Political history notes

64 Wilson (Lab)
66 ”
70 Heath (Con) (not an aristocrat but adopted aristocratic mean)
74 Heath then
74 Wilson (Lab)
79 Thatcher
83 Thatcher

The country was run by the unions from 64-70
Barbara Castle
IN PLACE OF STRIFE

Tories brought in
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT 1971-2

TU Congress led by remnants of the Old Marxists

Heath: a one-nation Conservative.
73—electricians went on strike

Winter of 73-74 elec then miners
74-5
Power stns did n h coal

The 3-day week

Ind. Had t close dn.
Through the winter.

Heath calls election 74
me or the unions.
The great British public voted for the telly to go on after 10 o/c
April/May 1974

74 Lib-Lab pact
6 mos
[Heath tries deal w/ Lib but Jeremy Thorpe
Then LLP

Informal arr. Whereby the Libs won’t vote against Lab Party.
6 mos to Oct.
Another election:
The Lab. Party get in w/ a majority of about 4/5

Wilson as PM—normal govt arr.
74-76 country still being held to ransom by Unions—
Lab Party in pay of the Unions

TU + Lab Relns Act
TULRA
nothing like In Place of Strife
of 69

Lump thro’ mid-70s.

Country goes to the dogs.

76 Wilson stands down.
Conspiracy theories.

[Marcia Wms power behind W.’s throne
mo. of 2 children by the pol. Corresp. Of the Daily Expr.

nominated Marcia for a life peerage Lady Falkender

(Lady Forkbender)

/[illegible] MI5

/ late 50s/60s—thought losing faculties Alzheimer’s. (1976)

His no. 2, uncle Jim Callaghan, appoint him as leader of party.—PM
1976-9

Callaghan was a Union man,
His wife was a novelist
Crises. [Several words mostly illegible apart from “at” and “of” and possibly “unions”.]

(IMF)
“Crisis? What crisis?”—Next day—International Monetary Fund.

autumn ’78 labour market ready for revolution
Winter Union of ’78—Winter of Discontent
Public Serce Unions go on strike.

[Winter of Discontent.]

C carries on until loses a vote of no confidence in the HoC

Thatcher monetarist—you do not throw money away at things let the mkts run things. If unemployment goes to 3m, you let it happen.
Things don’t go well in first few years b/c of unemployment risesd.
Then the Argentinians invade the Falklands. This country stands up to sb for the 1st time for 37 yrs, we won the war, and on the back of that she went to the country after 4 yrs—enormous majority in the 140s (143 or 147), helped by the fact that in the 4 years after the Lab Party lost pwr, Callaghan had retired & the Lab P launch t th left—
Elect as their deputy leader Tony Benn & as leader Michael Foot an intellectual a brilliant orator but an unreconstructed Socialist

By then old (too o. to b a leader) Used t wear what looked like a donkey jacket had stick & little dog. Lab wrote manifesto later described as “the longest suicide note in history”—t g bk t the bad days of 64-79 [I am not sure whether that should be 64-69 or 74-79 or 64-79.] The world had moved on. The City was making money.

(83) Election. B/c Lab have lurched t th L, a gp of RW Lab ppl, called the Gang of 4 are—

--David Owen FS
--Shirley Wms
--Bill Rogers
--Roy Jenkins

left the Lab P—formed the Social Democratic Party

(Lib Party)

74-9 Thorpe was tried for conspiracy to murder, acquitted, but beaten by Auberon Waugh of the Protection of Dogs Party.

Jeremy Thorpe’s lover Norman [surname?]
Jean (Gene?) O’Newton shot the dog instead of Norman.

Liberal Party hadn’t had a very good time. SDP came along and got lots of votes from Labour.
Country still
Union pwr hadn’t bn broken.
Th miners cost 10X as much to mine a ton of coal here as to have it mined in Poland & import it. The miners had always been the princes of the labour mvt
The best looked after were the miners
Thatcher put an American in charge of th National Coal Board t turn around the mining ind. to close dn all the unprofitable mines. She saw what happened to Heath—voted out b/c pwr stns no coal. Spent 79-84 making sure the power stns had loads + loads + loads of coal stocks. + then the mine closure program was announced. Mine[?r]s were led by Arthur Scargill.—LW anarch. commist. 84 miner strike—where all the bitterness comes from against MT in ctn pts of the country we never had any pwr cuts b/c the pwr stns had a year’s worth of coal. She broke the miners. Notts mines: U.D.M.—that why bitterness in York, Durh, the NE, & in Kent, against MT—and that’s why hunting was banned by this Govt in 2000.

SDP has been formed for the ’87
they merge w/ the Liberal
SDLP 1987. Jt lead—
David Owen & David Steele
SDLP.
Change name to Liberal Democrats
& 92/97. Still the basic LibP
but with the Soc. Democrats