The Path to Power

APPENDIX II Political Chronology 1955–1979

1955

5 April: Churchill resigned as Prime Minister; succeeded by Eden

26 May: General election: Conservative majority sixty

1956

26 July: Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal

20 October: Israel invaded Sinai

30 October: Joint Anglo-French ultimatum to Egypt and Israel; Soviet troops invaded Hungary

5 November: British and French landings at Port Said; intervention aborted two days later under US pressure

1957

9 January: Eden resigned as Prime Minister; Macmillan succeeded him

25 March: Treaty of Rome signed, establishing EEC

25 July: Macmillan: ‘Most of our people have never had it so good’

19 September: Thorneycroft increased Bank Rate from 5 to 7 per cent

1958

6 January: Treasury Ministers (Thorneycroft, Powell and Birch) resigned from the Government over public expenditure plans; Macmillan left the following day for a Commonwealth tour, describing the resignations as ‘little local difficulties’

3 July: Credit squeeze relaxed

31 August: Notting Hill and Nottingham riots

1959

7 April: Budget: 9d reduction in income tax

8 October: General election: Conservative majority 100; MT first elected MP for Finchley

28 November: Gaitskell called for reform of Clause IV of Labour’s constitution — forced to retreat the following year

1960

3 February: Macmillan in South Africa: ‘a wind of change is blowing through the continent’

5 February: MT’s maiden speech February-October Parliamentary passage of MT’s Public Bodies (Admission of the Press to Meetings) Bill

25 July: Deflationary emergency Budget; ‘Pay Pause’ for Government employees

31 July: Macmillan announced beginning of negotiations for Britain to join EEC

13 August: East Germany sealed the border with West Berlin; Berlin Wall begun

9 October: Reshuffle: MT appointed to her first Government post — Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance

1962

14 March: Orpington by-election: Liberals took Conservative seat, overturning a majority of 14,760

13 July: ‘Night of the Long Knives’ — seven of twenty-one Cabinet ministers fired by Macmillan

October: Cuban missile crisis

November: Vassall affair

21 December: US agreement to sell Britain Polaris

1963

14 January: De Gaulle rejected first British application to join the EEC

14 February: Harold Wilson elected Labour Leader following death of Hugh Gaitskell

4 June: Profumo resigned

1 July: Philby named as ‘the third man’

10 October: Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister during Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool

19 October: Douglas-Home became Prime Minister; Iain Macleod and Enoch Powell refused office

1964

July: Legislation enacted to abolish Resale Price Maintenance

15 October: General election: Labour won a majority of four; Wilson became Prime Minister

28 October: MT became Opposition spokesman on Pensions

November: Sterling crisis

1965

24 January: Churchill died, aged ninety

12 July: Crosland’s circular 10/65 on comprehensive schools: LEAs to submit plans within a year to reorganize on comprehensive lines; Government’s aim declared to be ‘the complete elimination of selection and separatism in secondary education’

22 July: Douglas-Home resigned as Conservative Leader; Heath elected to succeed him, defeating Maudling and Powell

16 September: Labour’s National Plan published

5 October: Reshuffle of Opposition spokesmen: MT moved to Shadow Housing and Land

8 November: Abolition of capital punishment

11 November: Rhodesia: Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI)

1966

31 March: General election: Labour returned with an overall majority of ninety-seven

19 April: Reshuffle of Opposition spokesmen: MT appointed Iain Macleod’s deputy, shadowing the Treasury

3 May: Budget introduced Selective Employment Tax (SET)

May–July: Seamen’s strike

15 June: Abortion Bill passed Second Reading

July: Sterling crisis; deflation; wage freeze to be followed by a prices and incomes policy

5 July: Sexual Offences Bill (legalizing homosexuality) passed Second Reading

12 October: MT spoke against SET at the Conservative Conference

10 November: Labour announced Britain to make a second application to join the EEC

1967

11 April: Massive Conservative gains in local government elections

10 October: Heath moved MT to Shadow Fuel and Power, with a place in the Shadow Cabinet

18 November: Devaluation of sterling by 14 per cent ($2.80 to $2.40)

27 November: Britain’s second EEC application vetoed by France

29 November: Jenkins replaced Callaghan as Chancellor of the Exchequer; Callaghan succeeded Jenkins as Home Secretary

1968

22 February: Callaghan announced emergency legislation to curb immigration of Asians expelled from Kenya; Shadow Cabinet divided

