The Government also began a policy of privatisation and … After three decades during which economic growth was shared across income groups, the distribution went into reverse. Historian Dr Martin Johnes says the antipathy towards Margaret Thatcher made some people question the whole political system - but not everyone in Wales opposed her or her polices. Once she had secured victory in the May 1979 general election, she made it clear she would be cutting benefits and squeezing public services. Changes were proposed to decrease direct taxation (i.e. Blair's epiphany came at the height of Margaret Thatcher's "right-to-buy" revolution. When Margaret Thatcher came into office in 1979, radical cutbacks to the welfare state (which she saw as an indicative source of the economic and social problems of the U.K.) were anticipated. Thatcher biographies. The proportion living below the poverty line rose from 13% to 43%. She was initially opposed to the right to buy. Economic Policy - Monetarism & Dealing with a Recession. The spread of privatisation of the major utilities altered the balance of the mixed economy. People often say that Margaret Thatcher's austerity policies were a "tough pill to swallow" but ended up saving Britain from ruin. VAT). (Wikimedia Commons) The Thatcher government, tearing up the ‘consensus’ policies of much of the first 30 years of the NHS, began to shift the argument in 1981 with the publication of a White Paper, ‘Growing Older’, and a consultative document, ‘Care in the Community’, both of which centred on the drive to transfer patients and services out from hospital settings into ‘the community.’ Extending home ownership and transferring social housing from local authorities to other landlords, most notably housing associations, were chief … In 1985, Margaret Thatcher signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement with the Irish government, seeking to take a joint role in ending the conflict in Northern Ireland, although the agreement lacked support in both communities in Northern Ireland. Thatcher’s Economic Policies The Thatcher Revolution. A lmost 34 years ago, Margaret Thatcher's drive towards a smaller state coincided with the launch of Society Guardian. When it comes to social issues there‘s even less to recommend her as an icon of liberty. Really called the “community charge”, this tax replaced local rates and was replaced by council tax. The former Tory minister, Sir Ian Gilmour, succinctly summed up the Thatcher/Major years: "The sacrifice imposed on the poor produced nothing miraculous except for the rich." Trade unions now operated in a tighter legal framework, including: the requirement for pre-strike ballots; the end of... 2. Housing was the hardest hit service. Malcolm Dean was founding editor of Society Guardian. ... Privatisation... Inequality. Note that the most controversial privatisation of all – British Rail – was actually privatised under Thatcher’s successor, John Major. Mrs. Thatcher’s economic policy was derived from the New Right economic philosophy of noted economists, F.A. This involved... Supply Side Policies. We appear to have come full circle. Based on the monetarist theories of Milton Friedman, the base interest rate was raised to 30% in 1979, in order to try and bring down inflation. Despite this, inflation peaked at 20% in 1980. The half-page feature in the broadsheet questioned the silence of cabinet ministers over proposed spending cuts. In 1984 they privatised British Telecom with over 2 million people buying shares in the company. In some key areas the state was not rolled back at the beginning. She accelerated the evolution of the British economy from statism to liberalism and became, by personality as much as achievement, the … In Thatcher's first two terms there was more continuity than change in health, social services and education. 214 High Street, In 1986, the government abolished the Greater London Council (GLC). We must reject apologetics for Thatcherism. In 1979 the post-tax income of the top 10% of the population was five times that of the bottom 10%; by 1997 it had doubled to 10 times as much. Further companies followed such as British Gas in 1986. This proved successful in establishing London as a global centre for financial services, although is blamed by some for the malpractice in banking that would ultimately result in the banking crisis of 2008. People living alone saw their local taxes reduce, but larger households saw sometimes very significant increases in their tax bill. As part of a famous television ad campaign from September 1986, an ordinary looking bloke is … A major plank of Thatcher’s social policy was to facilitate home ownership (Conservative Party, 1979). They suffered spending squeezes, but nothing on the scale of the savage cuts to benefits and housing. Thatcherism promised low taxes, less state intervention, and lower levels of public spending. Pensioners were the worst hit. The first line of her first public spending white paper declared: "Public expenditure is at the heart of Britain's present economic difficulties. In 1982, the government purchased new nuclear weapons, establishing the Trident nuclear submarine programme. Society Guardian was launched in September 1979, under the strapline: "For the first time since the founding of the welfare state, it can no longer be predicted that society is going to get better in the future." In the recession in the early 1990s under Major, the ratio of spending cuts to tax rises was 1:1; this recession it is 4:1. It asked: "Who's afraid of Mrs T?" VAT reg no 816865400. This accords with her goal of transforming the UK into a ‘property-owning democracy’ ( Thatcher, 1993 , p. 698), in which a high