BRITAIN Sources: Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain (summary TV documentary) David Marquand: Britain Since 1918

Transcription

1 CRITIQUES OF AUTONOMOUS EXECUTIVE POWER; EUROPEAN HUMAN RIGHTS CONVENTION; SCARMAN, HAILSHAM, CHARTER 88 The reaction against untrammelled étatisme came initially from the heart of the legal profession. In his 1974 Hamlyn Lectures Leslie Scarman (then appeal court judge and later revered Law Lord*) argued that the traditional English combination of common law and parliamentary statute was unable to meet the challenges of the human rights movement (UN Declaration of Human Rights and the European Human Rights Convention) and social welfare. Britain was now obliged to protect fundamental rights even if they conflicted with Acts of Parliament, but the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy made it impossible for British courts to honour that obligation. Common law could not handle the potential for conflict between citizens and state created by new entitlements. Scarman called for a "new constitutional settlement" (echoing Tom Paine** in the 1790s and the Levellers*** in the 1640s), including a Bill of Rights which the courts would have to uphold "even against the power of Parliament itself". Only then would the citizen be protected from "instant legislation, conceived in fear or prejudice, and enacted in breach of human rights". This was a gradualist recipe for radical change. In his 1976 Dimbleby Lecture Conservative politician and lawyer Lord Hailsham famously described the British combination of majoritarian democracy and parliamentary sovereignty (absolute legislative power) as an "elective dictatorship", in the sense that the forms of democracy might continue after the reality had disappeared. He suggested a second chamber elected by proportional representation, with more powers than the existing House of Lords, and the constitutional entrenchment of fundamental laws and liberties. However, his reforming zeal cooled once back in office as Lord Chancellor**** under the Thatcher government. The SDP- Liberal Alliance contemplated far-reaching constitutional reform, including entrenched rights and PR, but Labour was unenthusiastic (only after Thatcher's third victory in 1987 did Labour start to heed public support for a new constitutional settlement). * The Law Lords were so called because until the 2005 Constitutional Reform Act they also sat in the House of Lords. Now called Supreme Court Judges, they do so only upon retirement. ** Tom Paine was a proponent of the concept of natural justice, an advocate of American independence and the French Revolution, a founding father of the US and author of: The Rights of Man, 1791; The Age of Reason, ; Agrarian Justice, *** The Levellers were a political movement during the English civil wars in favour of popular sovereignty and equality before the law. **** The Lord Chancellor is member of both the Privy Council and the Cabinet (responsible for the independence of the courts) and custodian of the Great Seal, and is thus formally the 2nd most important functionary appointed by the sovereign (on the PM's advice). As such, he may, for example, determine whether the sovereign is fit to rule. Until the 2005 Constitutional Reform he served as both president of the House of Lords and head of the judiciary (a role now played by the Lord Chief Justice). He no longer has judicial functions (eg President of the Supreme Court) and is now advised by independent commissions regarding the appointment of judges and top barristers. The department became Department of Constitutional Affairs under Blair in 2003 and then the Ministry of Justice in 2007 and it has in practice continued to be headed by the Lord Chancellor. It is no longer necessary for the Lord Chancellor to be a peer.

2 Constitutional implications of UN Declaration of Human Rights and European Human Rights Convention: 1974 Scarman Report (new constitutional settlement, including Bill of Rights) 1976 Hailsham critique of "elective dictatorship": recommendation of second chamber elected by PR, with extended powers, and constitutional entrenchment of fundamental laws and liberties Attitudes of other parties to constitutional reform 2005 Constitutional Reform (4/1) In October 1984 an IRA bomb exploded at the hotel hosting the Conservative Party Conference, killing 5 and seriously injuring many more, including members of the Cabinet. This was the most audacious assassination attempt on the British government since the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 (the failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament). Had the bomb not been planted on the wrong floor it would have killed the Prime Minister herself, and the "Thatcher revolution" would have ground to a halt. As it was, she continued, defiant and undeterred, and went on to change Britain more radically than any Prime Minister since World War II. Initially Thatcher was a relatively ordinary Conservative politician, but a certain point she changed, ousting Ted Heath as leader of the opposition and expressing increasing anger about the state of the country. By the late 70s Britain seemed in a state of terminal decline, with industrial unrest, unemployment and inflation running riot. The sense of national despair was mirrored by punk rock, which sneered at a discredited establishment. Even Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan admitted the country was falling apart, confessing that if he were a young man he would emigrate. He postponed the general election in the hope that things would get better, but December 1978 saw the worst industrial unrest since 1926 and the period became known as the Winter of Discontent, quoting an image from Shakespeare. In Liverpool the city's gravediggers came out on strike in 1979, and as the bodies built up the city council seriously considered disposing of them at sea, before finally giving in to the strikers' claim for a 9% pay rise. Thatcher projected herself as saviour of a Britain in decline, with an appeal to national pride: "We, who defeated or rescued half Europe... ". Her father had run a grocer's shop in Grantham, Yorkshire (the most boring town in Britain, according to The Sun). A self-made, austere Methodist, there was no indoor bathroom or hot water in his home. Margaret had a strict upbringing, with church four times on Sundays instead of being allowed to go dancing with her friends. Her father instructed her to "persuade people to follow your way". Her values were the Victorian ones learnt in church: thrift, hard work, self-reliance and the family. The Russians called her an "iron lady". She embraced the radical right-wing politics which she believed would cure Britain ("drastic surgery and bitter medicine"), unshackling business, squeezing back the state and slashing taxes. The British were hungry for change and she was swept to power in the 1979 general election. Now she underwent a spectacular transformation, with a deeper voice, "power dressing" and an increasingly adversarial style (former Labour

