Abstract
The depth of the split between the Wets and the Dries in the Conservative Shadow Cabinet between 1975 and 1979 is nowhere better illustrated than by the failure to come up with a policy for avoiding confrontation with the trade unions, until the events of the Winter of Discontent (1978–79) made industrial relations reform appear inevitable. Until then Margaret Thatcher had had to concede that Jim Prior should continue to take the lead in determining how industrial relations policy should be developed, though she had, at the same time, approved the recruitment of Sir John Hoskyns, a Keith Joseph acolyte, to devise an alternative policy which came to be known as the Stepping Stones initiative.
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Notes
- 1.
M. Thatcher, The Path to Power (HarperCollins, London, 1995), p. 402.
- 2.
CPA, National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations (hereafter NUA) 2/1/81; Thatcher speech to 94th Annual Conservative Conference, 14 October 1977; CCA, Thatcher MSS, LCC/77/175th meeting, 6 October 1977.
- 3.
CPA, NUA 2/1/81; J. Prior speech to 94th Annual Conservative Conference, 11 October 1977.
- 4.
CCA, Thatcher MSS (2/1/3/9), 11 January 1978.
- 5.
CPA, CRD (Uncatalogued Papers) Box 37, 21 December 1977.
- 6.
CCA, Thatcher MSS (2/1/2/12A): Letter Lawson to Thatcher, 15 January 1978.
- 7.
CCA, Hoskyns (hereafter HOSK) 1/21: Note from Hoskyns to Joseph, 14 July 1977.
- 8.
G. Howe, Conflict of Loyalty (Macmillan, London, 1994), pp. 105–6.
- 9.
CCA, HOSK 1/65: Note by Hoskyns, 25 January 1978.
- 10.
CCA, Thatcher MSS (2/6/1/233), 25 January 1978.
- 11.
J. Hoskyns, Just in Time (Aurum Press, London, 2000), p. 52.
- 12.
Hoskyns, Just in Time, p. 54.
- 13.
Hoskyns, Just in Time, p. 55.
- 14.
CCA, Thatcher MSS (2/6/1/233), LSC/78/51st Meeting, 30 January 1978.
- 15.
Thatcher, The Path to Power, p. 421.
- 16.
CCA, Thatcher MSS (2/6/1/233, LSC/78/51st Meeting, 30 January 1978; Howe, Conflict of Loyalty, p. 106; Thatcher, The Path to Power, p. 422.
- 17.
Hoskyns, Just in Time, p. 55.
- 18.
Hoskyns, Just in Time, p. 55.
- 19.
CCA, HOSK 1/77: Note by Hoskyns to Patten, 12 February 1978.
- 20.
CCA, Thatcher MSS (2/6/1/233, LSC (78) 65, 23 February 1978.
- 21.
CCA, HOSK 1/80, 23 February 1978; The Policy Search Group and the Theme Teams were set up to work with Hoskyns and Strauss to identify new policy initiatives in line with the overall Stepping Stones recommendations.
- 22.
CCA, Thatcher MSS (2/6/1/233), LSC/78/54th Meeting, 27 February 1978.
- 23.
The Economist, ‘The Making of Tory Policy 1978’, 15 April 1978.
- 24.
H. Young, One of Us (Macmillan, London, 1989), p. 117.
- 25.
Hoskyns, Just in Time, p. 67.
- 26.
CRA, CRD (Uncatalogued Papers), Box 4, Policy Search Progress Report, 10 April 1978.
- 27.
Howe Papers, Howe SP8: Speech by Prior to Lambeth Conservatives at Clapham Baths, 20 July 1978.
- 28.
Howe Papers, Howe SP8: Howe speech at Conservative Central Office, 7 August 1978.
- 29.
Howe Papers, Howe SP8: Howe speech to Kirklees Chamber of Commerce, Wakefield, 15 September 1978.
- 30.
Howe Papers, Howe SP8: Howe speeches to Blaby Conservative Association, 20 September 1978; Wallsend Conservative Association, 27 October 1978; West Midlands Conservative Political Centre Conference, 18 November 1978. Tom Jackson was General Secretary of the Union of Post Office Workers.
- 31.
Howe Papers, Howe SP8: Statement by Howe, 28 November 1978.
- 32.
The Times, 13 September 1977.
- 33.
CPA, NUA 2/1/80: Thatcher, speech to 93rd Annual Conservative Party Conference, 8 October 1976.
- 34.
T. Russel, The Tory Party: Its Policies, Divisions and Future (Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1978), p. 79.
- 35.
M. Thatcher, quoted in Conservative Weekly News, April 1976; quoted in Bradford Telegraph and Argus, 11 March 1978.
- 36.
A. Sherman, Paradoxes of Power (imprint-academic.com, Exeter, 2005), p. 99.
- 37.
CPA, PUB 176/6; Joseph speech at Doncaster Racecourse Restaurant, 24 June 1977.
- 38.
Sherman Papers, AC 160/AR KJ/5A/4/4: Joseph speech at Hove Town Hall, 1 September 1977.
- 39.
J. Prior quoted in an article by S. Hoggart, ‘Prior pushes Tory rift over unions into open’, The Guardian, 12 September 1977; Article by T. Raison, ‘Closed options’, The Guardian, 11 October 1977.
- 40.
CCA, Hailsham MSS (1/1/11), Hailsham draft letter, 16 September 1977.
- 41.
Interview with Shadow Minister, 16 February 1978, quoted in R. Behrens, The Conservative Party from Heath to Thatcher (Saxon House, Farnborough, 1980), p. 98.
- 42.
CPA, PUB 195/9, R. Barber, ‘Direct action and the Unions’, Crossbow, Autumn 1977.
- 43.
CCA, Thatcher MSS (2/1/1/39), Joseph letter to Thatcher enclosing draft speech, 27 January 1979.
- 44.
M. Thatcher, TV interview with Brian Walden for London Weekend Television’s Weekend World, 7 January 1979, Thatcher CD-ROM.
- 45.
CCA, Thatcher MSS (2/6/1/233), LSC/79/61st Meeting, 15 January 1979.
- 46.
House of Commons Debate, Hansard 16 January 1979, Vol. 960, col. 1541.
- 47.
CPA, PPB 58/1, Conservative Party Political Broadcast, 17 January 1979.
- 48.
Thatcher, The Path to Power, p. 436.
- 49.
Howe Papers, Howe S55; Article by F. A. Hayek in International Currency Review, September 1978.
- 50.
F. A. Hayek, ‘The Powerful Reasons for Curbing Union Power’, The Times, 10 October 1978.
- 51.
CCA, Thatcher MSS, Conservative General Election Manifesto 1979, 11 April 1979.
- 52.
J. Prior, A Balance of Power (Hamish Hamilton, London, 1986) pp. 112 and 114.
- 53.
I. Gilmour, Dancing with Dogma: Britain Under Thatcherism (Pocket Books, London, 1992), pp. 96–7.
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Caines, E. (2017). The Industrial Relations Nettle. In: Heath and Thatcher in Opposition. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60246-6_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60246-6_11
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