Harold Wilson and Edward Heath

In 1964, Labour party came into power with Harold Wilson as Prime Minister. During his first period of office, Wilson's government set up the Open University which is regarded as his greatest achievement. Overseas, Wilson was troubled by crises in several of Britain's former colonies, especially Rhodesia and South Africa. Wilson gave diplomatic support but resisted pressure for military support to the United States in the Vietnam War.

The premiership of his successor Sir Edward Heathwas the bloodiest in the history of the Northern Ireland Troubles. He was prime minister at the time of Bloody Sunday in 1972when 14 unarmed men were killed by British soldiers during an illegal march in Londonderry City.

Heath's major achievement as prime minister was to take Britain into the European Economic Community in 1973. However great inflation led him into confrontation with some of the most powerful trade unions, and because of the energy shortages the country's industry worked a three-day week to conserve power.

Neither he, nor his successors labour PM’s were able to fight the economic crisis in the country. The Conservatives ran a campaign on the slogan "Labour isn't working." As expected, Margaret Thatcher won the election.

Margaret Thatcher

Thatcher formed a government on May 4, 1979, promising to reverse the UK's economic decline and to reduce the role of the state in the economy.

In economic policy, Thatcher started increased interest rates to drive down the money supply. Value added tax (VAT) rose sharply to 15% and the inflation also rose. These moves hit businesses, especially in the manufacturing sector, and unemployment quickly passed two million. Unemployment continued to rise, peaking at a figure of more than 3.2 million.

British defense budget was cut, the Falkland Islands defense was disregarded, and immigration reform was passed (the citizens of the few remaining British colonies did not have the same rights as the citizens of the UK) – all this was the most difficult foreign policy decision of Thatcher's era.

In Argentina, an unstable military junta was in power and on April 2, 1982, it invaded the Falkland Islands, the only invasion of a British territory since World War II. Thatcher sent a naval task force to recapture the Islands. The ensuing military campaign was successful, resulting in a wave of patriotic enthusiasm for her personally. Additionally, Thatcher's 'Right to Buy' policy, when people were permitted to buy their homes at a discount did much to increase her government's popularity in working-class areas.

Thatcher aimed at reducing the power of the trade unions. Several unions went on strikes that were aimed at damaging her politically. The most significant of these was carried out by the National Union of Mineworkers. However, Thatcher had made preparations long in advance for an NUM strike by building up coal stocks, and there were no cuts in electric power, unlike 1972.

(Police tactics during the strike concerned civil libertarians: stopping suspected strike sympathisers travelling towards coalfields when they were still long distances from them, phone tapping, and a violent battle with mass pickets at Orgreave. But images of massed militant miners using violence to prevent other miners from working, along with the fact that (illegally under a recent Act) the NUM had not held a ballot to approve strike action, swung public opinion against the strike).

The Miners' Strike lasted a full year, 1984-85, before of half the miners went back to work and the NUM leadership gave in without a deal. This failed political strike marked a turning point in UK politics: no longer could militant unions remove a democratically elected government.

Under Thatcher, the Hong Kong (the only remaining British territory in Asia) was transferred to China in 1997.

On the early morning of October 12, 1984,Thatcher escaped death (on the day before her 59th birthday) from the bomb placed by the Irish Republican Army in Brighton's Grand Hotel during the Conservative Party conference. Five people died in the attack. Thatcher insisted that the conference open on time the next day and made her speech as planned.

On November 15, 1985, Thatcher signed the Hillsborough Anglo-Irish Agreement, the first acknowledgement by a British government that the Republic of Ireland had an important role to play in Northern Ireland. But it did little to reduce IRA violence.

Thatcher's political and economic philosophy emphasised free markets and entrepreneurialism. After the 1983election, the Government became sold off most of the large utilities which had been in public ownership since the late 1940s. The policy of privatisation has become synonymous with Thatcherism.

In the Cold War, Mrs Thatcher supported Ronald Reagan's policies against the Soviets. US forces were permitted by Mrs. Thatcher to station nuclear cruise missiles at British bases, arousing mass protests by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. However, she later was the first Western leader to respond warmly to the rise of reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev,declaring she liked him and "We can do business together" after a meeting three months before he came to power in 1985.

