The Campaigns Against the Bill

Abstract

The passage of the Bill was marked by two distinct campaigns: the first, one of mass agitation and action, was initiated in the main by the unions, and by the TUC in particular; the second, a much more conventional campaign focussed on Whitehall, involved a wider range of pressure groups. Though the two overlapped at certain points, they ought to be discussed separately since they differed not only in the methods they used but in their aims. The mass campaign was a root-and-branch attack on the legislation, whereas the groups that concentrated their activities on Whitehall and Parliament — mainly on the former — coupled their more orthodox tactics with a more limited set of demands for particular amendments to the Government’s proposals.