‘Thatcher’s Britain’Dr Robert Saunders

Queen Mary University of London

Thatcher’s Britain:1975-1990

‘I came into politics because of the conflict

between good and evil’

Thatcher and Reagan

The Cold War: East v West

THE NORTHERN IRELAND ‘TROUBLES’: 1968-1998

THE BRIGHTON BOMBING, 12 October 1984

The Three Day Week, 1974

‘The Winter of Discontent, 1978-79’

What’s wrong with Britain?

1. The state was too big

2. Trade Unions were too powerful

3. Something had gone wrong with the national character

SOCIALISM!

What to do next?

1. Tax Cuts: Top rate of income tax halved (83p to 40p); basic rate down from 33p to 35p

2. Privatisation: British Gas, British Coal, British Telecom etc

3. Cuts in public spending – especially subsidies to industry

4. Reform of Trade Union law: 7 new Trade Union Acts

Thatcher on Council Housing

‘council estates bring together people who are out of work but enjoy security of tenure at subsidized rents. They not only have every incentive to stay where they are: they mutually reinforce each other’s passivity and undermine each other’s initiative. Thus a culture grows up in which the unemployed are content to remain living mainly on the state with little will to move and find work’.

The 1981 Riots

The Miners’ Strike, 1984-85

‘The Battle of Orgreave’, June 1984

Leadership Election, 1990

Michael Heseltine Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle

22 November 1990: Margaret Thatcher announces her resignation

Poll Tax Riots1989-1990

John Major (‘The Grey Man’)