Union Power, Political Leadership, and Impact on Britain: Strikes, Monetarism, Conflicts -, Apuntes de Historia

¡Descarga Union Power, Political Leadership, and Impact on Britain: Strikes, Monetarism, Conflicts - y más Apuntes en PDF de Historia solo en Docsity! a) Write a brief summary of section Union power and power cuts (p. 360) By the 1970s the trade unions had grown into massive organisations of awesome power. To the people living at the time, the country seemed to be always on strike. Being on strike became such an ordinary activity in Britain that other countries used to talk about strikes as “the British disease”. Strikes didn't just hit the factories where the dispute occurred; workers at other factories, even in completely different industries, would come out in sympathy with their striking brother workers. The Prime Minister tried to get along with the union leaders, and convinced them to limit their wage demands, but they had to much power and didn't listen. Even the Prime Minister (Edward Heath) called a general election on the question “Who runs Britain-goverment or unions?” He lost. The conservatives were so badly shaken by losing the 1974 election that they turned on Heath and elected his former Education Secretary, Margaret Thatcher, as their leader instead. b) List the consequences for Britain of the strikes of 1978-79 The Labor government spent the 1970s fighting a losing battle with galloping inflation. In 1976 they had to ask for a loan from the International Monetary Fund, and the payoff was that they had to limit the unions wage demands. In 1978 they demanded bigger and bigger wage rises knowing they just had to walk out on strike and their bosses would give in. In cold winter 1978-9 the country collapsed into chaos. Everyone was on strike: lorry drivers, hospitals and schools were closed, dustmen, gravediggers...people called this period The Winter of Discontent. c) What did Britain need according to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher? 1.- Ditch consensus politics: we don't agree with the Labour Party so let's stop pretending we do. 2.-Reduce the power of the unions 3.- Stop spending government money propping up failing companies.-if that means the companies go under and workers lose their jobs, so be it. 4.-Reduce the size of the government: it was too big. Sack some civil servants, close down the quangos and cut back on local govemment. d) What was monetarism and how did it affect Britain's economy? Mas. Thatcher approached politics taking the ideas from an American economist called Milton Friedman and his philosophy, monetarism. Monetarism taught that governments should cut taxes, especially on the rich.-In the short term, monetarism meant heavy unemployment as unprofitable companies lost their government subsidies and went bust, but so long as workers were prepared to try new ways of working, the economy would recover in the end. Britain's economy: Mrs Thatcher”s policies caused massive unemployment, especially in the north of England, as man of the old heavy industries were being undercut by new technology or more efficient working practices abroad. The Steel industry virtually had to close down in order to reinvent itself. e) Why was the miners” strike not successful? In the past striking meant no supplies at all of electricity power, so all over the country people had to spend their evenings sitting in the dark with only candles for fight. Unions had the power to cut off electricity, that's why they could get everything they asked for: wage demands, shorten working days to 3 days...but now the government stockpiled coal supplies and arranged for foreign coal imports. Besides, they also passed laws making secondary picketing (picketing somewhere other than your place of work) illegal. *Remember that pickets used to “help” colleagues from other industries or companies, and went on strike too. D 8) h) JD k) Briefly explain the conflict of the Falklands Argentina had a long-standing claim to the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic, home of a small population of Britons.- the Argentinian dictator, General Galtieri, ordered a invasion and Mrs. Thatcher put together a military task force to sale south and take them back. The British ships proved terribly vulnerable to Argentinian missiles, many people died. However, the British managed to get ashore and fought their way overland to retake the capital, Port Stanley. Mas. Thatcher fought hard to keep the Falklands out of the clutches of one dictatorship. How many elections did Mrs Thatcher win? What is the Poll Tax? In what year did she cease to be Prime Minister? -Mrs. Thatcher won 3 elections in a row (1979, 1983, 1987) -Poll Tax? The Poll Tax was a tax to finance local governments services. The trouble was that it was set at the same rate for everyone, however rich or poor they were. The protests against the Thatcher Poll Tax were the worst since the miner's strike. -Mrs. Thatcher ceased in 1990 Read section Belfast blows up (pp. 366-369) and make sure you understand the most important facts about the conflict in Northern Ireland Most of Ireland had become independent from Britain in 1922 but six Ulster countries with a majority Protestant population had chosen to remain part of the United Kingdom. In 1960s Northern Ireland serious problems took place.-protestants started attacking Catholics while (Protestant) police stood and watched. The riots got worse and the next year the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, sent troops into Northern Ireland to restore order and protect the Catholics. The nationalist-and Catholic-IRA (Irish Republican Army) saw their chance to get people interested in a united Ireland again. They started shooting British soldiers (even though the soldiers were there to protect the Catholics). The soldiers started turning angrily against the Catholics, the Catholics against the soldiers, and the long, blood troubles began. TRA attacks and British violent responses: source of years of problems. In what year did Tony Blair become Prime Minister and what political party did he represent? Tony Blair became Prime Minister in 1997 and his political party was the Labour Party. Read section Blair 's Britain (p. 370) and write down the main achievements of Blair”s government -The new Chancellor of the Exchequer, immediately handed over control of interest rates to the Bank of England: no longer would ministers push people's mortgages up or down for their own political advantages. -Introduced a minimum wage for employees. -Passed a Freedom of Information Act. “Incorporated the European Declaration of Human Rights into English law. How did the process called devolution affect Scotland and Wales? Scottish and Welsh nationalists were also putting in a bid to pull out of Great Britain plc. These nationalists called the process devolution, which wasn't quite independence. -Scots got proper parliament. Welsh got a much more limited assembly in Cardiff.