3 Chancellor Denis Healey described her as "part matron at a minor public school, part guard at a concentration camp"). Determined to make Britain's voice heard in Europe Thatcher embarked on a new Battle of Britain and at the next European Community Summit demanded a rebate of the entire British subsidy of the Common Agricultural Policy. Ignoring Foreign Office protocol, she stated Britain's case in highly personal, emotive terms, wearing down her European colleagues in a fourhour speech over dinner. (4/2) Refusing an offer of 70%, she was eventually persuaded by the Cabinet to settle. This was nonetheless a good result for "diplomacy by (armour-plated) handbag". She found a political soul mate in US president Ronald Reagan, a fellow believer in the free market and the small state. The "special relationship" flourished. Sharing the same determination to achieve her goals, Thatcher quipped: "You ain't seen nothing yet!" They had very different styles: she would hector him over the phone, and he - more laid-back in temperament - would simply hold up the receiver so that his advisers could listen in, and exclaim "Isn't she marvelous!". Not all Britons agreed. Together with Chancellor Geoffrey Howe, she was pursuing the radical economic experiment of monetarism - hitherto untested outside the military dictatorship of Chile. Defeating inflation was seen as the solution to all evils, through cutting the money supply, lower public spending and higher interest rates. This led to an even deeper crisis in British manufacturing and the closure of hundreds of factories. Unemployment climbed to 2m and inflation doubled to a staggering 22% over the course of 12 months. But she had no intention of acknowledging defeat and refused to announce a change in course (or "U-turn") in government policy. By early 1981 Britain's inner cities were in deep recession. In Liverpool, in particular, unemployment was as high as 60% in some areas, and Thatcher was seen as a typical southerner, uninterested in industrial Britain and hostile to its traditional male working-class culture. The mood is captured in the 1982 BBC television drama The Boys from the Blackstuff about a group of Liverpudlian tarmac layers, one of whom comments: "It's all heading for one thing... a Fascist dictatorship and a police state." In the summer of 1981 the inner cities erupted in rioting in Brixton, Bristol, Manchester and Toxteth in Liverpool, which saw 9 days and 9 nights of pitched battles. Any previous prime minister would have demanded an immediate change in economic policy, but Thatcher instructed the Chancellor to intensify it. [15:16] "Winter of Discontent" Thatcher's self-projection; background and values Radical right-wing politics; 1979 election victory; changes in personal style Rebate of British CAP subsidy Relationship with Reagan Monetarist "shock therapy"; 1981 recession; North-South divide; inner-city riots

4 14. Thatcher's main rival and critic within the party was another charismatic blonde, the glamorous entrepreneur and rising cabinet star Michael Heseltine, who successfully organized the renaissance of the city of Liverpool, an initiative which the prime minister dismissed as mere "public relations" and a distraction from the necessary economic "shock therapy". Heseltine resigned, but would later return to take part in his rival's downfall. While the inner cities rioted, 600,000 people turned out to celebrate the marriage of Charles and Diana. This was an age of extravagant escapism, with the nation watching a TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, about 20s Oxford, and the American soap Dallas. In pop music punk was giving way to the "new romantics". Unemployment hit 3m for the first time since the Great Depression of the 1930s. A new political party, the SDP (Social Democratic Party), led by former Labour ministers, became wildly popular. Thatcher was now voted the most unpopular prime minister since polling began. But she was also one of the luckiest, for this was the moment at which the benefits of the North Sea oil and gas discovered off the east coast of Scotland began to make themselves felt. Labour prime minister James Callaghan described the oil as "Britain's best opportunity for 100 years" when it first started to arrive in The Scottish Nationalists claimed it for Scotland, but by 1982 it was accounting for 8 bn of Britain's annual budget: about 10% of all tax revenues. (4/3) This was the most remarkable feat of civil engineering since the Victorian railways. The deposits were located over 100 miles offshore, at over 9,000 feet below the ocean floor, where the seas were wild and stormy. Although well paid, the work was hard and dangerous: 167 men died in one night alone in a fire on the Piper Alpha platform. The role of North Sea oil in keeping Thatcher economically afloat in the early, most difficult years is never fully acknowledged in her memoirs or in those of her ministers, as if there was something shameful about it. Mrs Thatcher's political career was saved by developments in the South Atlantic, where the new Argentinian dictator General Gualtieri re-asserted his country's claim to the Falkland Islands, colonized by Britain in The British government had just agreed to massive cuts in what remained of the Royal Navy and had just announced the withdrawal of the last vessel in the South Atlantic. Perhaps not unpredictably, Gualtieri seized his chance, but the British government seems to have been taken by surprise and the advice of the Foreign Office was to negotiate a peaceful settlement. This would have meant the end for Thatcher but - luckily for her - navy chief Henry Leech saw the crisis as his chance to save the force, arguing that the islands could be retaken and that he could have a fleet ready in 48 hours. The country became gripped by a patriotic frenzy. On 2 May 1982, in the most controversial decision of the war, the prime minister ordered the sinking the Argentinian battleship the Belgrano, despite the fact that it was not in British waters and that it was heading away from the Falklands. The Sun's distasteful headline "Gotcha" was insensitive to the loss of 321 Argentinian lives. The effect of this action was to destroy any chance of a peaceful settlement. On 18 May the "task force" of 3,000 troops landed on the islands, and although outnumbered and lacking full air cover they managed to take the capital within three weeks. The success was by no means a foregone conclusion: had the

