Change In British Politics

Hugh Berrington

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• eBook ISBN: 9781135779818
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

First Published in 2004. The most striking change in British politics, during the seventies and early eighties, was the undermining and then the end of the post-war British consensus. That consensus had been long in decline before the final seals were set by Mrs Thatcher's victories in 1979 and 1983. The consensus, and the end itself, had profound effects on the British polity: they unsettled the distribution of power within the political parties (and hence the working of the institutions of the government); the direction of economic policy, the character of local government, and relations between government and interest groups were transformed. What accounts for the ending, in the mid-1970s of the 'policy consensus' which characterised British politics for most of the post-war period? The essays in this collection seek to explore the causes, and some of the consequences, of this breakdown.

The United Kingdom Election of 1983

John Curtice

The United Kingdom went to the polls on 9 June 1983, just over four years after the previous general election, and nearly a year before Mrs Thatcher, the Prime Minister, was constitutionally required to face the electorate. Her decision to hold an election paid off handsomely. The Conservatives were returned to power with a majority of 144 seats, the largest majority won by any party since the Labour party’s famous victory in 1945.

The decision to call an election came after a period of intense speculation about the possibility of an early poll. Both political and economic indicators suggested that the Conservative government could reasonably have high hopes of winning an early poll, but that its prospects thereafter were less certain. The government had continuously enjoyed a comfortable lead in the opinion polls since the onset of the Falklands War in the spring of 1982. The year-on-year inflation rate was set to drop below four per cent in the early summer (a 15-year low) but seemed certain to rise thereafter. Meanwhile the level of unemployment was continuing to rise and, despite an increase in personal disposable income and in consumer spending over the previous twelve months, few if any economists anticipated any sustained reversal of the upward trend in unemployment to set in during the next twelve months. Thus although local elections held throughout most of England and Wales on 5 May pointed towards a modest rather than a large Tory lead, four days later Mrs Thatcher announced her intention of going to the country.

The General Election came at the end of a dramatic period in British party politics. As described in the articles by Philip Williams and David Denver, Labour’s heavy defeat in the 1979 General Election led to the outbreak of a bitter row between ‘left-wing’ and ‘right-wing’ factions over both party policy and the party constitution, a row which eventually resulted in the defection of a group of Labour MPs and the formation of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Led by four former Cabinet Ministers, Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Shirley...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT PAGE
• NOTES ON THE CONTRIBUTORS
• CHANGE IN BRITISH POLITICS: AN INTRODUCTION
• THE LABOUR PARTY: THE RISE OF THE LEFT
• THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY: FROM PRAGMATISM TO IDEOLOGY—AND BACK?
• THE SDP-LIBERAL ALLIANCE: THE END OF THE TWO-PARTY SYSTEM?
• THE DENATIONALISATION OF BRITISH POLITICS: THE RE-EMERGENCE OF THE PERIPHERY
• CONFRONTATION, INCORPORATION AND EXCLUSION: BRITISH TRADE UNIONS IN COLLECTIVIST AND POST-COLLECTIVIST POLITICS
• THE BUSINESS LOBBY: POLITICAL ATTITUDES AND STRATEGIES
• THE ELECTORATE: PARTISAN DEALIGNMENT TEN YEARS ON
• CENTRAL-LOCAL GOVERNMENT RELATIONS: THE IRRESISTIBLE RISE OF CENTRALISED POWER
• THE UNITED KINGDOM ELECTION OF 1983