Decline and Fall II

Caines, Eric

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-60246-6_6

Eric Caines²

294 Accesses

Abstract

The disasters which befell the 1970–74 Heath government are traced in summary outline in order to highlight the challenges created for the subsequent Opposition after Margaret Thatcher became leader in 1975. Chapter 6 therefore concentrates on examining Edward Heath’s reaction to the dilemmas presented at various stages during his administration. Were the mistakes made due to a collective failure to anticipate events, driven in large part by outside influences and/or disruptive forces, or did they reflect an insoluble confusion in Heath’s own thinking about the nature of Conservatism at a time of underlying change?

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Notes

1.
D. Hurd, An End to Promises (Collins, London, 1979), p. 149.
2.
D. Butler and M. Pinto-Duschinsky, The British General Election of 1970 (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press, London, 1971), p. 337.
3.
Quoted in Butler and Pinto-Duschinsky, p. 334.
4.
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5.
Lindsay and Harrington, p. 265.
6.
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7.
Kavanagh, in Seldon, How Tory Governments Fail, p. 360.
8.
Quoted by Kavangh, in Seldon, How Tory Governments Fail, p. 386.
9.
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10.
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11.
M. McManus, Edward Heath: A Singular Life (Elliott and Thompson, London, 2016), pp. 90–1.
12.
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13.
Sewill, ‘In Place of Strikes’, pp. 33–4.
14.
Weekend Telegraph, 24 September 1965.
15.
Panorama, BBC TV, 2 February 1970.
16.
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17.
J. Campbell, Edward Heath: A Biography (Jonathan Cape, London, 1993), p. 366.
18.
F. Wheen, Strange Days Indeed (Fourth Estate, London, 2009), p. 205.
19.
G. Howe, Conflict of Loyalty (Macmillan, London, 1994), p. 60; R. Carr, quoted in R. Taylor, ‘The Heath Government and Industrial Relations: Myth and Reality’ in S. Ball and A. Seldon, The Heath Government 1970–74 (Longman, London, 1996), pp. 170–1.
20.
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21.
R. Clutterbuck, Britain in Agony: The Growth of Political Violence (Faber, London), p. 61.
22.
Heath, The Course Of My Life, p. 353.
23.
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24.
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25.
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26.
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27.
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28.
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29.
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30.
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31.
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32.
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33.
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34.
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35.
House of Commons, 6 November 1972 (845/6227).
36.
C. Moore, Margaret Thatcher: The Authorised Biography (Allen Lane, London, 2013), p. 230.
37.
Quoted in McManus, Edward Heath: A Singular Life, p. 91.
38.
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39.
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40.
M. Thatcher, The Path to Power (HarperCollins, London, 1995), p. 221.
41.
Moore, Margaret Thatcher: The Authorised Biography, p. 234.
42.
Kavanagh, in Seldon, How Tory Governments Fail, pp. 362–3.
43.
Hurd, An End to Promises, p. 135.
44.
J. Bruce-Gardyne, Whatever Happened to the Quiet Revolution? (Knight, London, 1974), p. 54.
45.
Quoted in McManus, Edward Heath: A Singular Life, p. 124.

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Eric Caines

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Caines, E. (2017). Decline and Fall II. In: Heath and Thatcher in Opposition. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60246-6_6

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60246-6_6
Published: 12 July 2017
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-60245-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-60246-6
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