Download Thatcher reading answers

Margaret Thatcher and Thatcherism
TASK A
What do you know about Margaret Thatcher and Thatcherism? Discuss with your group.
TASK B
You are going to read an article by Dennis Kavanagh, Emeritus Professor of Politics at
Liverpool University, entitled ‘Thatcherism and the End of the Post-War Consensus’.
Before you read, check the meaning of these words in a dictionary.
1.
2.
3.
4.
consensus
to vindicate
to curb
social
engineering
5. to redistribute
(wealth)
6. flagship policy
7. landslide
victory (in an
election)
8. mandate
9. endorsement
10. dependency
11. enterprise
12. electorate
13. repudiation
14. resurgent
15. premiership
16. devolution
17. convergence
TASK C
Read the article. Answer this question.
1. What is the writer’s overall purpose?
A to outline the history of Thatcherism
B to publicise the decline of Thatcherism
C to promote Thatcherism as a political solution
TASK D
Look at the article again. Answer these questions.
2. According to the writer, Britain after the Second World War
A was far less powerful than most other developed nations.
B became an example for other democratic countries to follow.
C did not have as much influence on the global economy as before.
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18. to encompass
19. neo-liberal
20. underclass
3. Which feature of post-war domestic politics is not described?
A
B
C
D
E
F
providing services for the disadvantaged at the state’s expense
actively influencing the structure of the economy
applying strategies to ensure that everyone was in work
actively encouraging the creation of a fairer society
establishing organisations to tackle discrimination
seeking advice from worker organisations on certain initiatives
4. The writer says that the term ‘consensus’ is problematic because
A it implies that agreement between parties was always reached.
B members of the Labour party preferred to use an alternative word.
C the Conservative party were often working on separate issues to Labour.
5. According to the writer, Britain’s status as the ‘sick man of Europe’ was partly blamed on
A the dishonest practices of managers.
B investment in the wrong kind of technology.
C the lack of freedom in the way people worked.
6. According to the writer, the International Monetary Fund’s ‘rescue’ of Britain in 1976
A was generally welcomed by financial markets.
B indicated the death of a particular economic theory.
C was the result of hard negotiation by the government.
7. According to the writer, the ‘Winter of Discontent’ in 1979
A forced the government to take the issue of inflation more seriously.
B led to public sector organisations becoming more critical of the government.
C resulted in a loss of faith in the government’s ability to look after the economy.
8. The writer suggests that the success of Thatcherism
A is rejected by its critics.
B cannot be easily explained.
C has often been misunderstood.
9. The writer says that in the domestic politics of the 1980s,
A people were encouraged to buy state-funded accommodation.
B a large number of people were prosecuted for taking industrial action.
C people were unable to receive help from the government to find secure jobs.
10. The writer argues that the recapture of the Falkland Islands was significant because
A it allowed the government to silence critics of its initiatives.
B it enabled Thatcher to reinforce her position as person in charge.
C it justified Conservative policies that had been previously implemented.
11. The writer says that the Conservatives won at the 1983 elections
A despite personal attacks against Thatcher.
B owing to the incompetence of opposition parties.
C because of the way parliamentary positions are given.
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12. According to the writer, Labour’s ‘conversion’ included
A encouraging the working class to retrain.
B limiting the effects of globalisation.
C making changes to tax laws.
13. According to the writer, Thatcherism’s influence on New Labour includes
A an emphasis on the executive powers of the Prime Minister.
B the deliberate attempt to make British politics more American.
C the greater independence given to public sector organisations.
14. What does the writer say about the ‘new consensus’?
A It is not as secure as the consensus that arose immediately after World War Two.
B It demonstrates the difficulty of distinguishing between leftwing and rightwing policies.
C It has arisen through compromises made by both Labour and the Conservatives.
15. According to the writer, what do New Labour and the Conservatives still disagree about?
A
B
C
D
E
minimising direct rates of tax
keeping inflation manageable
encouraging privatisation
family responsibilities
improving public services
16. Which major social change over the last 50 years is not mentioned in the conclusion?
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
the rise of culturally mixed societies
the number of adolescent parents
the rise of a self-centred society
the proportion of female workers
the rise of new superpowers
the decline of Britain’s global influence
the decline in the number of votes cast
17. You want to find out more about Thatcherism and its legacy. In which book can you read
essays on the topic by several different authors?
A
B
C
D
Thatcherism and British Politics: The End of Consensus?
