http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...-Thatcher.html
Thirty years ago today, James Callaghan stepped off a plane at Heathrow to be confronted by the press in full cry. The prime minister, tanned and wearing a light grey summer suit, had just returned from a four-nation summit on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.
The country he was returning to was literally grinding to a halt. A strike by lorry drivers, responsible for moving 80 per cent of the nation's goods, was about to be made official, in pursuit of a 25 per cent pay claim. Railway workers were starting a series of 24-hour strikes. With paralysis beckoning, Callaghan was asked if he was considering a state of emergency. Dismissing the suggestion, he replied: "I don't think other people in the world would share the view that there is mounting chaos. Please don't run down your country by talking about mounting chaos." The subsequent headline in The Sun – "Crisis? What Crisis?" – was to be his epitaph.
The Winter of Discontent was the low point in British post-war history, the culmination of years of industrial unrest and economic stagnation. But for the Conservatives, waiting in the wings, it promised a glorious summer: Margaret Thatcher's government would transform the United Kingdom, destroying union power and imposing the rigours of the free market.
So, as David Cameron confronts the possibility of a snap spring election called by a Labour prime minister battling a deepening economic crisis, albeit of a very different kind, he may care to take a look back at 1979 and the period that followed – and in particular, to heed the advice of the veterans of the Thatcher revolution.
Sir John Hoskyns is not a well-known figure outside business and government, but his role in the Thatcher revolution was pivotal. Head of the No 10 policy unit between 1979 and 1982, he was co-author of Stepping Stones, a 1977 paper which analysed the interconnected ailments of the British economy. His conclusion was simple: to cure anything, you had to change everything.
"It required a ---- or bust attitude," he recalls, "and Thatcher was very receptive to that. The essence of the problem was: could you even start to do anything without invoking the wrath of the unions and provoking what would in effect be political civil war?
"Margaret wasn't one of the great brains, but she had a good instinct and terrific guts. I don't think it was an over-simplification when she said that she didn't want to be prime minister, she wanted to save the country. Her attitude was, 'If I go down the plughole, too bad. But I'm not going to sit here revelling in being prime minister as it all goes wrong.' "
Faced with inflation at more than 13 per cent and union barons at the height of their power, the Tories might have been forgiven some nerves. But Tim Bell, now Lord Bell, who advised Thatcher on her advertising strategy, remembers only frustration when Callaghan baulked at an election in October 1978.
"It was a very, very exciting time. We were all looking forward to the end of that disgusting Labour government – which is exactly how I feel now. In fact, we had started fighting the campaign a year before the election was called. We had the famous 'Labour Isn't Working' poster, but my favourite could be used against Brown now. It said, 'The captain of the Titanic is selling tickets for a second voyage – are you a buyer?' "
The public were persuaded. On May 4, 1979, Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first female prime minister. Standing on the steps of No 10, she offered emollient words from St Francis of Assisi, hardly a harbinger of things to come. Soon, Sir John was inside, getting to grips with the Civil Service.
"I was surrounded by bright, hand-picked, high-flying civil servants who I knew were thinking, 'Who's this businessman Hoskyns? Can't have a clue about anything. All governments fail, this one will too. Thatcher is a complete novice who will try to do something useful but will go the way of the others.'
"Sometimes, it felt very lonely, but I didn't mind that. We knew we had a fight on our hands with a frighteningly imploding economy."
One of the true believers was Lord Howe, Thatcher's first chancellor, who had witnessed at first hand the destruction of Ted Heath's government. Surprisingly, he remembers it as "quite plain sailing". "People knew we were in the last-chance saloon," he recalls. "There were only two lucky prime ministers in Britain in the 20th century: Churchill and Thatcher. Because, when each took over, everyone knew there was a tough prospect ahead, but that there was no alternative.
"We were lucky to have such a tenacious leader. Although others could have done the same job, it is very hard to believe anyone could have handled it better."
Lord Heseltine, who took over at Environment, remembers "huge excitement". "This was a very experienced government," he says. "This was Ted Heath's government given a second chance. There was no hesitancy. We were absolutely clear in what we were going to do… I don't think there was any moment when the resolve of the government [in terms of confronting the unions] was at risk."
But, as unemployment climbed towards three million, the Tories' popularity plunged. By 1981, Thatcher was a hated figure in parts of the country. Lord Bell, the architect of Thatcher's iron image, even claims that the party chairman, Lord Thorneycroft, and two cabinet ministers, Lord Carrington and Humphrey Atkins, confronted the prime minister and suggested she should resign. "The men in suits – they thought she should behave like their wives. Margaret just told them to go away."