proportion of citizens owns a stake in the nation. Scotland being seen as a “guinea pig” for the controversial popular further reduced support for the Conservative Party in Scotland and increased support for independence. Social policy is a governments application for welfare development and social protection carried out in the community. The Thatcher Revolution was economic in method: “the object,” said Margaret Thatcher, “was to change the soul”. The impact on local government has also been significant. She did. and promised further scrutiny of her social policies. Right to Buy was one of the Thatcher governments’ most popular policies, and it had a profound social impact in dramatically increasing the rate of owner-occupancy. “Secondary action” or sympathy strikes was the idea of one set of workers coming out on strike to support another, rather than because they had a specific industrial dispute of their own. The Margret Thatcher’s conservative administration and Tony Blair’s labor administration had different approaches towards the issue of community mental health care policy. The first line of her first public spending white paper declared: "Public expenditure is at the heart of Britain's present economic difficulties.". But it is worth noting that Thatcher maintained a 60% rate for her first nine years. Politics. (Contemporary comparisons: interest rate 0.5% and inflation 2.6% as of summer 2018). Applied to social policy, it indicates minimal government involvement. Sir Roy Griffiths, who designed the reforms, rightly concluded that "if Florence Nightingale was carrying her lamp through the corridors of the NHS today, she would almost certainly be searching for the people in charge.". Boston House, 1 Thatcher married an Anglican, however, and at times was required to find a middle ground. She was forced, however, by party leader Ted Heath to announce the right to buy, as the shadow environment secretary in 1974. Thatcher is a social and fiscal conservative. The 1988 Education Reform Act was a major piece of legislation that introduced marketisation principles into state education. Ironically, the housing policy with which she is most closely associated, council home sales, was initially fervently opposed by her on the grounds that it would be unfair to people who had saved to finance their own homes. (At the time, the Labour Party was in favour of unilateral nuclear disarmament, providing a very clear difference between the two main parties). Margaret Thatcher, 1981. Until the late 1970s, the Square Mile was a genteel all-male club dominated by... 2 Privatisation. © 2021 Tutor2u Limited. ", Commenting has been disabled at this time but you can still. Von Hayek and Milton Friedman, with its opposition to corporatism, and its belief that the individual and markets performed best when left free of intervention from the state; (Childs & Storry, 1999, p. 540) it was grounded in the political and social circumstance of the day. A brutal widening of inequality followed, Margaret Thatcher with the Greater London Council's 12,000th council home buyer in 1980. Margaret Thatcher led a government that set out to take a sledgehammer to the post-war consensus and therefore drove through a large number of radical policy proposals, helped by healthy parliamentary majorities. It provided votes for the Tories in places they had never had before. Unemployment increased but the policy was successful on its own terms as it did bring down inflation, which the government viewed as more important. The council had a left-wing administration, led by Ken Livingstone, and abolishing it further reduced the influence of left-wing socialists on British public life. Once again ministers refuse to protest. In 1981, Chancellor Geoffrey Howe acted against the received wisdom of Keynesian economic by raising taxes and cutting spending during a recession. As the leader of the wartime coalition, the Conservative Party entered the post-war era committed to the introduction of progressive social policies to tackle poverty, healthcare, and … In fact, the evidence is that she left the UK economy weaker and more unequal. It was based on the idea of all individuals paying the same amount, rather than households paying based on the value of their property. The 1982 Employment Act further limited the powers of trade unions, banning “political strikes” and limiting the grounds upon which workers could go on strike. From the Falkland Islands, resilient labour and union negotiations, dangerous political climates with increasing IRA tensions, two recessions, and a vote against joining the Euro, Margaret Thatcher’s legacy is one to be admired given the economic turmoil and enormous social, political, and demographic changes during her mandate. Company Reg no: 04489574. Margaret Thatcher's premiership was a time of immense social and economic change, bringing high unemployment and industrial unrest but also home ownership and low taxation. Projections suggest this government will increase child poverty by 600,000. Here are some of the most high profile policies during the Thatcher premiership. income tax) and increase indirect taxation (i.e. No developed state, with the exception of New Zealand, suffered such a brutal widening of inequality. Social strictures. Here are some of the most high profile policies during the Thatcher premiership. This bibliography includes major books and articles about British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her policies in office. But was this talk of ‘rolling back the state’, of less state intervention and lower levels of public spending actually translated into practice? New Labour lifted 1.1 million children above the poverty line. West