17 March: Grosvenor Square riot — violent demonstration against Vietnam War

19 March: Budget increased indirect taxes by almost £900 million — austerity under Jenkins

20 April: Enoch Powell’s ‘River Tiber’ speech in Birmingham; Heath dismissed him from the Shadow Cabinet the following day

10 October: MT gave her CPC lecture What’s Wrong With Politics?

14 November: MT moved by Heath to Shadow Transport

1969

17 January: Barbara Castle introduced In Place of Strife — Labour’s proposals to reform industrial relations law; opposition from within the Labour Party, led by Callaghan, forced their withdrawal in June

14 August: British troops deployed on the streets of Londonderry

21 October: MT appointed Opposition spokesman on Education in succession to Edward Boyle

1970

30 January–1 February: Selsdon Park Conference — Shadow Cabinet discussion of Conservative policy for next manifesto

18 June: General election: Conservatives won majority of thirty-one; Heath became Prime Minister; MT appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science

30 June: MT issued Circular 10/70, withdrawing Labour’s comprehensive education Circulars

20 July: Iain Macleod died suddenly

6–30 September: Leila Khalid affair

27 October: Budget — ending free school milk for children over seven; increasing school meal charges; Open University reprieved

1971

4 February: Nationalization of Rolls-Royce

5 August: Industrial Relations Bill became law

28 October: House of Commons on a free vote approved terms of entry to EEC

1972

9 January: Miners went on strike

20 January: Unemployment total passed one million

10 February: Mass picketing closed Saltley Coke Depot

19 February: Government conceded miners’ demands to end the strike

29 February: Government announced U-turn on Upper Clyde Shipbuilders

March: Government began search for voluntary pay policy in talks with TUC and CBI

21 March: Budget — reflation began in earnest

22 March: Industry White Paper published

24 March: Suspension of Northern Ireland Parliament at Stormont; direct rule began

June-July: Industrial Relations Act badly damaged following court decisions leading to arrest of pickets in docks dispute

23 June: Sterling floated after only six weeks’ membership of the European currency ‘snake’

Summer-autumn: ‘Tripartite talks’ between Government, TUC and CBI — Government attempted to negotiate a voluntary pay policy

2 November: Collapse of ‘Tripartite talks’

6 November: Heath announced Stage 1 of statutory pay policy

6 December: MT’s White Paper Education: A Framework for Expansion

1973

1 January: Britain joined EEC

17 January: Heath announced Stage 2 of statutory pay policy

16 March: End of Bretton Woods system — all major currencies floated May Heath/Barber boom at its height; Budget reduced spending plans

6-24 October: Yom Kippur War; oil prices dramatically increased

8 October: Heath announced Stage 3

12 November: Miners began overtime ban, sharply cutting coal production

2 December: Reshuffle — Whitelaw became Employment Secretary

13 December: Heath announced three-day week

17 December: Emergency Budget cuts £1,200 million from expenditure plans

1974

9 January: NEDC meeting at which TUC suggested miners could be treated as a special case within Government pay policy

5 February: Miners voted to strike from 10 February

7 February: General election called for 28 February

21 February: Relativities Board leak suggesting that miners’ claim could have been accommodated within Stage 3

23 February: Enoch Powell announced that he would vote Labour

28 February: General election: no single party won a majority; Labour won the largest number of seats

1–3 March: Heath attempted to form a coalition with the Liberals

4 March: Heath resigned following Liberal rejection of his proposals; Wilson became Prime Minister, leading a minority Labour Government

11 March: Heath formed his Shadow Cabinet, giving MT responsibility for the Environment

May: Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) founded

22 June: Keith Joseph’s speech at Upminster

28 August: MT announced Conservative pledge to abolish domestic rates and hold down mortgage interest rates to maximum of 9½ per cent