The Blair Effect 2001-2005
The Road to 1945
Consensus. A Debate Too Far
TASK E
The article was written before the election of David Cameron and the current ConservativeLiberal Democrat coalition government. To what extent do you think the new consensus
that Kavanagh discusses still exists in British politics today? Discuss with your group.
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Thatcherism and the End of the Post-War Consensus
By Dennis Kavanagh
Consensus
Britain emerged from the 1939-1945 war triumphant, but economically exhausted. It was one of the
top three superpowers, although in reality a distant third behind the United States and the Soviet
Union. Nonetheless, its political system and the British state had been vindicated by success in
war, and over the next few years Britain emerged as a model social democracy, combining
planning and collectivism with civil liberties.
The 1945 Labour government was largely responsible for what is called the 'post-war consensus'.
However, some of the key elements can trace their origins to the war-time coalition government
and the influence of Liberals like William Beveridge and the economist John Maynard Keynes.
The major features of domestic politics included:
1. Governments accepted a commitment to maintain full employment by Keynesian techniques of
economic management. Ministers would use their levers, such as cutting taxes and boosting state
spending, to increase the level of economic activity.
2. Acceptance and some encouragement of the role of the trade unions. In contrast to the pre-war
years, governments recognised and consulted them regularly on workplace relations and economic
policy. The unions’ access to government was increased partly by full employment and partly by
governments turning, post-1961, to income policies as a way of curbing inflation.
3. The mixed economy, with a large role for state ownership of the utilities (such as gas, electricity,
coal, rail, etc) and intervention and planning in the economy.
4. The welfare state. The object of the national insurance system and the National Health Service
was to provide an adequate income and free health when a family’s income was hit by, for
example, sickness, old age, unemployment or death of the main breadwinner. The services were
provided out of general taxation, or insurance, and represented social citizenship.
5. There was a belief that government could play a positive role in promoting greater equality
through social engineering, for example, by progressive taxation, redistributive welfare spending,
comprehensive schooling and regional policies.
Abroad, the parties agreed on: the transition of the empire to the British Commonwealth, an
association of independent states; British membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
(Nato); nuclear weapons, (regarded as a mark of being a major power); and, on balance, that
Britain should join the European Community.
These policies were pursued by both Labour and Conservative governments, the latter because
they thought it was necessary to gain working class support to win general elections and gain the
consent of the major interest groups.
Consensus is not an ideal term because it may be read as suggesting that there were no
differences between the parties. In fact, the above ideas and policies were often challenged by the
left of the Labour party and by the free market or right wing of the Conservatives. But much of the
political elite – the media, civil service and the leaderships of the parties, particularly when they
were in government - shared many of these ideas.
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Economic decline
Prime Minister Edward Heath in 1971 ©
During the 1960s and 1970s, the main parties competed to reverse Britain’s relative economic
decline. There was a growing awareness that the economic league tables showed that Britain was
at the wrong end for figures regarding strikes, productivity, inflation, economic growth and rising
living standards.
Virtually all European countries, except for Britain, had so-called 'economic miracles'. Britain was
often described as the 'sick man of Europe'. The targets for blame included: failure to invest in new
plant and machinery; restrictive working practices and outdated attitudes on the shop floor ('us and
them'); amateurish management; loss of markets; and rise of competition.
Britain appeared to be the weak link in the international liberal capitalist economic system, plagued
by high inflation, low growth and irresponsible trade union power.
Governments of both parties turned to incomes policies as an answer to inflation. They tried to
agree a 'norm' for annual wage rises with the unions. This was always difficult for the unions, for
their purpose is collective bargaining. This policy managed to keep prices down for a time, but
collapsed when powerful groups broke the 'norm'. They failed dramatically with the Edward Heath
government in 1973-1974 and again with the Labour government in 1979.
Measures to boost economic activity and reduce unemployment sucked in extra imports, thereby
worsening the trade balance, and seemed to lead to unacceptable rises in inflation. The financial
markets’ loss of confidence meant a sharp slide in the value of sterling, which in turn led to the
International Monetary Fund's 'rescue' in 1976. The IMF granted a loan to the British government in
return for spending cuts and continued anti-inflation policies. That this happened at a time of high
unemployment seemed to signal the end of the era of following Keynesian economic policies.
The 'Winter of Discontent' in 1979 was a key event. The rash of strikes in crucial public services
against the Labour government’s income policies seemed to show that the country was
ungovernable and that no government had an answer to inflation. It destroyed the government’s
reputation for prudent economic management and its ability to gain the cooperation of the unions.
Just as the Heath government had come to grief following the miners’ damaging strike against its
incomes policy and subsequently lost the February 1974 general election, so the Labour
government lost office in 1979 on pretty similar grounds.