5 Argentinians been better armed - with more French-supplied Exocet missiles, for example - the war might have been lost. Nearly 1,000 men died in the conflict, 255 of them British. Many saw the losses as futile, but Thatcher - now unassailable - was unrepentant of having taken the risk. The victory was projected as a symbol of national rebirth: "We are determined to overcome. And that is increasingly the mood of Britain... We have ceased to be a nation in retreat". Margaret Thatcher was now the most popular prime minister in living memory. She reinvented herself as "Britannia", wrapping herself in the Union Jack. In the 1983 general election the SDP won a mere 6 seats, Labour came a poor second, and "Maggie" won a landslide victory. She now reigned supreme. She even omitted to invite the Royal Family to a march to commemorate the Falklands War and took the salute herself. [29:58] Heseltine rescues Liverpool, then resigns; media escapism (Charles and Di; Dallas etc) Unemployment spirals and MT's popularity plummets; benefits of North Sea oil and gas 1982 Falklands War; MT's popularity spirals; 1983 election victory (SDP debacle) (4/4) Britain now appeared to have two monarchs, and Margaret Thatcher imposed her regal will over the entire Cabinet. The media responded in various ways to the novelty of a woman in power, but the Thatcher effect was best summed up by François Mitterrand: "She has the eyes of Caligula and the lips of Marilyn Monroe". She represented popular capitalism against the powers of the state. The right to buy council housing became a wildly popular policy, with the sale of 1.25 m homes, raising 18 bn for the Treasury. This was driven by the British credit revolution: mortgages had always been rationed and highly regulated in post-war Britain, but now borrowing was actively encouraged. In the 70s the miners had smashed the last Conservative government, of which Thatcher had been a member, and now she sought revenge. In March 1984 the NUM called a strike in response to the announcement that 20 unprofitable pits were to be closed, with a loss of 20,000 jobs. This was a dispute which neither side could afford to lose. NUM leader and committed Marxist Arthur Scargill aimed to defeat the government and "roll back the years of Thatcherism", denouncing those who disagreed with him as "class traitors". His office in Barnsley, Yorkshire, was known as "King Arthur's Castle", where he sat at a big Mussolini-style desk with his own portrait on the wall behind him. Scargill was another example of the way in which Thatcher was lucky in her enemies. Only half the pits were in favour of the strike, so Scargill refused to call a national ballot. Mines that continued working were targeted by "flying pickets", ie miners who were bussed in from more militant areas. The new Labour leader Neil Kinnock, from Welsh mining stock himself, refused to support an unwinnable strike and had to take on the hard Left within his own party. Only a quarter of Britain's energy now came from coal, and Thatcher had ordered supplies to be stockpiled at power stations in order to avoid the risk of power cuts. Confrontation was ugly and very violent. Ancient county and regional rivalries resurfaced: Yorkshiremen against Lancashiremen, South Wales against Nottinghamshire and southern police

