Thatchers Principles

Some links to Thatchers Policies

Apr 25, 1979

1979 Thatcher agreed to recommendations for increased public sector pay awards

Strong links to Thatchers Principles

Jun 25, 1979

June 1979 Pensions would be based not on the ‘movement in prices + earnings, whichever is greater’ but solely on prices – Pensioners set to get poorer relative to those in work

Strong Links to Thatchers Principles

Jun 25, 1979

June 1979 Budget raised indirect taxes (most importantly Value Added Tax VAT) from 8% to 15% but he cut the top rate of income tax from 83% to 60% + the standard rate from 33% - 30% - shift from direct to indirect tax designed to boost incentives by allowing the successful high earners to keep of their income. Interest rates were raised by 14% + these later reached 17% in Nov, rewarding those with large savings, but hurting people with debts. Major relaxation of exchange controls

Strong Links to Thatchers Policies

Jun 28, 1979

June 1979 Government Incomes policy was dropped

Some links to Thatchers Policy

Apr 25, 1980

1980 Budget large pay awards for police + army

Economy doing well

May 25, 1980

Inflation of 22% in spring 1980 up from Labour figure in 1979

Strong Links to Thatchers Principles

Jun 25, 1980

1980 Employment Act made secondary picketing illegal but didn’t make ballots compulsory or ban sympathetic strikes. All new closed shops (i.e. union only Labour in an industry) had to be approved by a 4/5 of those affected + public funds were made available to encouraged unions to hold postal ballots.

Strong links to Thatchers Policies

Sep 25, 1980

1980 Partly due to Govt. unwillingness to prop up manufacturing production fell by 11%

Some Links to Thatchers policy

Dec 30, 1980

Manufacturing production which was already declining, fell by 14% 1980-81, partly caused by this govt. policy unwillingness to intervene

Economy Doing Badly (GNP Falling)

Dec 31, 1980

1980-81 falling orders for manufactured goods saw the start of a recession + GNP fell by 3.2%.

Political and Social consequences (Riots)

Mar 17, 1981

Consequences of economic recession wave of riots across inner-city London, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds + Bristol in summer 1981

Economy Doing Badly (Unemployment at its lowest)

Mar 25, 1981

Unemployment rose to 2.7million in 1981, the highest since the depression of the 1930s

Economy doing well (Increased productivity)

Apr 25, 1981

1981 Productivity increased amongst those still in work

Strong Links to Thatchers Principles

Oct 25, 1981

1981 Budget 25p lower rate of tax introduced by Labour in 1978 was abolished

Economy doing badly (Unemployment fell)

Apr 20, 1982

1982 unemployment > 3 million

Political and Social Consequence (Thatchers Popularity)

Apr 25, 1982

1982 Thatcher’s continuation in office threatened. Opinion polls showed the Prime Minister’s personal popularity + that of her govt. had declined significantly.

Economy Doing Badly (Inflation begins to fall)

May 25, 1982

Inflation down to 10% 1982 – partly due to high unemployment

Strong Links to Thatchers Principles

Aug 18, 1982

Employment Act 1982 provided compensation from public funds to people dismissed from closed shops. It also made ‘union labour only’ requirements in contracts illegal. Trade unions became liable for damages if they were the cause of unlawful industrial actions. It gave employers legal redress against industrial action where the action was not wholly or mainly about employment matters (i.e. strikes which could be considered political)

Economy doing Badly (Public Expenditure)

Aug 25, 1982

Public expenditure continued to rise, reaching 44.5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 1982, largely as a result of the huge increases in the number of those receiving unemployment benefit

Economy Doing Badly (Increased Taxes)

Dec 31, 1982

Although direct taxes fell, the overall tax burden increased from 34% of GDP in 1978-79 to 40% of GDP in 1982/3

Economy Doing Badly (Bad Inflation)

Apr 25, 1983

Inflation 5% in 1983

Conclusion (2)

Apr 25, 1983

Although near the end of her tenure just before the falklands war the economy and unemployment did start to improve, despit this it did not look viable that she would be re-elected.

Conclusion

Dec 25, 1983

The timeline shows that Thatcher was very good at sticking to her principles, her govenrnment encouraged Unions to be less agressive and placed responsibility on them if a strike turned into a riot. She also encouraged businesses to act more independently, the government adopting a largely Laissez-Fare attitude towards businesses. However this does not mean that her policies were a success, they werent at first anyway. Unemployment hit a record low, Inflation fell etc.