British politics in the 1980’s

In 1979, following Jim Callaghan’s inability to stand up to the trade unions, the Conservatives came to power. Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister and the British people were given a wake-up call. Thatcher was the classic autocrat, rather like former US president GW Bush. Once she had a position on an issue she wouldn’t move. “The lady’s not for turning”. This, along with the Falklands war and her attitude towards Ireland, would help define her political leadership. Thatcher angered many people: her contempt for the unions, her embrace of nuclear arms and the failure to challenge the racist regime in South Africa were some of the issues that characterised her time in office.

In regard to Ulster, this writer has some sympathy. In 1979 her colleague, Airey Neave, was killed in a car bomb attack in the House of Commons car park and, in 1990, the Conservative MP Ian Gowe was murdered in a similar way. Both at the hands of the IRA. These events along with the bombing of the Conservative Party Conference (1984), made it hard for Thatcher to trust, never mind agree, with Irish politicians of any political persuasion. It is pretty clear she didn’t see eye-to-eye with the then Taoiseach, Charles Haughey.

But British political history of the 1980’s will cite the economic transformation that occurred during the 18 year Conservative rule (1979-1997). In that time the UK economy flourished and many companies that had been under government control were privatised. At the same time Labour didn’t endear itself to the voters and lost elections mainly because they were unable to clarify their taxation policy. ‘Labour isn’t working’ was the legend on Conservative election billboards – reminding everyone of the dire economic state of Britain in the late 1970’s under Labour.

Throughout the 1980’s the UK government held steadfastly to an aggressive defence policy. Nuclear weapons were seen as the best deterrent against any military threat. US president, Ronald Reagan was a staunch ally of the ‘Iron Lady’ and the two leaders prided themselves on their respective, united, foreign policies. Some commentators have praised Thatcher for bringing Russia (then known as the Soviet Union) to heal. But it was the emergence of a moderate leader in the Kremlin, Mikhail Gorbachev, that came a distance to making peace with the west after years of distrust. Thatcher and Reagan, it is fair to say, didn’t make any real concessions. It was the softer tone of Gorbachev that took Russia out of the ‘Cold War’ while the leadership of the US and UK wanted to keep the relationship with Moscow firmly in the deep freeze.

At the close of the decade however, Mrs Thatcher’s popularity, among Conservative voters, had been exhausted. The crazy policy of the Poll Tax made her extremely unpopular and subsequently her colleagues in cabinet, most notably Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson, no longer felt they could tolerate her. By the end of 1990 Thatcher was no longer Prime Minister and British politics was once again in transition.

Obviously John Major (her successor as party leader and Prime Minister) had little charisma, however he was definitely not an autocrat and the future looked less fraught. Along with better relations with the Irish government (under Albert Reynolds) the ‘Peace Process’ in Ulster went up a gear. A new era had dawned and the word progress could be spoken again. The polarisation of British politics had come to an end and with it the career of one of the UK’s most controversial leaders.