6 against northern strikers. There was a medieval quality to the conflict: strikers used stones and bricks as missiles against police armed in the latest anti-riot gear, with shields, truncheons and protective helmets. The worst pitched battle took place at Orgreave, where 7,000 police took on 5,000 strikers. Thatcher blamed the conflict on extremists, "the enemy within", and this was the point at which another "enemy within", the IRA, planted the bomb at the Conservative Conference in Brighton. Thatcher saw little difference between the two. The miners were admittedly trying to bring down the government, and had allowed themselves to be led by a deluded insurrectionist, but the vast majority were law-abiding, traditional people trying to save their futures in a tough industry. By the mid-80s this had become a hopeless struggle. After 12 months support for the strike was crumbling and the miners began to return to work. The pit closures resumed in 1985, and continued until deep-mining, an industry which dated back to the Middle Ages and had fueled the industrial revolution, ceased to exist. This was a defeat for the communities of industrial Britain, but the world of heavy industry and strong unions was making way for a new economy: a privatized, white-collar, service economy with no unions. (4/5) Its centre was the City of London, where financial markets had been liberated from government regulations, leading to an explosion of trading known as the "Big Bang". Previously old-fashioned, the City of London now became the "hottest", most exciting market in the world. Out went the ancient family firms run by dim public schoolboys with their long, liquid lunches. In came the mega-banks of Tokyo and Wall Street, with huge mergers and huge deals. Dealing rooms decorated in marble and glass sprung up across the City, and the "Square Mile" became the most profitable, most expensive place on the planet. The new city worker was young, ambitious, from every social class and many quickly became ostentatiously rich. The "yuppie" was the ultimate symbol of the 80s: smart, hard-working and selfish. And people started to spend like yuppies all over the country, indeed many had been dreaming of this since the end of the war. With the credit boom engineered by Thatcher's new Chancellor, Nigel Lawson, the economy surged upwards. The country was gripped by a borrowing frenzy, fueling the first of a series of consumer booms and generating a whole new materialist lifestyle. The housing market was also booming: in the first half of 1988 house prices rose by 30%, and a broom cupboard opposite Harrods sold for 36,000. The 80s boom was unsustainable, but for many it was a heady, memorable experience. The Conservatives now started to sell off state-owned industries: oil, electricity, steel, water, phones and airlines were all sold to the private sector. Privatization became the essence of Thatcherism. In 1988 a group of left intellectuals led by Stuart Weir, then editor of The New Statesman, published a manifesto entitled "Charter 88", calling for a Bill of Rights along Scarman lines, freedom of information, PR, an elected second chamber and a written constitution "anchored in the ideal of universal citizenship". Relationship with Cabinet; reactions to a woman in power

7 Attitude to the state; sale of council housing; credit revolution BRITAIN miners' strike; Arthur Scargill's political agenda; picketing; divisions; Neil Kinnock's position; demise of traditional industries and communities IRA bombing of Conservative Party Conference in Brighton "New Economy": City of London, deregulation of financial markets leads to "Big Bang"; yuppies; Nigel Lawson's unsustainable credit, consumer and housing booms Privatization of state-owned industries Constitutional reform: Charter British Gas was the biggest privatization, with a huge advertising campaign entitled "Tell Sid", Sid representing the average member of public. It raised 5.4 bn and former PM Harold Macmillan warned Thatcher she was "selling the family silver". The public were not converted into stockbrokers overnight, but they seized upon the obviously safe bet in a characteristically British fashion. Programmes like "The Price is Right", with their hysterical studio audiences, mirrored the spirit of the times, also captured by comedian Harry Enfield with his plastererdecorator character flaunting "loads of money". Ironically, this conspicuous consumption, easy credit and personal excess all ran counter to Thatcher's Victorian values. She had wanted to shrink the state in order to create a more austere nation. Thatcher's enemies warned that she was creating two Britains. The rich got richer but the bottom 10% saw their income fall by about 17%. In the mid 80s beggars and the homeless, the new victims of the revolution, reappeared on the streets for the first time in living memory. Thatcher believed that it was up to families and individuals to help themselves and notoriously declared that society did not exist. Critics were appalled by her apparent indifference to the poor. Her behaviour started to become more bizarre, with the adoption of the "royal we". Paradox of Thatcher's creation of a culture of excess Rich-poor divide; lack of solidarity By 1989 growth was slowing and sterling was in trouble. Lawson had been Chancellor since 1983 and had soon discovered that inflation couldn't be cured simply by controlling the money supply. He favoured the alternative strategy of membership of the European Monetary System's Exchange Rate Mechanism, operational since For Thatcher this meant infringing the political sovereignty of the British state, and she vetoed the proposal. Lawson eventually arranged for sterling to shadow the deutschmark, and on the eve of the Madrid summit in June 1989 he and former chancellor Geoffrey Howe threatened the PM with resignation unless she committed Britain to ERM membership, which she did, though without specifying a date. In July she removed Howe from the Foreign Office, making him Leader of the House of Commons, and in October Lawson resigned of his own accord in response to attacks from Thatcher's personal economic advisor Alan Walters.

