlike its equivalents in Scandinavia, Germany and Austria; in those countries, governments have normally been able to rely on the annual agreements made at national level between centralized organizations of unions and employers, without direct government intervention. This is even more true of Japan, where the recognized need for a national consensus on all major economic issues has made possible 40 years of high growth, full employment, rapidly rising living standards and exceptionally low inflation.

“Butskellism”, or Consensus Politics

Appeasement of the unions was not the prerogative of the Labour Party – the Conservatives indulged in it too. Indeed, there was little to choose between the two parties’ approach to economic and social issues for the first 30 years after the War. The Economist coined the word “Butskellism” – after the Tory Home Secretary, Rab Butler (1902-82) and the Labour leader, Hugh Gaitskell (1906-63) – to show how little difference there was in the two parties’ approach.

BUTSKELLISM IS A TWO-PARTY CONSENSUS ABOUT …

the Welfare State

a mixed economy

full employment

consultation with the unions

in foreign policy – commitment to NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), the nuclear deterrent, the run-down of Empire and the promotion of the Commonwealth

Caution and Restraint

The Conservative administrations of the 1950s which replaced the Labour administrations of 1945-50 and 1950-51 may have talked of a “bonfire of controls”, but in 1960 government expenditure was a higher proportion of GNP (gross national product) at 41% than it had been in 1950 at 39%.

The Conservative Party’s conscience about the working class was summed up by Harold Macmillan (1894-1986), Prime Minister from 1957-63.

WE MUST REMEMBER THAT THE MEN FROM STOCKTON AND THE YORKSHIRE COALFIELDS HAD FOUGHT AND DIED AT YPRES AND PASSCHENDAELE… NO ONE AND INDEED NO ORGANIZATION OF OUR PEOPLE MUST BE RUSHED. CAUTION, AND, ABOVE ALL, RESTRAINT.

Butskellism prevailed through all of the post-War governments, no matter the majority of the governing party, as shown below.

July 1945 – February 1950

Labour

204

majority

February 1950 – October 1951

Labour

17

October 1951 – May 1955

Conservative

74

May 1955-May 1959

Conservative

57

May 1959 – October 1964

Conservative

107

October 1964 – April 1966

Labour

13

April 1966 – June 1970

Labour

110

June 1970 – February 1974

Conservative

43

THIS ONLY CHANGED WHEN I WAS ELECTED TO THE LEADERSHIP OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY IN FEBRUARY 1975.

What’s Wrong With Britain?

BY THE 1970S, GREAT BRITAIN LTD. WAS IN A DREADFUL STATE. WHAT WAS WRONG?

There had been the occasional attempt to stand out against the Keynesian approach. For example, Chancellor of the Exchequer Peter Thorneycroft (1909-94) and two ministers at the Treasury, Enoch Powell (1912-98) and Nigel Birch (1906-81)…

Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson (1916-95) tried to bring the unions under some control with the help of Barbara Castle (b. 1910), Minister for Employment and Productivity.

WE RESIGNED from THE CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT IN JANUARY 1958 OVER MACMILLAN’S REFUSAL TO ACCEPT OUR PROPOSED MONETARIST CUTS IN PUBLIC EXPENDITURE. WE INTRODUCED A WHITE PAPER, IN PLACE OF STRIFE, IN 1969.

When the unions protested, they backed down, setting the scene for the 1970s, a decade when government policy often seemed to be determined in TUC Congress House.

By the time James Callaghan (1912-2005) came to the end of his reign as Labour Prime Minister in 1979, cabinet papers were being sent to the TUC for approval. Callaghan said to the TUC General Council at 10 Downing Street…

WE ARE PROSTRATE BEFORE YOU BUT DON’T ASK US TO PUT IT IN WRITING.

The Rise of Heath

The Tories’ long spell in power, later to be dubbed “13 years of Tory misrule”, came to an end in October 1964 when the Labour Party under Harold Wilson, promising his “white-hot technological revolution”, defeated them. Labour’s majority was wafer-thin but in 1966 they improved it to around 100 and the Tories concentrated on re-thinking their policies for the future.

Traditionally, the leader of the Tory Party had been appointed by the grandees of the party after some consultation with other senior MPs.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home (1903-96) emerged as a compromise leader after an unpleasant series of squabbles and lobbying when Harold Macmillan resigned in 1963.

WHEN DOUGLAS-HOME STOOD DOWN AFTER HIS DEFEAT BY WILSON IN 1964, THE FIRST ELECTION BROUGHT FORWARD AN UNTYPICAL TORY LEADER … I INSTITUTED A MODERN ELECTION PROCESS. EDWARD HEATH, THE SON OF A CARPENTER FROM BROADSTAIRS, KENT.

During the Tories’ period in opposition in the second half of the 1960s, Heath started to shape his ideas, some of which challenged the consensus of the immediate post-War years. Heath talked of curbing the unions, the importance of competition, the need to reshape the welfare state with more emphasis on selectivity, and giving priority to business. Indeed, he told the Tory Party Conference after his Election victory in 1970 …

WE WILL EMBARK ON A CHANGE SO RADICAL, A REVOLUTION SO QUIET AND SO TOTAL THAT IT WILL GO FAR BEYOND THE PROGRAMME OF A PARLIAMENT … WE WERE RETURNED TO OFFICE TO CHANGE THE COURSE AND THE HISTORY OF THIS NATION, NOTHING LESS.

The End of “Selsdon Man”

However, the realities of government brought a series of U-turns, though in fact Heath had always believed in the necessity of the state being closely involved in the running of the economy. There had been much talk of allowing lame-duck companies to collapse, but in 1971 the government rescued first Rolls Royce, who had seriously underpriced their world-beating aircraft engine, the RB211, and then Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, whose outdated management and labour practices had made the company hopelessly uncompetitive.

AS INFLATION STARTED TO RISE IN 1972, FUELLED BY A RAPID INCREASE IN BANK CREDIT AND LOWERING OF TAKES, I INTRODUCED CONTROLS ON PAY, PRICES AND DIVIDENDS.

The good resolutions of 1970 epitomized in “Selsdon Man” (after a Tory planning meeting at the Selsdon Park Hotel) went by the board. In February 1974, Heath was defeated in a General Election called to ask the country …