As a non-driver, I find it hard to understand the panic recently caused by a government minister over the threatened petrol drivers strike. After all, no strike had been called, and since the 1970 Trades Unions Act Britain has only seen one major outbreak of industrial disputes, so a massively disruptive strike hardly seemed likely.
The credit for this must go to Harold Wilson and his Employment Secretary, Barbara Castle. In 1969 she introduced a White Paper called In Place of Strife to Cabinet, which proposed measures to limit the disruptiveness of strikes by requiring independent balloting of members and a conciliation service which could impose cooling off periods and settlements.
What is forgotten today is the near hysterical reaction this document caused in the government. The Labour left were incensed, in particular the Home Secretary James Callaghan argued it was a betrayal of the labour movement. The Trades Union Congress was also resolutely opposed. However, Wilson stuck by Castle, reckoning that the electoral benefits of curbing union power were greater than the short term hassle of Cabinet infighting. He also pointed out to the unions that it was better for Labour to go down this road, as what the Tories might do would doubtless be much, much worse. Despite these arguments, the legislation was only carried with Tory and Liberal support, and Wilson was forced to contend with Callaghan's resignation from Cabinet, becoming a bitter critic of Wilson. But no matter, the Act had been passed, and at least Callaghan's leadership ambitions had been severely damaged by his sniping at Wilson.
Despite the initial bitterness, Wilson's government went into the 1970 election much stronger; with the issue of strikes pretty much sorted, and the economy on the up, voters saw no reason to change horses. Labour were re-elected with a barely reduced majority of 89. Wilson had confounded his critics yet again.
But perhaps the biggest loser was Tory leader Edward Heath, who in January 1971 was narrowly ousted as leader by the maverick right-winger Enoch Powell. A highly articulate man, Powell had gained notoriety for his 'Rivers of Blood' speech in 1968, predicting civil unrest if immigration continued unchecked. His election had the unintended consequence of plunging the Conservative party into a civil war between his supporters and a Heathite contingent. Many of the them eventually ended up leaving the party in 1973 for a new Democratic Party. Powell's message, part popular, part frightening, never quite hit the right note with the public, although his exchanges with Wilson at Prime Minister's Questions were electrifying.
With the Opposition is disarray, Wilson continued with his social reforms, with equal pay and racial discrimination top of the agenda. The economy continued its gradual recovery from the mid 1960s crisis, with government intervention helping to nurture growth without smothering it, such as the nationalisation of Rolls Royce and Upper Clyde Shipyards. Although Wilson's successor is remembered as the pro-European, it was under Wilson that Britain entered the then Common Market in 1972. Also in 1972 was the first big test of the new Trades Union Act. A potentially calamitous strike by mineworkers was averted when the Unions Conciliation and Advisory Service (UCAS) imposed a settlement on the National Union of Mineworkers. Begrudgingly, the TUC accepted that the measure was here to stay, and instead turned to trying to influence the government by cooperation.
Wilson's retirement in 1973 saw a host of senior Labour figures vying to succeed him: Barbara Castle, Denis Healey, Michael Foot, Tony Crosland, Tony Benn, and, from the backbenches, Callaghan. Castle was beyond the pale for many Labour MPs, with the pain of In Place of Strife still fresh. The same went for Callaghan. The others knocked each other out, round by round. But despite a nail biting close final ballot between Foot and the eventual victor, it was Roy Jenkins who emerged as leader. A formidable intellectual figure within the party, responsible for many of the social reforms of the early 1960s, he could also, as Chancellor of the Exchequer since 1967, point to his engineering of the economic recovery. He soon got the chance to show off his economic skills, by working with the trades unions to help guide Britain through the oil crisis and economic storm of 1973-1974. Jenkins also played a crucial role in the talks which culminated in the Sunningdale Agreement, which brought hope for the embattled province of Northern Ireland.
By 1975, when Jenkins finally called the election, voters knew he could be trusted. By comparison, Powell ran on a manifesto promising to end state involvement in industry, mass denationalisation, curtailing the NHS, withdrawing from the Common Market and ending the fragile peace process in Northern Ireland. Heath bitterly attacked the platform as "the unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism," and the electorate rejected it in droves; the result was a Labour landslide.
The rest of the Jenkins years were marked by deeper British involvement in Europe. Whilst this ensured Britain a leading role in many of the EEC's key early decisions, such as reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, the establishment of Regional Development Funds, the creation of the European Rapid Response Force and the first tentative steps towards the Single Currency, it hardly enthused voters. It also caused a decline in the 'Special Relationship' with the USA, with not even the pro-NATO Foreign Secretary Denis Healey able to salvage relations with Presidents Ford and Carter. Jenkins' major political shakeups at home, with devolution for Scotland and Wales, plus the changing of the electoral systems for Westminster elections to the Alternative Vote, were hardly mass vote winners. Jenkins wasn't helped by the fact that he found it hard to connect with an increasingly left-wing grassroots Labour membership. Coupled with a severe recession, Jenkins lost the 1980 election to the Conservative Sir Keith Joseph.
Joseph had originally been chosen as Tory leader in 1975 as he was acceptable to both Powellites and Heathites. Unfortunately, he took office at the worst possible moment. The economy, already struggling amidst a deep international slump, needed to be supported. Instead, Joseph and his Chancellor, Margaret Thatcher, made massive cuts to public spending, thus pulling the rug from under British industry and the welfare state at the wrong point. Unemployment sky-rocketed to over three million, huge swathes of industry disappeared and the good industrial relations which had persisted after the In Place of Strife dispute collapsed; during the NUM strike of 1984-85 Joseph was even forced to put Britain on a three day week. With only victory in the Falklands Conflict in 1982 to point to as a solid success, Joseph was ousted from No 10 in 1985 by Labour's John Smith.
Smith would remain in power until his death in 1994, using the wealth of North Sea oil to help rebuild British industry and create the pro-European, high wage, high productivity, Scandinavian style social democracy we live in today. The unions were given a constructive role in business and industry along the much vaunted German model, and while Smith's successor Tony Blair did make some denationalisations, the size of Britain's public sector remained large. For the Tories, they were only returned to office in 2005 by promising to sustain Labour's level of public spending and fuelled by Blair's unpopular support for the US war in Iraq. But once again, a major international recession cost the Conservatives the premiership in 2010, with William Hague's message of cuts driving voters back into the arms of David Miliband's promises of greater growth.
P.S. Prime Ministers, 1964-2012
1964-1973- Harold Wilson (Lab)
1973-1980- Roy Jenkins (Lab)
1980-1985- Sir Keith Joseph (Con)
1985-1994- John Smith (Lab)
1994-2005- Tony Blair (Lab)
2005-2010- William Hague (Con)
2010-2012- David Miliband (Lab)
No comments:
Post a Comment