8 Initially, Thatcher had supported British membership of the European Community. Though she had contested the size of the British contribution she had favoured the overall plan of deregulation and trade liberalization within a single market and had also agreed to the 1986 Single European Act eliminating national vetoes from a wide range of policy areas. But she did not believe that liberalization should be accompanied by social protection (which would be tantamount to socialism or corporatism, ie organic social solidarity and economic tripartism), or that there should be a single currency (which would be the end of national sovereignty). So she regarded Lawson and Howe not just as schismatics, for having rejected monetarism, but also as traitors. In a speech delivered at Bruges in 1988 she announced: "We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain only to see them reimposed at a European level, with a European superstate exercising a new dominance from Brussels... ", thereby marking her distance from the Delors project. The European issue thus began to split the Conservatives as it had the Labour Party in the 1970s. In 1990 Lawson's successor as chancellor, John Major, persuaded her that Britain should join the ERM after all, as she lacked the necessary Cabinet support to resist. In return, she obtained a cut in interest rates. In November 1989 Sir Anthony Meyer, Conservative backbencher and committed European federalist, challenged Thatcher for the party leadership, and there were many abstentions. In 1986 Michael Heseltine had resigned as Defence Secretary in protest against Thatcher's refusal to back a European link-up to save the Westland helicopter firm and also against her disdain for the normal rules of Cabinet government. Since then he had consolidated his support at constituency level without openly criticizing the PM. Nonetheless, he symbolized the possibility of an alternative conception of statecraft and national identity. Lawson abandons monetarism; Thatcher vetoes ERM membership; pound shadows deutschmark June 1989 Madrid Summit: Lawson and Howe force MT to commit to ERM July 1989 Howe removed from FO; October 1989 Lawson resigns MT's ideological objections to single currency and Delors project; 1988 Bruges Declaration ("frontiers of the state"); Conservative split 1990 Chancellor John Major persuades MT to allow sterling to enter ERM Challenges to party leadership (Anthony Meyer, Michael Heseltine) (4/6) Her final domestic crusade in spring 1990 was regarded by many as deranged. It was decided that it would be fairer to replace the old system of domestic rates, paid by home-owners, with a community charge or poll tax, to be paid equally by all adult citizens regardless of income or wealth. Chancellor Nigel Lawson warned the Prime Minister that the plan would be politically catastrophic, but the government pushed ahead, despite the total failure to implement the policy when it was first tested in Scotland. A demonstration held the day before the law was due to come into force in England degenerated into the most violent rioting seen in London in modern times. Beyond the demonstration, the Conservatives were beginning to lose the support of "Middle

9 England", and Members of Parliament started to contemplate a change in leadership. For over 10 years her leadership had been characterized by self-dramatization, and her fall had an equally epic quality. The personal traits which had raised her up now brought her down. She had begun by fighting Europe and it was Europe which finally defeated her. She began a war of words against a federal European superstate and its proposed single currency. Chancellor Nigel Lawson had been the first to break away, resigning in Thatcher continued to attack federalism in a speech in Parliament: "The President of the Commission Mr Delors said at a press conference the other day that he wanted the European Parliament to be the democratic body of the Community, he wanted the Commission to be the executive and he wanted the Council of Ministers to be the Senate. No, no, no!" Geoffrey Howe was the next to resign. On 13 November 1990 he made a speech in the House of Commons, fatally attacking her: "The tragedy is (that) the PM's perceived attitude towards Europe is running increasingly serious risks for the future of our nation." At this point Michael Heseltine announced he would stand against Margaret Thatcher for the leadership. Now the strain was beginning to show, and she was informed at a summit in Paris that she hadn't polled enough votes to win outright in the first ballot. When she conferred with her ministers individually she realized she could no longer rely on their support, so she resigned on 28 November 1990, leaving Downing Street with tears in her eyes after eleven and a half years in office. Margaret Thatcher had her faults: she could be harsh and tended to bully people, friends and strangers alike. But after giving the country a "prolonged slapping", she left it stronger, richer and more self-confident than she had found it. Her impact still defines the country in many ways: like it or not, the British are all children of Margaret Thatcher. Poll tax protests Conservative Party divided over Europe, resignations of ministers, Heseltine candidacy, Thatcher's resignation and legacy At the Rome Summit in October 1990 Thatcher was the only member to oppose the timetable for monetary union. Back at Westminster she replied to a question by Kinnock by alleging that Delors wanted the Commission to be the European executive, the European Parliament its democratic body and the Council of Ministers its Senate, shouting "No, No, No", reported the next day in the Sun with the famous headline "Up Yours, Delors". For the last two years she had been treating Howe, her first Chancellor, with open contempt, and this for him was the last straw. He resigned from government and read a devastating resignation statement a few days later. Then Heseltine announced his candidacy for leadership. Thatcher had a majority on the first ballot, but not enough to win outright, and as her support dwindled she was forced to withdraw and put her weight behind John Major. Thatcher was victim of a double crisis - of identity and of authority. Her vision of post-imperial Britain as a self-sufficient island power was inconsistent with the current realities of an integrating Europe and an interdependent world CRITIQUES OF THATCHERISM AND PARLIAMENTARY SUPREMACY - CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM

10 There was also a backlash against Thatcherism among political theorists. John N. Gray, a former Thatcherite champion of the free market now published a communitarian critique of the enterprise culture, declaring that Hayek's vision was "at best a mirage, at worst a prescription for a return to the state of nature" and government should "concern itself with those cultural continuities to which the market is bound to be indifferent". Ferdinand Mount, editor of the Times Literary Supplement and former head of Thatcher's Policy Unit, attacked the prevailing "shrivelled and corrupted understanding of the British Constitution", and in particular the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy on which Thatcherite centralism was based. Given membership of the European Community, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, environmental challenges and the chaotic state of central-local relations, it was no longer relevant. He argued that the constitutional stability created by the late 19th century reforms (the broadening of the franchise and Irish Home Rule and later Independence) was not necessarily destined to last forever, and that further reforms might be needed to adapt to global developments. Rome Summit, "Up Yours, Delors", Thatcher's downfall Theoretical critiques by John Gray of enterprise culture and Ferdinand Mount of parliamentary supremacy, advocating constitutional reform (5/1) The late 20th century marked the end of an era, that of the great struggles between Left and Right, and the victory of the American-style free market. Most Britons had prospered under Margaret Thatcher, but in the early 90s boom was turning to bust. The country was more exposed than ever to global influences: migration, the economy and even the weather. The new Thames Barrier symbolized this vulnerability, acting as a warning of what might happen if we failed to tackle global warming. Throughout the post-war period the British had aspired to material improvement, but now this could no longer be taken for granted. However, contemporary politicians lacked the authority to persuade people to change their lifestyles. Mild, unassuming, likeable and practical, John Major hardly came from a traditional Tory background. Son of a music-hall performer and a garden ornament manufacturer, he grew up in Brixton, where he would return for election broadcasts, the family having shared a house with a cat burglar, a Jamaican later arrested for stabbing a policeman and three Irish tax-dodgers. His first task in January 1991 was to visit troops stationed in the Middle East on the eve of the First Gulf War, the sequel to which still engulfs us today. The soldiers greeted him as Tarzan, assuming that Michael Heseltine had won the leadership contest. Major gave assurances that he would do his best to sort out the chaos at Chelsea Football Club. Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait represented a threat to the safer world promised by the end of the Cold War. He was opposed by a huge coalition of countries backed by the United Nations. The swift conclusion of Operation "Desert Storm" was a good start for Major. The "New World Order" hailed by George Bush Sr. did not last long. Osama Bin Laden was an aristocratic Saudi who had offered his own private army to drive Saddam out of Kuwait. The

11 Saudi royal family turned down his offer and instead invited western armies onto Saudi soil. Bin Laden was so outraged that he went into exile to begin a long campaign against the evils of the Saudi regime and America and the West in general. Britain was at the forefront of changes, which were happening in often unexpected places. At Europe's nuclear research centre beneath the Swiss Alps work proceeded on simulation of the moments after the Big Bang. Here a young British researcher, Tim Burners Lee, devised a system to enable computers to share data, and by the summer of 1991 it was being used by scientists throughout Europe. Its name, the word-wide web, has endured and its author will also be remembered for his generous decision to donate his invention to humanity. Fuelled by the internet, the global economy surged on, shifting power from governments to consumers and global markets. 1990s recession; new global influences; authority of politicians John Major PM; First Gulf War; Osama Bin Laden Word-wide web; global economy 1991 MAJOR: DIVISIONS IN CONSERVATIVE PARTY; EUROSCEPTIC IDENTITY There was an increasingly bitter split in the Conservative Party over Britain's role in an integrating Europe (the cause of Howe's resignation and thus of Thatcher's downfall). The Europhiles were pragmatic diplomats and statesmen who accepted the EC practices of bargaining and compromise. The Eurosceptics were visceral defenders of a national identity which was in reality more English than British. They conceived of identity only in terms of sovereignty, in rhetoric reminiscent of that of Enoch Powell twenty years earlier (though not as eloquent). Politicians like William Cash and Norman Tebbit evoked emotionally charged images of Britain standing alone in the Second World War. Most had accepted the loss of sovereignty entailed by the 1986 Single European Act, given that Thatcher had been one of its authors. But as Enoch Powell pointed out, the "declaration of Bruges" was in reality incompatible with the European Communities Act of 1972, which Thatcher had also signed. Indeed, her Bruges speech, the Rome Summit and her ejection from office marked a change in her position. Integration was accelerating and monetary union was becoming a realistic prospect under the Delors Commission, which regarded social protection as a natural concomitant. While this was contrary to the Thatcher government's social philosophy, she failed to force her colleagues into outright opposition. Now she became an outsider, a romantic figurehead for Eurosceptics, symbolizing a nation under seige. Their rhetoric became more paranoid and resentful, with accusations of defeatism and fears of a "drift towards federalism". It was true that governments from Heath onwards had not been entirely frank with the electorate as regards sovereignty, claiming that EEC membership was nothing more than a question of free trade. The Europhiles Douglas Hurd and Michael Heseltine, veteran supporters of Edward Heath, failed to counter the rhetoric with a sufficiently compelling European vision of Britain and Britishness. Major had declared that he wanted to see Britain at "the very heart of Europe" but, while continuing to defend Britain's practical interests, the Conservatives did nothing to encourage a national sense

