The Thatcher Years (6)

Curb the Union's power.

Stop the over-intervention government.

Cut public-expenditures.

Mass-privatisation (in order to promote popular capitalism).

She managed to reduce inflation.

However, unemployement increased during her years of power.

Promoted advocated 19^th values : hard-work, self-help. Forget the idea that the governement is going to help you everty time you need it.

In 1959 she was elected MP for Finchley. 1964-1970 Labour was in power, and she was a member of the Shadow Cabinet (Heath was the leader). She challenged Heath for the leadership of the Cons' party, and she won. If the Cons party was to win the election, she would be the first woman Prime Minister : what happened in 1979.

> How long have the Conservative been in Government ?

11 years : 1979-1990.

> What view is given of the past, the present, the future unemployement situation ?

Past : Typical strategy : consequence of the previous government, Labour did it wrong.

Present : Unemployement = huge problem.

Future : Thatcher's new Employement Secretary Norman Tebbit say that the situation is not going to improve : pessimistic approach to the future.

> What strategy would be a mistake according to the Conservatives ?

According to them, increasing wages would be a mistake. It would have an impact on British goods, which would be more expensive and so less attractive on the market, and in the end would bring more unemployement.

> What is the real way to solve the problem for the Conservatives ?

Keep down wage demands → in order to make British goods more competitive, more attractive.

> When did unemployment peak ? How high did it get ?

Unemployment shot up under the Cons, to levels never seen since the great depression. The % of unemployed people skyrocketed during the Thatcher years, in 1994 3.3 million unemployed (biggest number).

> Contrast the article with the following image.

Election poster for the Cons party in the context of the 1979 election. This is also the year of the winter of discontent, so it was very cleverly managed : the picture show a lot of people lining up for in front of the unemployment office : this is the dole queue → what the poster is doing is associating labour to the Winter of Discontent.

BBC Thatcher years figures.

→ intéressant de connaître les chiffres du chômage et de l'inflation dans les années Thatcher, notamment le taux de chômage à son arrivée et à son départ.

The Thatcher years (7)

Inflation

The problem of the inflation is the repercussion of the previous gvt. The british economy was plagued by inflation. However the cons have managed to contain inflation, so it's getting better and better even if actually it didn't disappear in the UK.

Transformation

According to the Cons the Thatcher government has managed to solve problems thx to its policy of denationalisation, they managed to contain the inflation. All the problems hasn't been solved yet, but they intend to.

Labour

The Cons hold the Labour party responsible for all the problems in the country (notamment les dettes qu'ils ont laissés et que les Conservatives ont du payer). Line 3 « when we came […] ». The Cons claimed themselves as the ones who put the country back on track on the road to prosperity. Line 10 « a cruel deceit ». The Labour are described as highly innefficient.

Unemployment

Unemployment soared during the Thatcher years to levels never seen since the great depression. But once again the Cons party choses here to blame the other for that, they claim it's due to the modernisation of industry. The Cons propose a solution to unemployement, but they never managed to reduce the unemployement rate.

National pride

Malwouines « the Falklands » : Recapture the nation old pride. Enable Thatcher to be popular again : it marks a turning point in Margaret Thatcher's popularity. This victory combine with the economic recovery, it was the right time to call for an election.