Yorkshire, Economic Policy - Monetarism & Dealing with a Recession A further irony for a party that is now so opposed to NHS managers, is that it was Thatcher who introduced them. Once she had secured victory in the May 1979 general election, she made it clear she would be cutting benefits and squeezing public services. In 1986, the government introduced a massive deregulation of banks, financial services and the City of London. It was not until her third term that restructuring began. Margaret Thatcher, British Conservative Party politician and prime minister (1979–90), Europe’s first woman prime minister. Almost 34 years ago, Margaret Thatcher's drive towards a smaller state coincided with the launch of Society Guardian. His book Democracy Under Attack – how the media distort policy and politics (Policy Press) is out in paperback on 18 April, priced £9.99, Society Guardian was launched in the wake of Margaret Thatcher's election. The first priority for the Thatcher Government in 1979 was the economy and the enterprise culture. In the … Margaret Thatcher: 20 ways that she changed Britain 1 Transforming the City of London. She precipitated a Social Housing crisis still being felt today. Social ... Social policy Foreign policy ... Works by or about Margaret Thatcher in libraries (WorldCat catalog) The "Thatcher years" were also marked by periods of high unemployment and social unrest, and many critics on the left of the political spectrum fault her economic policies for the unemployment level; many of the areas affected by mass unemployment as well as her monetarist economic policies remained blighted for decades, by such social problems as drug abuse and family breakdown. A Conservative chancellor is again hitting the poorest the hardest – harder than even Thatcher. In the early years of the 1980s, Mrs Thatcher embarked on a policy of Monetarism. Margaret Thatcher maintained a difficult relationship with Europe, but she was from from a figurehead for Euroscepticism Iain Begg p.28 Margaret Thatcher’s rejection of consensus was symptomatic of an anti-democratic tendency in a political system dominated by the executive Martin Smith p.32 The Housing Act, 1980, allowed council tenants to purchase council homes at a significantly discounted price. Gas, electricity,... 3. Margaret Thatcher's demolition job on the industrial might of the British trade union movement helped to generate an economic revolution. In 1989, Margaret Thatcher introduced the “poll tax” in Scotland before rolling it out to the rest of the country. The rich saw their tax rates fall from 83% to 40%. Child poverty more than doubled. Photograph: PA Archive, lmost 34 years ago, Margaret Thatcher's drive towards a smaller state coincided with the launch of Society Guardian. Among its many provisions were the introduction of SATs tests, league tables and the national curriculum. A key element of Thatcher economics was new market-based supply-side policies. Thatcher's government privatised a number of state-run companies, including key public utilities. Tel: +44 0844 800 0085. There can’t be … Thatcherism 1. This was a manifesto pledge in 1979 to establish the UK as a “property-owning democracy”. The neoliberal changes she initiated were continued and intensified by subsequent Conservative, New Labour and now Conservative-led coalition governments in the UK. The 1980 Employment Act outlawed “secondary action” by trade unions. The famous quote "there is no such thing as society" came later in an interview she gave to Woman's Own magazine in 1987. The 'social citizenship' model was not really challenged until the emergence of Margaret Thatcher as Conservative Party leader (1975) and then Prime Minister (1979). The policy had been opposed by Labour, on the grounds that it was depleting council housing stock, but this assisted a shift in voting behaviour among the “aspirational” working class towards voting Conservative. Margaret Thatcher led a government that set out to take a sledgehammer to the post-war consensus and therefore drove through a large number of radical policy proposals, helped by healthy parliamentary majorities. She reduced militant trade unionism leading to sharp decline in loss of working days. LS23 6AD Even since 1995, annual sales under Right to Buy have been around 50,000. Structural adjustment programmes were socially devastating One of the most surprising appointments that the young Margaret Thatcher made when … Again, the personal orientation of Thatcher herself is important here. The charge was deeply unpopular. Political Views. But from the very beginning of the 18 years of Conservative rule the poor were under the cosh. This act also greatly restricted the number of people who could legally be on a picket line (although this law was often broken during strikes in the 1980s, such as the Miners’ Strike in 84/85 and the Wapping print workers’ strike in 1985 as a picket line of six individuals was deemed entirely ineffective in such workplaces. Economics and unions. Margaret Thatcher, born Margaret Roberts, was born and raised in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. By 1987 more than 1 million homes had been sold to their tenants under the scheme which proved very popular with those tenants who taken a step onto the housing ladder. Boston Spa, Thatcher was raised, and remains, a devout Methodist. The law also made unions liable for damages arising from industrial action, allowing the government to seize funds of up to 250,000 pounds. Policy Press Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had a significant impact on economic, political and social life in the United Kingdom (UK) and elsewhere. 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