To What Extent Did Margret Thatcher Impact the British Economy?

The last quarter of a century has seen a significant change in Dundee’s housing tenure. In 1981, less than 40% of dwelling stock was owner occupied. By 2010, this had risen to 61%. Although there has been a similar pattern of change across much of Europe, the change has been particularly dramatic in Dundee, and indeed Scotland. Mirroring changes in cultural attitudes toward home ownership, two structural factors have contributed to this shift. The introduction of the right to buy for public authority tenants in 1979 coupled with the decline of local authority new build, and the increased contribution of private sector house building.

The lack of unions that actually took part in the strike also contributed to its failure to both have an impact and to live up to its name as being a ‘General Strike’. The printers, gas and electricity, transport and railway workers were only some of a limited number of unions that went on strike. This meant that the strike could not have its effect that it was meant to. The fact that the general public didn’t give their support to the strike meant that there was a feeling around the country that what the strikers were doing was pointless. Indeed the way in which the TUC didn’t want to be

During the reign of Elizabeth I, the Privy Council and court were the centre of the Elizabethan government. Although parliament was Elizabeth’s necessary method of legislation and raising taxes, it was far from being a regular part of the governmental system (only being called 13 times during her reign). A leading debate arose when the historian Sir John Neale argued that there was a considerable amount of conflict between MPs and the queen. Whereas revisionists, such as Graves and Sir Geoffrey Elton, challenged this view and argued that the relationship was one of co-operation. I agree with the views of Elton that over Elizabeth’s 46 year reign there was much success, however she faced a

This proposed study examines the development of housing policy and right to buy from the view of government mentality of UK. This study focused on the difficulties not only to the purchaser of council house but also to those tenants who have not purchase tenancies in UK. This proposed study also discusses the role of social housing in 21st century housing policy. Aim of this study is to provide a framework to the researcher and to identify different impacts of Right to buy scheme on housing market. Among other issues, this study also discusses that council housing gives better opportunities and provide security to the tenants with 33% to 55% discount as compared to market price.

How far was New Labour influenced by Thatcher? For many voters in the second half of the twentieth century, the Labour and Conservative parties were viewed as diametrically opposed, in terms of their policy, supporters and sympathies. During the Thatcher government, the Conservatives departed from the Keynesian post-war consensus, embracing neoliberal economics. Thatcherism has been described as “an ideological project, a vehicle which advanced a post-social democratic neo-liberal policy agenda.” .

Thatcher believed that the state of the British manufacturing industry was declining due to weak employers. At the time there were lots of trades unions who would strike as they felt that their

Many British people that had a skill in a specific trade were forced to take up trades that required no skill at all which angered them . Due to immigration, discrimination in jobs was open, for example shop keepers put a sign up saying what kind of workers they were looking for, and this gave many British people the advantage of the immigrants as a confidence trick to govern the country due to being imperial. Excluded from much of the social and economic life the immigrants began to adjust the institutions they had brought with them, for example their churches and the fact they had a British education which meant that the government gave them the right to follow their own traditions and reduced the challenges of schooling. However this also increased segregation between the immigrants and those who opposed, conflict and discrimination was very common, it became easier to recognise people’s origins and social background from their dress scene and accents. The government weren’t prepared for the reaction of the public immigration would cause regarding the unhappiness of being restricted in the job market, they then introduced the immigration act which stopped immigrant wanting to come into the country although if left the ones already in Britain feeling very isolated and betrayed which sparked their rebellion. The conservative government had traditional views upon empire and they were objective to change which socially changed the views of the public and changed

the importance of that decade. Like the shift away from the government which helped the Reagan era during the 1980’s. Or how diversity and discrimination helped reshape the attitude

This essay will explain what Ideological and Economic factors as regards social policy making are and identify some of the factors used during the labour government of 1997-2010.Some examples /case study as to why certain factors were considered and used will be examined, this will aid better understanding of their effects on the policies that were made. The Market failure which actually gave way to the intervention of the government in the housing sector and the tools /policies that were used for the correction will be discussed.

The government has been implementing policies in the improvement of the growth in the UK. Such as improving economic growth during the Great Depression and the recent financial crisis. A brief history by (Pettinger, 2016) on the use of fiscal policy, Keynes promoted the use of fiscal policy as a way of boosting growth. Moreover, during 1970-1980s the government switched to using monetary policy in influencing the economy. However, the government later reverted to using the fiscal policy in the recession of 2008-2013. Whether or not fiscal policy is the key policy in the process of improving economic growth is the issue.

Thatcher reduced trade union power. She was helped also by rapidly rising unemployment which acted as a major disincentive to many going on strike or pressing to hard for higher wages.

Lee (1996) believes one main point was to “promote popular capitalism through the process of privatisation”. Thatcher announced plans to bring about privatisation and local government changes in order to decrease the state’s involvement in economy. State-owned businesses such as British Gas and British Airways were put back into private hands. Following this, she encouraged independence and encourage private education and health facilities. Health and social care services including dental and optical faculties became private.

The economic reforms initiated by Prime Minister Margret Thatcher since 1980’s has made the United Kingdom record steady economic growth in the 1990s. However, successive Labour governments increased government spending significantly. Since 2010, the government upheld austerity as the principal of its economic policy. In 2014, the country recorded its strongest economic growth since 2007 of 2.387 trillion dollars with GDP per capita at 39,350.64 dollars. The GDP increased significantly because of the enhanced performance of the construction, manufacturing, and services sectors. Retail sales also increased with unemployment relatively at lowest

George Bernard Shaw, a nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 once said, “If all the economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion” (Mankiw, 1998: 34). Yet, an economic comparison between the United Kingdom and the United States could still be made to distinguish the country with the better economic growth performance. Important indicators when comparing economies is economic growth rate, which is a measure of the yearly rate of development rate of GDP using the market prices (Ros, 2013: 26). Another indicator is the GDP, which is defined as the total amount of goods and services produced in a country per year (Mankiw, 2009: 521). Also, the inflation rate is used, which is a continuos increase in the prices for goods and services in the consumer price index and it is measured yearly (Herr & Kazandziska, 2011: 74). Lastly, the unemployment rate shows the percentage of people whiling and could work but do not have a job (Macdonald, 1999: 238). This report will compare the economic growth performance of the United States and the United Kingdom since 1990 using four indicators: economic growth rate, GDP, inflation, and unemployment rate.

A place to call home, a concept that much of society aspires to. A home is a sanctuary, a place to raise a family; home after all, is where the heart belongs. However, does the notion that a house is make a house any less of a home than a house that is owner occupied? Housing policy during the latter part of the 20th century began to shift towards owner occupation. One policy in particular completely changed the face of housing, it brought about the biggest shake up in housing history. The Conservative Government’s ‘Right to Buy’ scheme or ‘Council House Privatisation’ as written in (Baldock, Mitton, Manning & Vickerstaff, 2012), formed part of the Housing Act 1980, the then secretary of state for the environment, Michael Heseltine, stated "This bill lays the foundations for one of the most important social revolutions of this century” (Jones, 2011). Therefore, this essay will answer the question can the “Right to Buy” policy as introduced