Britain 1930-97 essays
“The achievements of the Heath government between 1970-4 were limited.” How far do you agree?
Heath aimed to reduce inflation, transform union relations and join the EEC. He only achieved the latter
and with fairly heavy compromise. His U-turn resulting in the abandonment of his Selsdon Man policy
highlighted an inability to initiate deep economic reform and the failure of the 1971 Industrial Relations
Act made it clear that he failed to create lasting policy. Furthermore his loss of the 1974 from his 1970
30 seat lead as a result of the 1973 oil shock and 3 day working week as well as social and economic
issues highlights an overall limited term. Heath’s achievements were extremely limited economically,
politically and especially socially.
Heath created the Selsdon Man policy to reduce government intervention and allow the failure of ‘lame
duck’ industries was anti-Keynesianism and a break away from consensus. However, by January 1971 he
saved the air division of Rolls Royce and gave £35 million to Upper Clyde Shipbuilding in February 1972
to save 3000 jobs. Whilst it meant that unemployment didn’t worsen under Heath, his U-turn on his
policy highlighted he could not fix the long standing issue of inflation, which increased from 5% to 10%
under Heath, and was trapped, only able to react to issues rather than reform, so he made no economic
achievement.
Heath aimed to reduce union power to appear stronger and enforce policies more easily. However, the
1971 Industrial Relations Act, increasing the cooling off period from 28 to 60 days, and forcing unions to
join the new Industrial Relations Commission and National Industrial Relations Court to avoid damages
and liability to claims only made union relations worse. Only 32 unions joined, which made the laws
powers severely restricted and undermined Heath’s power greatly. Similarly, a legal judgment in 1972
ordering the release of dock workers who failed to appear before the NIRC seriously undermined
Heath’s and the Industrial Relation Act’s credibility, only presenting his image as weaker in the public
eye.
This resulted in increased union anger and confrontation, which probably led to such a severe
government loss in the January – February 1972 miner’s strike. 280,000 coal miners went on strike
resulting in a state of emergency being declared and regular power cuts, which forced Heath to allow a
47% wage increase. This not only highlighted Heath’s weakness to union power and showed a failure to
address union relations, but also encouraged other workers to strike and the number of working days
lost to strikes was double in Heath’s 4 years what it was in Wilson’s 6 years, added to inflationary
pressure and further weakened the government’s image. A public poll in 1973 showed that Jack Jones,
leader of the Transport Workers’ Union, was voted the most powerful man in the country. Therefore,
Heath’s social achievements were non-existent and if anything worsened the economic issues, especially
inflation.
This resulted in a political impact for Heath too. In the run up to the 1974 election the slogan “Who
governs Britain?” arose in the media, indicating Heath’s inability to make lasting and decisive policies
and to assert power over unions. Politically, Heath also faced the 1973 Oil Price Shock and 3 day working
week. Given that the Middle East provided 50% of Britain’s energy needs, it was a huge failure of
Heath’s to seemingly accept Israel’s role in the war against Egypt and Syria, leading to the restriction of
oil supplies and quadrupling of oil prices. This resulted in another state of emergency being declared on
the 13th December 1973 and the introduction of a 50mph speed limit, closing down of television at
, 10.30pm and 3 day working week in industry from the 31 st of December. Heath’s failure to deal
successfully with foreign relations resulted in major consequences for the British public, that again
Heath had no control over. However, Britain did become a full member of the EEC on 1 st of January
1973, fulfilling one of Heath’s aims, but it was on the French terms of sacrificing preferential trade deals,
with the commonwealth and heavily subsidising French farmers, so the joining of the EEC showed very
little benefits under Heath’s time. Therefore, despite this success Heath’s political achievements were
heavily limited and once again highlighted his lack of control over matters affecting the public.
Heath failed to achieve his aims of curbing inflation and reducing union power; his U-turn showed an
inability to follow through addressing longstanding issues and his Industrial Relations Act in fact
worsened union relations, which in turn worsened inflation with the miner’s strike failure, again showing
an inability to follow through. Whilst he did achieve Britain joining the EEC, the heavy compromise
displayed little real success and the oil price shock highlighted Britain freezing whilst Heath had no
control over the matter due to an error in foreign relations. Heath had to declare a state of emergency
twice in four years and displayed a lack of control and decisive power in all aspects of government;
economic, political and especially social, so Heath’s achievements were extremely limited.
15/20
Feedback: good content, but the specific point in each paragraph needs to be clearer and reinforce
significance – judgements are hanging. Essay is also short.
To what extent was there a social revolution under Thatcher?
A social revolution is a change that not only changes the nature of society but has a real effect on a wide
proportion of people’s lives. One of Thatcher’s core aims was to reduce dependency culture by reducing
government spending, and her main social reforms aimed to reduce union power, increase home
ownership and change the welfare state. In regards to unions, Thatcher succeeded in reducing their
power and so revolutionising the way workers took action rather than striking. However, no great
reform was seen in housing or the welfare state or in addressing social inequalities so there was no
social revolution, only in union revolution.
Thatcher used a piecemeal strategy of introducing law across the 1980 and 1982 Employment Act and
the 1984 Trade Union act, which resulted in her ability to legally require pre-strike ballots, increase the
cooling off period from 28 to 60 days and outlaw secondary and sympathy strikes. This highlighted her
ability to reform where many previous governments had failed and so showed a reform in union
relations. The effect of her legislation resulted in the failure of the 1984 miners’ strike, and showed how
when previously miners had achieved 47% pay rises were now not united; Nottingham never joined the
strike, and public support turned against strikes after violent protestors were shown as police tried to
break through strike lines. Her preparation by coal stockpiling also led to the defeat and so overall her
law and strategy highlighted a new era to workers, where strikes were no longer the right action against
employers and so decreased the power of unions to force the government’s hand. Furthermore, 1979-
90 the number of working days lost to strikes fell from 30 million a year to 2 million, and union
membership fell by 4 million. Therefore, Thatcher succeeded in decreasing union power to the point
