However, when one looks at the context of the time itself, it seems apparent, as Marr sums up, that ‘it was likely that the current social climate left the Labour Party in an unfavourable position’. In reality, it seems more likely that Labour weaknesses, particularly those of the Labour Leader James Callaghan during the Winter of Discontent, led to the huge parliamentary swing of 1979. During her electoral campaign, Margaret Thatcher promised to introduce a series of parliamentary bills in order to rescue Britain from an uncertain economic and social future.
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Working closely with her key Shadow Cabinet colleagues (like Nigel Lawson and Willie Whitelaw) prior to the election, Margaret Thatcher promised the electorate that her administration would help encourage personal prosperity whilst also pledging to curb the power held by the unions and thereby help to get the economy back on track. The sanguineous way in which she contrasted the nation’s standing both socially and economically prior to the election, in contrast to her view of the country if she were to introduce the laws listed previously was vitally important in promoting her as a viable candidate for the premiership.
However, it becomes quite clear on analysis that during this campaign, Thatcher was acting as little more than a ‘populist’, i. e. ) adopting her ideas from that of the current public opinion. According to Marr, it is down to the circumstances which the Labour Government faced that caused wide-spread support for the ‘Iron Lady’; a situation that she quickly embraced, i. e. ) Thatcher was nothing but lucky.
By promising to limit the powers that the trade unions had, an issue that had plighted many a previous administration (no more than under the present Labour leader, James Callaghan during the Winter of Discontent), whilst tackling the current state of the economy by utilising a new economic theorem known as ‘Monetarism’, Thatcher was able to highlight the weaknesses that the Labour Party had, capitalising on the situation at hand; thus suggesting that party eaknesses were responsible for Labour’s fall from grace and subsequent ousting by the general public. Such a theory becomes even more apparent when one looks at Thatcher’s popularity prior to the election and for the first couple of years leading up to the Falklands War. Her personal ratings as a potential leader were not great and she herself admitted this fact in later years – “I shall be remembered as the woman who was allowed one go… to lead the party to defeat”.
When looking at these two previous factors, it becomes clear that Conservative resurgence cannot be attributed to their winning of the 1979 election; that ‘honour’ goes to the Labour Party for their ever increasing unpopularity with the electorate. So when one looks at Labour in the run up to the election in question, it is apparent that the party was becoming ever more disassociated with the general public in relation to their affiliation with the trade unions and the rather nonchalant approach to trade union reform.
This is no more true than when the then leader, James Callaghan made his ‘Crisis? What Crisis? ’ speech on return from a summit in the Caribbean during the Winter of Discontent (which was beginning to cripple the country both socially and economically as household incomes plummeted and trade was being effected by strikes of key labourers, such as the dockers). By insinuating that the country faced no problem at that time with many more people choosing to strike or out of work (unemployment had risen to a ten-year high of around 5. % by the end of 1978), whilst inflation began to sky-rocket, Callaghan single-handedly lost the election for labour – “It seemed that the UK was ungovernable and that no government had an answer to inflation. ”, (Kavanagh, 2011). The fact that Labour had become ever more disillusioned to the current economic crisis was further exacerbated by the fact that the Party itself was yet again beginning to show signs of splitting over key policies such as membership of the European Community and the need to secure a loan from the International Monetary Fund in 1976.
In open opposition to a number of Government policies, the radical left (particularly Tony Benn and Michael Foot) were beginning to highlight these issues: a fact which was easily portrayed and recognised by the electorate when they compared this to the stable opposition party under Margaret Thatcher (with the vital help of her aide Willie Whitelaw). It was this image that resonated throughout society, causing a major swing to the Conservative Party of around 7% (63% [1974] ? 6% [1979]); a loss of support that the party could ill afford thanks to the long term decline in the Labour demographic as unemployment started to rise thanks to a long-term impact of post-war affluence and the subsequent moving away from manufacturing industries typically supported by the trade unions, triggering less and less support for the party.
To conclude, it seems apparent on analysis that the 1979 election result was more down to the weaknesses of the Labour Party combined with the disruptive nature of society as a whole during the Winter of Discontent – “election was more a negative verdict on Labour’s performance in office… trade unions antagonized”, (Thorpe, 1997). By taking a laissez-faire approach to union reform and allowing the economy to be crippled by those on the radical left, Labour made the Conservative Party’s job in belittling their administration much easier, seen in the success of Thatcher’s Saatchi and Saatchi campaign, ‘Labour Isn’t Working’. 36/45 marks!