12 of continental involvement which might take the place of Britain's previous imperial vocation. Their defensive, practical arguments lacked the necessary emotional resonance. Conservative Eurosceptic identity; changes in Thatcher's position Europhile shortcomings (5/2) In winter 1991 the next European summit was held in the Dutch border town of Maastricht with a view to increasing integration among Europe's formerly independent nation states. The Maastricht Treaty would grant Brussels greater powers over foreign policy and workers' rights and hasten the progress towards a Single European currency. Major had declared that he wanted to be "at the heart of Europe", but much public opinion was against this, as were many members of his own party. Margaret Thatcher described the treaty as "a recipe for national suicide". Major wanted to delay the creation of a Single Currency, but all other European leaders were strongly in favour. Before signing the treaty Major managed to obtain an opt-out from the Single Currency and the removal of the Social Chapter, which earned him a hero's welcome upon his return. Now Major was confident enough to call a general election. Almost all the polls predicted his defeat but, given the choice between Major campaigning among real people and Kinnock's triumphalism. voters awarded him a popular mandate of 14m votes, the largest in electoral history. The next challenge was the economic hangover which followed the long boom of the Thatcher years. Unemployment was at 2m and interest rates were 10% and rising, while house prices were falling. The obvious solution would have been to lower interest rates, but economic policy was still based on shadowing the strong German mark, since 1990 as part of the Exchange Rate Mechanism. On 16 September 1992, known as "Black Wednesday", the value of the pound plummeted on city trading floors, despite futile cabinet decisions to raise interest rates first to 12% and then (against the advice of Chancellor Norman Lamont) to a disastrous 15%. Finally the government had to concede defeat and Major informed the Queen that Parliament would have to be recalled: Britain was exiting from the Exchange Rate Mechanism. This was the most humiliating moment for the economy since the 1970s and Major was not treated kindly by the press. While the British economy did gradually start to recover once out of the ERM, Major's authority did not. [18:01] 1991 Maastrich Treaty; opt-out from Single Currency and removal of Social Chapter Election victory; recession; 1992 exit from ERM; damage to Tory authority By August 1992 the Lawson boom had given way to deep recession accompanied by a collapse in house prices. Interest rates were still relatively high at 10% and the balance of payments and public finances were in deficit. The Bundesbank raised German interest rates to counter the inflationary effects of the country's expensive reunification policies, bringing sterling now close to its permitted floor within the ERM. Helmut Schlesinger, President of the Bundesbank, felt that

13 devaluation was the only solution for Britain, but Major and Lamont tried hopelessly to avoid the humiliation of Wilson and Callaghan in Lamont vainly tried to persuade Schlesinger to reverse his policy, and the Bank of England lost huge sums trying to keep the pound afloat. On Black Wednesday, 16 September 1992, with the Bank's reserves close to exhaustion, Lamont finally conceded to Britain's exit from the ERM, leading to a devaluation of 15%. This actually boosted the British economy and by 1994 the balance of payments deficit accumulated over the 80s had almost been eliminated. But nobody noticed at the time and the political damage was done: in June 1992 the Tories had been 7% ahead of Labour; by November they were 20% behind. They had lost their reputation for economic competence. In December 1991 the Maastricht Treaty had established a route towards a single currency. Major had skilfully reconciled British economic nationalism with continental quasi-federalism and managed to keep Britain within the framework of what was now the EU, while opting out of policies which would have been unacceptable to the Conservative Party: monetary union and the social chapter, with its enhancement of workers' rights. This was not enough for the extreme Eurosceptics, who wanted no part in a quasi-federal body. When the legislation reached the House of Commons in late 1992 they revolted, encouraged by Tebbit and Thatcher, now members of the House of Lords. The legislation was approved but Major's authority was fatally wounded after months of fighting. Labour was committed to freedom of information, the right to privacy and stronger laws against sex and race discrimination, but its position was still ambiguous on human rights and electoral reform. Eventually it proposed an elected second chamber "charged with the protection of liberties" and empowered to delay legislation infringing them, as an alternative to a justiciable Bill of Rights. In the early 1990s Kinnock's successor John Smith committed his party to a referendum on electoral reform and promised to incorporate the European Human Rights Convention into British law, though many remained sceptical recession; increase in German interest rates leads to devaluation of pound; economic advantages, political damage 1992 Eurosceptic revolt over enactment of Maastricht Treaty Labour's position on constitutional and electoral reform 18. The newspaper headlines seemed to be dominated by crime, poverty and violence, which culminated in February 1993 in the horrendous abduction, torture and murder of two-year-old James Bulger by two ten-year-olds, an episode which particularly stirred the nation's conscience. Like the Moors murders thirty years previously, it served as a condemnation of the moral state of the nation and, in particular, of the condition of British childhood, especially among the new "underclass". As opposition MP Tony Blair put it, it was "an ugly manifestation of a society no longer worthy of the name". (5/3) John Major responded to the growing sense of moral decline with a nostalgic appeal to traditional