There were two responses to this failure. From the right, the new ideas of economists Friedrich
Hayek and Milton Friedman - advocating monetarism, a greater scope for markets and limited
government - won out over the ideas of the left for more state ownership and protection of industry
following a withdrawal from the European Community.
Thatcherism
Much of so-called Thatcherism actually evolved as circumstances allowed, and was helped by the
failures of the opposition. For example, privatisation, a flagship policy, was not mentioned in the
1979 manifesto.
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At the 1983 general election, in spite of unemployment doubling to some three million, the
government won a landslide victory thanks in large part to Labour’s divisions and its left-wing
policies.
It is interesting to consider the fate in the 1980s of the five features of the post-war consensus
outlined previously.
1. Trade unions now operated in a tighter legal framework, including: the requirement for pre-strike
ballots; the end of the 'closed shop' (union membership as a precondition of employment in a
specific industry); and making unions liable for damages incurred in illegal strikes. They were
hardly consulted by the government and their influence waned in part because of the abandonment
of income policies and rising unemployment.
2. The spread of privatisation of the major utilities altered the balance of the mixed economy. Gas,
electricity, telephony, British Airways and later British Rail were all privatised. There was also a
huge sale to tenants of council housing.
3. The government abandoned its commitment to full employment, stating this was the
responsibility of employers and employees, and accorded priority instead to keeping inflation low.
4. Welfare state benefits were increasingly subject to means-testing.
5. Government insisted that it could no longer be a universal provider. More should be left to the
market, the voluntary sector and self-help.
Thatcher's mandate
Striking miners clash with police in Wooley, Yorkshire, 1984 ©
There was no great endorsement of Thatcherism in 1979. As late as October 1978, Labour was still
ahead in some opinion polls, but the 'Winter of Discontent' turned the public against Labour and the
unions. The election was more of a rejection of Labour than an endorsement of Thatcherism.
The recapture of the Falkland Islands from Argentina in 1982 was important for the success of the
Thatcher project. It coincided with an improvement in the public standing of the government and of
Thatcher herself. The victory seemed to vindicate her claims in domestic politics that she could
provide strong leadership and stand up for the nation. The war rhetoric could now be turned
against the enemies within - particularly the trade unions.
There are academic disputes about the extent to which military success boosted Conservative
chances in the 1983 election. There were signs of a revival in the polls and greater economic
optimism even before the capture. But what if the Falklands had been lost? Would the government
have survived?
Thatcher was respected but not liked by the British public. For all the talk of sweeping election
successes, government only gained an average of 42% of the vote at general elections. But the
peculiarities of the British electoral system and the split of the non-Conservative vote between the
Labour and Liberal-Alliance parties meant that the government was able to win over 60% of seats
in the House of Commons.
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Surveys showed limited support for many of Thatcher’s values. Professor Ivor Crewe’s 'The
Crusade that Failed' noted the lack of support for Thatcher’s policies on 'tax-and-spend' and
replacing the dependency culture with an enterprise culture. And there was greater approval for a
more equal society and for social and collective provision of welfare as against Thatcher's vision of
people looking after themselves.
But Labour could not exploit this dissatisfaction, because it was not trusted on the economy or
defence and was widely seen as weak and divided.
Labour conversion
Successive heavy general election defeats gradually convinced Labour to accept much of the new
settlement. From outright repudiation of the policies at the 1983 general election, Labour steadily
came to accept successive tranches of Thatcher's policies.
Some of these policies, including sales of cheap shares in privatising utilities, cutting direct taxes,
and trade union reforms, were widely popular.
Globalisation also meant that there were international pressures for national governments to
pursue ‘prudent’ economic policies. Labour gradually accepted the need to prioritise economic
stability, low inflation and borrowing, and encourage private enterprise.
In addition, de-industrialisation and the decline of the working class and trade union membership
meant that Labour’s traditional electoral base was being eroded. Gaining the support of an
increasingly middle class electorate was crucial for electoral victory as Britain underwent
demographic and economic change.
Legacy
The first 'New' Labour Prime Minister, Tony Blair ©
Despite British membership of the European Community, Britain's relationship with the US remains
dominant. Forced to choose between the two, the first 'New' Labour prime minister, Tony Blair,
followed Thatcher in allying Britain with the US, particularly around the issue of going to war.
And Thatcher may have actually helped 'New' Labour (the name given by Blair to his resurgent
party to distinguish it from the discredited policies associated with 'old', weak, divided Labour) by
weakening some of the more electorally unpopular interests Labour was associated with.