Sir John's view was clear: "We had to be careful that we didn't get woolly in our thinking because of this terrible rising unemployment. It was absolutely no good our suddenly weakening and admitting that the whole Thatcher project had been a ghastly mistake. It was the last chance for Britain. If we had lost our nerve, it would have taken years to recover, if ever."
Lord Bell believes that governments – and politicians – show their true colours when things start going wrong. It is a view shared by Lord Heseltine. "The moment a government becomes unpopular," he claims, "it divides into those broadly supportive of the power structure and those who are not. Having been the man who faced CND and had to close down 31 pits in a day, I have experience of the ups and downs of politics. I wouldn't wish crises on anyone, but when they do happen you have to decide what you are made of."
Yet the situation facing a Cameron administration could, the veterans believe, be even tougher. "The crisis we are facing cannot be rounded up by a compact set of policies from the British government," says Lord Howe. "In 1979, one had to tackle inflation, public expenditure and industrial relations, but it is uniquely difficult at the moment because there is no clear insight into the problem. The lessons of failure were much clearer in 1979 than they are today."
Sir John is in full agreement: "There is still no reasonably coherent analysis of how this credit crunch came about, and you can't solve a problem you don't understand. The only drum Cameron can beat is to attack the complete loss of control over public spending."
So what should the Tory leader do? He should, says Lord Bell, learn one of Thatcher's most important lessons.
"David Cameron should say what he thinks, and do what he thinks is the right thing to do," he explains. "The reason people have no faith in politicians now is because they never tell the truth. He should say that it is clearly wrong for people to spend money they haven't got. We have people supporting the ridiculous argument that we are in this position because we borrowed too much, so we should borrow some more.
"The number one thing Cameron and Osborne have to understand is that the Conservatives will not win the next election, the government will lose it. But their egos are such that they can't bear that. They think, 'I want to be elected because I'm brilliant'. But there has only been one great Conservative government since the war, and that was Margaret Thatcher's."
Sir John is equally cautious in his estimation of the man who would be prime minister. "I am fairly doubtful about Cameron generally. Does he have the necessary determination? Although the details of 1979 and now are quite different, it is the same business of inheriting a total disaster. He will have to say, 'You can kill with kindness or you can be cruel to be kind, and I'm afraid the latter is what we are going to have to do. And you will thank us in the end.'
"After all, most people would acknowledge that Thatcher saved the British economy – but my God, didn't we hate her while she was doing it."
Thirty years ago today, James Callaghan stepped off a plane at Heathrow to be confronted by the press in full cry. The prime minister, tanned and wearing a light grey summer suit, had just returned from a four-nation summit on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.
The country he was returning to was literally grinding to a halt. A strike by lorry drivers, responsible for moving 80 per cent of the nation's goods, was about to be made official, in pursuit of a 25 per cent pay claim. Railway workers were starting a series of 24-hour strikes. With paralysis beckoning, Callaghan was asked if he was considering a state of emergency. Dismissing the suggestion, he replied: "I don't think other people in the world would share the view that there is mounting chaos. Please don't run down your country by talking about mounting chaos." The subsequent headline in The Sun – "Crisis? What Crisis?" – was to be his epitaph.
The Winter of Discontent was the low point in British post-war history, the culmination of years of industrial unrest and economic stagnation. But for the Conservatives, waiting in the wings, it promised a glorious summer: Margaret Thatcher's government would transform the United Kingdom, destroying union power and imposing the rigours of the free market.
So, as David Cameron confronts the possibility of a snap spring election called by a Labour prime minister battling a deepening economic crisis, albeit of a very different kind, he may care to take a look back at 1979 and the period that followed – and in particular, to heed the advice of the veterans of the Thatcher revolution.
Sir John Hoskyns is not a well-known figure outside business and government, but his role in the Thatcher revolution was pivotal. Head of the No 10 policy unit between 1979 and 1982, he was co-author of Stepping Stones, a 1977 paper which analysed the interconnected ailments of the British economy. His conclusion was simple: to cure anything, you had to change everything.
"It required a ---- or bust attitude," he recalls, "and Thatcher was very receptive to that. The essence of the problem was: could you even start to do anything without invoking the wrath of the unions and provoking what would in effect be political civil war?
"Margaret wasn't one of the great brains, but she had a good instinct and terrific guts. I don't think it was an over-simplification when she said that she didn't want to be prime minister, she wanted to save the country. Her attitude was, 'If I go down the plughole, too bad. But I'm not going to sit here revelling in being prime minister as it all goes wrong.' "
Faced with inflation at more than 13 per cent and union barons at the height of their power, the Tories might have been forgiven some nerves. But Tim Bell, now Lord Bell, who advised Thatcher on her advertising strategy, remembers only frustration when Callaghan baulked at an election in October 1978.
