Why Margaret Thatcher Was Able to Win Three Consecutive General Elections - Essay Example

Why Margaret Thatcher Was Able To Win Three Consecutive General Elections This essay has been divided into three sections that each address Margaret Thatcher’s three consecutive terms. Additionally, each touches on the important events and key policies that she proposed together with the activities of the opposition party and the Conservatives party. Furthermore, the essay looks into the aspects that contributed to Margaret Thatcher’s victory in the general elections and her eleven years in power. First, the paper addresses the period between 1974 and 1979 where two key British political parties were under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher for the Conservatives and Jim Callaghan for Labour (Owen and Howe, 2011:67). The general election in 1974 experienced a hung parliament and the Labour party was the leading party. The leader of the Labour party was Harold Wilson who was succeeded Jim Callaghan in April 1976 who was the first Prime Minister and was the only Prime Minister that held all the offices of state (BBC News, 2001). These are the Chancellor Exchequer (1964- 1970), Home Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary of State from 1974. In the meantime, Margaret Thatcher successfully ran for leadership of the Conservative Party against Edward Heath. She was the first woman to hold the leadership of a major political party. At this point, the economy was not an association with the Labour government to leave them in a properly regulated position. After the dramatic rise in oil prices between 1973 and 1974 during the OPEC oil price crisis inflation increased sharply to over 24 percent and the sterling pound was at an alarming point in the international currency. Between 1971 and 1974 the inflation rate reached 9.3 percent and had a peak of 27 percent in 1975 (BBC News, 2001). The average inflation between 1974 and 1978 was 17.3 percent and later decreased to 9.3 percent.. To keep up with the high inflation rates and the high prices of goods, it was expected for the workers to claim higher wages so as to survive the tough economic conditions. Workers’ unions demanded for higher wages, they asked for a 22 percent increase for firemen and a 14 percent increase for bakers in spite of the 5 percent limit that had been set by the government (BBC News, 2001). As a result, workers’ strikes began as strikes by truck drivers and garbage collection services and tank drivers came to a halt in Liverpool resulting into piling up of rubbish on the streets. What is worse is that grave diggers went on strike and this made the government look as though it had failed to control the situation. This was referred to as the Winter of Discontent and it was the major contributing factor to the Conservative’s party win in the General election in 1979 as the Labour Party had proven to be unreliable. The other aspect to note is that by April 1976 two days after Callaghan was elected into office, the Labour Party had lost its popularity to be a minority following the resignation of the Former Cabinet Minister John Stonehouse. Additionally, two backbenchers left to form the Scottish Labour Party (Bunn, 2010a). This was a miscalculation on Callaghan’s side as he had the right to hold an election by October 1978 but failed to as the economic performance had began to get better and then the ‘Winter of Discontent’ came up. On the other hand, the Conservatives were taking advantage of all the opportunities in the media to campaign. Mrs. Thatcher was more than glad to appear on the media and gave journalists numerous photo opportunities. Margaret Thatcher made an effective use of TV broadcast and the influence of their poster ‘Labour isn’t working’ that was delivered by Saatchi and Saatchi that showed a line of jobless individuals. The Conservative proposal was based away from the Keynesian economic policies that had been practiced since 1945 by all governments that had been in power. Instead, Mrs. Thatcher adopted monetary policies that had been proposed by Milton Friedman that were based on the fact that money supply is the main cause of the rising rates in inflation. This meant that for the government to regulate inflation they had to cut down on public expenditure and the money that flowed in businesses was to be controlled although this would result to loss in jobs (Owen and Howe, 2011). To be centred on minimising the rate of inflation, Margaret reckoned that a slight increase in inflation would create development opportunities for firms thereby creating increased demand for jobs owing to the non- fluctuation condition in the market. Other policies that could be explored included leaving the market open and allowing free movement within the economy by minimising the excessive power that has been given to tax cuts and Trade Unions. The Conservative Party was now viewed as the appropriate party that would give Britain the chance to solve the issues they were going through. The election results in 1979 put the conservative party into power after it won a the 1979 general elections after it had won 339 seats and marked the first of the four consecutive term. Margaret Thatcher thereby became the first woman Prime Minister (Bunn, 2010 b). Thatcher’s first term in office was extremely a hard time in the British politics. As explained above, Thatcher was largely influenced by the idea of monetarism that was based on the idea that inflation was leading evil against the government. Furthermore, to control the inflation rates the government needed to regulate money supply within the economy (EconomicHelp Website, 2007). Government expenditure was reduced while indirect taxes were lowered as way of fighting inflation. The first budget was introduced in 1979 where tax rates were reduced from 33 percent to 30 percent whereas the VAT tax was increased to 15 percent. Interest rates were kept on the high and were even increased to 14 percent. As a result, there was an economic recession between 1979 and 1981 where manufacturing reduced by approximately 20 percent. The consequent increase in unemployment made it hard to cut down the government spending and this increased until 1983 although after this it reduced considerably. Conversely, inflation reduced considerably as a result of the recession. In 1982, the inflation rate was at 5 percent that was OECD average and in 1986 it had fallen to 2.6 percent, the lowest point it had reached in nearly twenty years (Owen and Howe, 2011:73). The defining moment for the Conservative party during the time before the general election in 1983 was the