What are three Thatcherite policies?

  1. ECONOMY
  • Monetarism & Dealing with a Recession – Monetarist theory – governments can foster economic stability by targeting the growth rate of money supply.
  • Based on the monetarist theories of Milton Friedman, the base interest rate was raised to 30% in 1979, in order to try and bring down inflation.
  • Despite this, inflation peaked at 20% in 1980.
  • (Contemporary comparisons: interest rate 0.5% and inflation 2.6% as of 2018).
  • In 1981, Chancellor Geoffrey Howe acted against the received wisdom of Keynesian economic by raising taxes and cutting spending during a recession.
  • Unemployment increased but the policy was successful on its own terms as it did bring down inflation, which the government viewed as more important.
  1. PRIVATISATION AND DEREGULATION
  • Thatcher’s government privatised a number of state-run companies, including key public utilities.
  • In 1984 they privatised British Telecom with over 2 million people buying shares in the company. Further companies followed such as British Gas in 1986.
  • In 1986, the government introduced a massive deregulation of banks, financial services and the City of London.
  • This proved successful in establishing London as a global centre for financial services, although is blamed by some for the malpractice in banking that would ultimately result in the banking crisis of 2008.
  1. TRADE UNIONS
  • The 1980 Employment Act outlawed “secondary action” by trade unions. “Secondary action” or sympathy strikes was the idea of one set of workers coming out on strike to support another, rather than because they had a specific industrial dispute of their own. T
  • his act also greatly restricted the number of people who could legally be on a picket line (although this law was often broken during strikes in the 1980s, such as the Miners’ Strike in 84/85 and the Wapping print workers’ strike in 1985 as a picket line of six individuals was deemed entirely ineffective in such workplaces.
  • The 1982 Employment Act further limited the powers of trade unions, banning “political strikes” and limiting the grounds upon which workers could go on strike.
  • The law also made unions liable for damages arising from industrial action, allowing the government to seize funds of up to 250,000 pounds.