In terms of political style, Thatcher made the case for a strong premiership. Blair and his successor
Gordon Brown have both sought to equip the prime minister's office to intervene more directly in
the departments of government, and as a result the institution of the cabinet has continued its longterm decline. England (which missed out on devolution) is also more centralised.
Local government has continued its post-1945 decline. Since its election victory in 1997, Labour
has continued to cap local expenditure and allows local government to raise only 30% of its own
funding. In the provision of public services, there are even more constraints on local autonomy via
targets and reviews.
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For this reason, the journalist Simon Jenkins claims John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are
‘Sons of Thatcher’.
But the Thatcher era also meant a massive under-investment in infrastructure, particularly railways,
roads, schools and universities. Inequality increased. The winners included much of the corporate
sector and the City, and the losers, much of the public sector and manufacturing.
A new consensus?
The Labour and Conservative parties continue to differ over the role of the state, particularly
regarding spending, legislating and regulating, and society, particularly regarding the roles of
families and voluntary groups.
But the convergence of many policies between the parties has occurred in two stages. Firstly
Labour accepted the Thatcher settlement. This encompassed: making the control of inflation a
priority, but not having income policies; giving a greater role to markets, including privatisation;
flexible labour markets, but with a place for the minimum wage and the 'social chapter' (part of the
1991 Maastricht Treaty on European Union relating to workers' rights and other social issues);
lower direct rates of tax; means-testing for some welfare benefits; and not restoring the up-rating of
old age pensions and wage rises.
The result has been, to quote The Times' political commentator Peter Riddell, that an economist
from Mars 'would conclude that the same government had been in charge throughout the second
half of the 1990s'.
Secondly the Conservatives accepted the Blair settlement. This has involved: accepting the
government’s planned public spending totals, notably for health and education; Bank of England
independence; and many of Labour's constitutional reforms.
In effect, the two main parties have accepted a neo-liberal model of policy as a means of coping
with the constraints and opportunities of globalisation. Both also accept the need for reform of
public services and for greater value for money if taxpayers are likely to be resistant to increasing
the share of the national income much above 40% devoted to public spending
Conclusion
Tony Blair's successor as prime minister, Gordon Brown ©
Some of the major social changes over the past 50 years include the loss of empire and of world
power status, a weaker sense of collective British identity (devolution as both cause and
consequence), an increase in immigration, first from the newer Commonwealth countries and now
from new EU states, and the growth of multiculturalism and changes in the balance of the
population ( the decline of manual work, the increase in the number of women in the workforce and
rising numbers of the elderly).
There has been a shift from the 'old' politics of parties and elections as reflected in falling
membership and turnout. This may be a consequence of the decline in ideological divisions
between the main parties, but there is still public interest in political issues. Prominent recent
examples have been the mass demonstrations against the Iraq war and in defence of the
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countryside.
Society has also become more individualistic, as seen in the passion for home ownership and in
Blair’s emphasis on choice in the public services. Britain's one-size-fits-all, post-1945 public
services are seen to be less responsive to consumers. There remains a north-south (more
accurately, London and the south east versus the rest) divide in terms of economic wealth and
opportunity.
London has gained greatly from the globalising economy, while the north remains heavily
dependent on public spending for jobs and economic activity.
And despite rising living standards and greater opportunity for many, society has become more
'broken' and an 'underclass' has emerged. Indicators of these trends are divorce, which has
increased twentyfold, the prison population, which has increased sevenfold, and the fact that
Britain has more births outside marriage and teenage mothers than any other European country.
Find out more
Thatcherism and British Politics: The End of Consensus? by Dennis Kavanagh (Oxford University
Press, 1987)
The Blair Effect 2001-2005 by A Seldon and D Kavanagh eds (Cambridge University Press, 2001)
The Road to 1945 by P Addison (Pimlico, 2nd ed 1975)
Consensus. A Debate Too Far by A Seldon (in Parliamentary Affairs, 1994 2440 words 30/11)
About the author
Dennis Kavanagh is emeritus professor of politics at Liverpool University. Before joining Liverpool
in 1996 he was professor of politics at Nottingham University. He has written or edited more than
30 books, most recently 'The British General Election of 2005' with David Butler.
Source
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/thatcherism_01.shtml [accessed 11 Jan 2012]
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KEY
1. A
2. B
3. E
4. A
5. C
6. B
7. C
8. C
9. A
10. B
11. C
12. C
13. A
14. C
15. D
16. E
17. B
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