She supported the US bombing raid on Libya from bases in the UK in 1986 when other NATO allies did not.

By winning the 1987general election, on the economic boom and against an anti-nuclear Labour opposition, she became the longest serving Prime Minister of the UK since Lord Liverpool (1812–1827), and first to win three successive elections since Lord Palmerston in 1865.

Most UK newspapers supported her — with the exception of The Daily Mirror and The Guardian — and were rewarded with regular press briefings by her press secretary. She was known as "Maggie" in the tabloids, which inspired the well-known "Maggie Out!" protest song, sung throughout that period by some of her opponents. Her unpopularity on the left is evident from the lyrics of several contemporary popular songs: "Stand Down Margaret", "Tramp the Dirt Down", and "Mother Knows Best".

In the late 1980s, Thatcher, a former chemist, became concerned with environmental issues. In 1988, she made a major speech accepting the problems of global warming, ozone depletion and acid rain. In 1990, she opened the Hadley Centre for climate prediction and research.

Although she had supported British membership, Thatcher believed that the role of the EC should be limited to free trade and effective competition, and feared that new EC regulations would reverse the changes she was making in the UK.. She was specifically against Economic and Monetary Union, through which a single currency would replace national currencies, and for which the EC was making preparations.

Thatcher's popularity once again declined in 1989 due to the introduction of the Poll Tax. (a tax paid as the same sum of money by every individual resident, with only limited discounts for low earners.) A large London demonstration against the poll tax on March 31, 1990 — the day before it was introduced in England and Wales — turned into a riot. Millions of people resisted paying the tax. Mrs Thatcher refused to compromise, or change the tax, and its unpopularity was a major factor in Thatcher's downfall.

Tony Blair

Tony Blair became Prime Minister in 1997after the victory over the Conservative Party. He served as the Prime Minister of the UK from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007, the Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. With victories in 1997, 2001, and 2005, Blair was the Labour Party's longest-serving prime minister, the only person to lead the party to three consecutive general election victories. Under the title of New Labour, he promised economic and social reform. Early policies of the Blair government included the minimum wage and university tuition fees. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown also gave the Bank of England the power to set the base rate of interest autonomously.

In domestic government policy, Blair significantly increased public spending on health and education while also introducing controversial market-based reforms in these areas. Blair has raised taxes; introduced some new employment rights; introduced significant constitutional reforms (which remain incomplete and controversial); promoted new rights for gay people in the Civil Partnership Act 2004; and signed treaties integrating Britain more closely with the EU, and introduced tough anti-terrorism and identity card legislation.

His contribution towards assisting the Northern Ireland Peace Process by helping to negotiate the Good Friday Agreement after 30 years of conflict was widely recognised.

Tony Blair has been criticised for his alliance with U.S. President George W. Bush and his policies in the Middle East, including the Iraq War, the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Blair is also criticised for an alleged tendency to spin important information in a way that can be misleading. Blair is the first ever Prime Minister of the UK to have been formally questioned by police officers whilst in office, although he was not under caution when interviewed.

Critics also regard Tony Blair as having eroded civil liberties and increased social authoritarianism, by increasing police powers, in the form of more arrestable offences, DNA recording. His style was sometimes criticised as not that of a prime minister and head of government, which he was, but of a president and head of state, which he was not.

While evaluations of Blair's skills as a parliamentarian differ, he is acknowledged to be a highly skillful media performer in other contexts, appearing modern, charismatic, informal and articulate. Perhaps his best known television appearance was his tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales on the morning of her death in August 1997, in which he famously described her as "the People's Princess".

On 10 May 2007, Blair announced during a speech his intention to resign as both Labour Party leader and Prime Minister the following June. On June 24he formally handed over the leadership of the Labour Party to Gordon Brown at a special party conference in Manchester. Blair handed in his resignation as Prime Minister of the UK to the Queen on 27 June 2007, his successor Gordon Brown assumed office the same afternoon. He also resigned his seat in the House of Commons.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 783