Falkland War. Studies reveal that Mrs. Thatcher was the most unpopular candidate for the Prime Minister position prior to the war as per the opinion polls that were conducted in the early 80s as explained by Owen and Howe (2011:78). However, after the attack, her ratings rose from 41 percent in April to 56 percent and when the conflict was finally over in June, her ratings increased up to 59 percent (IPSOS Website, 2007). Nonetheless, even before the Falkland aspect happened, the economy had somewhat recovered from the recession and this considerably improved Thatcher’s image. Additionally, there was overwhelming public support behind the government’s resolution to retaliate and get the island back. The Economist conducted a research that showed that the move to send a naval task force to the conflict region was right. This showed that the Prime Minister was acting according to the peoples’ expectations and following the successful invasion, Mrs. Thatcher was viewed to be a patriotic and strong leader (Visitor6 Website, 2012). Margaret Thatcher’s efforts were applauded by the media and the public at large as expressed by Owen and Howe (2011:84). Clearly, the Falkland aspect was a contributing factor behind the 1983 Conservative Party win. However, there were other factors that led to her increased support such as what was taking place on the opposition side. The Labour party was becoming increasingly divided and seemed to be overly close to the trade unions and middle class voters appeared to be overly left- wing. The Labour Party manifesto in 1983 election that was described as the ‘longest suicide note’ in history’ can be described as being overly left-mall as explained by Rayner (2013). The party stated that it wished to depart from the EEC by the end of the subsequent term. Additionally, it would fight against free trade and set out to increase state intervention in businesses and the economy with increased collaboration with Trade Unions in employment decisions. It also wanted to nationalise various assets such as the bank of England. Finally, the party sought to end one of the well-liked policies of the conservative party that was referred to as “The Right to Buy” council tenant homes as expressed by Bunn (2010). Putting together all the aspects discussed above, the result was an overwhelming win for Mrs. Thatcher and this enabled her to conduct more radical reforms in her following term of power. The discussion below highlights the events that contributed towards Margaret’s Thatcher’s re-election for the second term. Soon after the 1983 election, she attended a European summit meeting in France. She had bickering for a long time to claim for the refund that Britain should have been given for contributing immensely to the EEC budget. For instance, Britain was the country that had the highest agricultural imports and paid a large sum of money for Common Agriculture Policy (CAP)’s as asserted Zijlstra (2005). She made a legendary statement that stated ‘I want my money back’. Although, the meeting was a success for the ‘Iron Lady’ while one the other side, it detached her from the European Union leaders in the region (Owen and Howe, 2011). The most important event in her second term in office was the defeat of the Miners strike between 1984 and 1985. She had anticipated the strike since 1974 as the miners had heavily opposed Heath’s government. Furthermore, in the 1983 election, the Labour Party had failed to stay in power and Michael Foot was its leader, she thought that the strike would naturally take place (Craig, 2013). Moreover, the National Coal board was organising a strike by closing down the ‘uneconomic pits’. Ian Macgregor was assigned as the chairman of the board as she pictured that the strike would take place stocking a large amount of coal in power stations. The miners were negotiating with external sources for funding in a move to prolong the strike. However, Margaret Thatcher was able to persuade the miners to end the strike. At the end of 1984, the miners who were facing a financial crisis and poverty reported back to work and admitted that the strike was a failure. The Miner’s Strike was a direct blow to Trade Unions and largely weakened their powers. The 80s can be simply described as a period of privatisation. Nationalised assets were progressively being sold to investors and private buyers. These included British Steel (1988), British Airways (1987), British Gas (1986) and British Telephone (1984). Privatisation in the electricity sector started in the 1190s and British Rail was privatised. Thatcher’s option for privatisation offered more options and increased competition in the market leading to a contribution of additional funds to the Treasury and offered competitive prices for customers (Owen and Howe, 2011). Nearly £440m was collected through the privatisation process by 1987 and this provided an avenue for the government for increased direct tax cuts. In spite of the rise in inflation rate, these were viewed as being economic friendly factors that put Margaret Thatcher in power for a third term in office. During the final term, Thatcher often fought with the members of her cabinet. In 1989, Margaret Thatcher disagreed with Chancellor of the Exchequer who later resigned from his position. She also disagreed with the foreign minister with regards to Britain’s incorporation into the European Union an idea that she strongly opposed. Thatcher is praised for having put an end to the Cold war and promoted diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the US. At the start of the 1990s, she had lost support from her party and withdrew on the realisation that she could not win a fourth term. References BBC News (2001) ‘Elections Battle 1945 – 1997: 1979: The Thatcher Era Begin’, viewed 29 Apr 2014 from . Bunn, M. (2010a) ‘1979 UK General Election’, viewed 29 Apr 2014 from Available . Bunn, M. (2010b) ‘1983 UK General Election’, viewed 29 Apr 2014 from . Craig, J. (2013) ‘Miners Strike: Margaret Thatcher Triumph’, viewed 29 Apr 2014 from . EconomicsHelp Website (2007) ‘UK Economy under Mrs Thatcher 1979-1984’, viewed 29 Apr 2014 from . IPSOS-Mori Website (2007) ‘Political Commentary - The Falklands Factor Revisited’, viewed 29 Apr 2014 from . Owen, V. & Howe, C. (2011) Politics, Essex, Pearson Education. Rayner, G. (2013) ‘Margaret Thatcher dies: time and achievements as Britains first female PM’, viewed 29 Apr 2014 from . Visitor6 Website (2012) ‘The Reasons why the Conservatives won the General Elections of 1979, 1983 and 1987?’ viewed 29 Apr 2014 from . Zijlstra, T. (2005) ‘The people want their money back’, viewed 29 Apr 2014 from . Read More