5 September: Keith Joseph’s speech at Preston

10 October: General election: Labour majority of three

14 October: 1922 Committee executive urged Heath to call a leadership election

19 October: Keith Joseph’s speech at Edgbaston

7 November: Heath reshuffled Shadow Cabinet; MT became Robert Carr’s assistant spokesman on Treasury questions

14 November: Heath told 1922 that he would set up a committee to review leadership election procedure

21 November: Keith Joseph told MT that he would not stand for the leadership against Heath; MT told him she would

November-December: ‘Hoarding’ story run against MT in the press

17 December: Leadership election review reported

1975

15 January: Airey Neave took over the organization of MT’s leadership campaign, Edward du Cann having decided not to stand

4 February: Leadership election first ballot: MT 130, Heath 119, Hugh Fraser 16; Heath resigned as leader

11 February: Leadership election second ballot: MT elected leader

12 February: MT called on Heath at Wilton Street; Heath refused to serve in the Shadow Cabinet

18 February: Shadow Cabinet complete: Maudling, Foreign Affairs; Howe, Treasury; Joseph, Policy and Research; Thorneycroft, Chairman

5 June: EEC referendum

July: £6 a week quasi-statutory pay policy introduced; unemployment passed one million

1976

2 March: Sterling fell below $2

16 March: Wilson announced his resignation; Callaghan elected Labour Leader on 5 April

7 April: Government lost its majority

3 May: Stage 2 of pay policy agreed between Government and TUC

10 May: Thorpe resigned as Liberal Leader over the Scott affair; Grimond interim Leader; Steel elected on 7 July

7 June: Sterling under pressure — $5,300 million standby credit made available to UK for three months

28 September: Healey forced to turn back from the airport as sterling fell to $1.63; spoke at the Labour Conference on 30 September

4 October: The Right Approach published

1 November: IMF team arrived in UK

19 November: MT reshuffled Shadow Cabinet, dismissing Maudling and replacing him with John Davies

1 December: Shadow Cabinet decision to oppose the Scotland and Wales Bill; Buchanan-Smith and Rifkind resigned

15 December: Healey’s mini-Budget and IMF Letter of Intent

1977

22 February: Government defeated on Scotland and Wales Bill guillotine — Bill effectively lost; prospect that Government would fall

23 March: ‘Lib-Lab Pact’ saved the Government

16 June: Government defeated over Rooker-Wise-Lawson amendments — tax allowances linked to RPI

24 June: Grunwick dispute: mass picketing began

18 September: MT interviewed by Brian Walden suggested referendum if a future Conservative Government met the kind of trade union challenge Heath faced in 1974

8 October: The Right Approach to the Economy published

16 November: Scotland Bill and Wales Bill successfully guillotined

1978

25 January: Scotland Bill Committee — ‘Cunningham amendment’: 40 per cent hurdle for devolution in referendum

30 January: MT on television referred to people’s fears that they would be ‘rather swamped’ by immigration

3 March: Rhodesia: ‘internal settlement’ — Muzorewa and others to join Ian Smith’s government

25 May: Steel announced end of Lib-Lab Pact after current parliamentary session

21 July: Incomes policy White Paper: Stage 3–5 per cent guideline for wage increases

Summer: ‘Labour Isn’t Working’ — Saatchi & Saatchi’s first campaign for the Conservative Party

7 September: Callaghan announced there would be no autumn election

21 September: Ford strike (ended 2 November): breached 5 per cent pay norm

11 October: Heath spoke in favour of Stage 3 at the Conservative Party Conference

8 November: 114 Conservatives rebelled against leadership decision to abstain on motion to renew Rhodesian sanctions

1979

3 January: Lorry drivers strike for 25 per cent pay claim: ‘Winter of Discontent’ reaching its height

7 January: MT interviewed on Weekend World; suggested possible union reforms

14 January: MT offered to cooperate in legislation on secondary picketing and no-strike agreements for essential services; Government made no direct reply but eased its pay guidelines and lorry-drivers’ strike settled locally over the following three weeks

1 March: Scotland and Wales devolution referenda

28 March: Government defeated on Motion of Confidence 311–310, forcing general election

30 March: Airey Neave murdered by INLA bomb

3 May: General election

4 May: MT became Prime Minister