"It was a very, very exciting time. We were all looking forward to the end of that disgusting Labour government – which is exactly how I feel now. In fact, we had started fighting the campaign a year before the election was called. We had the famous 'Labour Isn't Working' poster, but my favourite could be used against Brown now. It said, 'The captain of the Titanic is selling tickets for a second voyage – are you a buyer?' "
The public were persuaded. On May 4, 1979, Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first female prime minister. Standing on the steps of No 10, she offered emollient words from St Francis of Assisi, hardly a harbinger of things to come. Soon, Sir John was inside, getting to grips with the Civil Service.
"I was surrounded by bright, hand-picked, high-flying civil servants who I knew were thinking, 'Who's this businessman Hoskyns? Can't have a clue about anything. All governments fail, this one will too. Thatcher is a complete novice who will try to do something useful but will go the way of the others.'
"Sometimes, it felt very lonely, but I didn't mind that. We knew we had a fight on our hands with a frighteningly imploding economy."
One of the true believers was Lord Howe, Thatcher's first chancellor, who had witnessed at first hand the destruction of Ted Heath's government. Surprisingly, he remembers it as "quite plain sailing". "People knew we were in the last-chance saloon," he recalls. "There were only two lucky prime ministers in Britain in the 20th century: Churchill and Thatcher. Because, when each took over, everyone knew there was a tough prospect ahead, but that there was no alternative.
"We were lucky to have such a tenacious leader. Although others could have done the same job, it is very hard to believe anyone could have handled it better."
Lord Heseltine, who took over at Environment, remembers "huge excitement". "This was a very experienced government," he says. "This was Ted Heath's government given a second chance. There was no hesitancy. We were absolutely clear in what we were going to do… I don't think there was any moment when the resolve of the government [in terms of confronting the unions] was at risk."
But, as unemployment climbed towards three million, the Tories' popularity plunged. By 1981, Thatcher was a hated figure in parts of the country. Lord Bell, the architect of Thatcher's iron image, even claims that the party chairman, Lord Thorneycroft, and two cabinet ministers, Lord Carrington and Humphrey Atkins, confronted the prime minister and suggested she should resign. "The men in suits – they thought she should behave like their wives. Margaret just told them to go away."
Sir John's view was clear: "We had to be careful that we didn't get woolly in our thinking because of this terrible rising unemployment. It was absolutely no good our suddenly weakening and admitting that the whole Thatcher project had been a ghastly mistake. It was the last chance for Britain. If we had lost our nerve, it would have taken years to recover, if ever."
Lord Bell believes that governments – and politicians – show their true colours when things start going wrong. It is a view shared by Lord Heseltine. "The moment a government becomes unpopular," he claims, "it divides into those broadly supportive of the power structure and those who are not. Having been the man who faced CND and had to close down 31 pits in a day, I have experience of the ups and downs of politics. I wouldn't wish crises on anyone, but when they do happen you have to decide what you are made of."
Yet the situation facing a Cameron administration could, the veterans believe, be even tougher. "The crisis we are facing cannot be rounded up by a compact set of policies from the British government," says Lord Howe. "In 1979, one had to tackle inflation, public expenditure and industrial relations, but it is uniquely difficult at the moment because there is no clear insight into the problem. The lessons of failure were much clearer in 1979 than they are today."
Sir John is in full agreement: "There is still no reasonably coherent analysis of how this credit crunch came about, and you can't solve a problem you don't understand. The only drum Cameron can beat is to attack the complete loss of control over public spending."
So what should the Tory leader do? He should, says Lord Bell, learn one of Thatcher's most important lessons.
"David Cameron should say what he thinks, and do what he thinks is the right thing to do," he explains. "The reason people have no faith in politicians now is because they never tell the truth. He should say that it is clearly wrong for people to spend money they haven't got. We have people supporting the ridiculous argument that we are in this position because we borrowed too much, so we should borrow some more.
"The number one thing Cameron and Osborne have to understand is that the Conservatives will not win the next election, the government will lose it. But their egos are such that they can't bear that. They think, 'I want to be elected because I'm brilliant'. But there has only been one great Conservative government since the war, and that was Margaret Thatcher's."
Sir John is equally cautious in his estimation of the man who would be prime minister. "I am fairly doubtful about Cameron generally. Does he have the necessary determination? Although the details of 1979 and now are quite different, it is the same business of inheriting a total disaster. He will have to say, 'You can kill with kindness or you can be cruel to be kind, and I'm afraid the latter is what we are going to have to do. And you will thank us in the end.'
"After all, most people would acknowledge that Thatcher saved the British economy – but my God, didn't we hate her while she was doing it."
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