14 values. When he was in danger of appearing out of touch, he came up with a new slogan: "Back to Basics", which boomeranged as a series of government ministers became involved in sex scandals and the press accused the government of hypocrisy. Then it was revealed that a number of MPs were accepting cash in return for raising specific questions in Parliament. This general pattern of misbehaviour was branded in the press as "sleaze", and the widespread corruption was aggressively satirized in the media. It seemed that Labour now stood a chance of making a comeback after 15 years in the wilderness, but in May 1994 party leader John Smith suffered a fatal heart attack. There emerged only two possible contenders for the leadership, the close political friends - and rivals - Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, who eventually hammered out their deal over a meal at an Italian restaurant close to Blair's home in the fashionable North London district of Islington. Blair was the son of a Tory lawyer: naturally charming, cheekily subversive, infectiously good-humoured and blessed with great skill as an actor. Gordon Brown was a tribal Labour Party man from a deeply political Scottish family. He had more political experience, but he seemed dour, an appearance exacerbated by his blindness in one eye after a rugby injury. While he had initiated Blair into some of the arts of politics, Blair was also useful to Brown, teaching him about the instincts of the mysterious English middle classes. Both were determined to modernize the Labour Party. In 1991 Brown had opined: "I think Blair could one day be leader of the Labour Party, after me". Blair may have given him some kind of promise as to when he would hand over power. For the time being Brown was assured control of Britain's most powerful department, the Treasury, and unparalleled access to domestic policy. This apparently friendly deal led to the longest-running feud at the top level of British politics in modern history. In the cool, modern Labour Party campaign offices in Millbank Tower they joined with Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell to create "New Labour". Campbell was a journalist from the tabloid press. Mandelson had worked in television and was a master of image and "spin". New Labour was media-obsessed. They had a plan for every headline, every sound-bite and every image, around the clock, in a fantasy of total control. One of Mandelson's aides would later say there were only 17 people who really counted in the circle which ran Britain. "Team Tony" had next to win over the massed ranks of the Labour Party. "Socialism" was out and "New" was in. With his impish grin, Blair even got away with praising Margaret Thatcher and courting Rupert Murdoch. He knocked at all doors, and was admitted. The General Election was won on 1 May Blair really did embody a shift in attitudes, representing a Britain which was more liberal, more compassionate, more informal and more image-conscious. There followed the honeymoon summer of "Cool Britannia", the Blairs and "Mandy" partying with the hip, young and artistic. Tony Blair fashioned himself as a new kind of leader, the easy-going bloke at no.10, a celebrity never happier than when appearing on daytime television. [30:00] Social decline, government sex and corruption scandals 1994 death of John Smith; agreement between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown Modernization of Labour; importance of media

15 1997 election victory; new values and leadership style (5/4) By the summer of 1997 Blair's celebrity status was matched only by that of Princess Diana. The former wife of the heir to the throne had become a fantasy friend to millions of people, thanks to her readiness to share her personal pain in the media. An icon, it was fitting that Blair's most resonant words, "She was the people's princess", were pronounced on the occasion of her death. He in turn saw himself as the people's prime minister and his approval ratings rose to over 90% at this point - an anomaly for a democratic country. The public response to Diana's death showed just how much society had changed since the war. The Queen, who came from a tradition in which grief was private, was criticized for being cold, distant and uncaring: the country expected her to display her emotion. The mass public grieving which took place around Diana's residence, Kensington Palace, in the days following the tragedy seemed almost Mediterranean. The reaction of Keith Richards, on the other hand, was more traditionally understated: "I dunno, I never met the chick!" The funeral was like no previous occasion, with its elements of royalty, gossip, show business and politics. Diana's brother made a powerful eulogy which seemed to criticize the Royal Family and, as it ended, applause began among the people outside Westminster Abbey and was then picked up inside as well. It was a tense moment. Blair should have realized that you can't stir up people's emotions and then let them down. Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone had secretly donated 1m to the Labour Party just before the election, with Blair's approval. He then persuaded Blair to exempt Formula One from new legislation banning tobacco advertising in sports. The press got wind of the story, and when it became increasingly difficult to cover it up Alastair Campbell advised Blair to come clean in a ruthless interview by the BBC's John Humphrys. He got away with it, describing himself as "a pretty straight kind of guy", but people now realized that Labour wasn't as sleaze-free as it wished to appear. There were also some concrete developments. In Northern Ireland Blair took huge political risks in his support of the peace process, which resulted in an agreement whereby hard-line Unionist Ian Paisley and former IRA man Martin McGuiness were finally able to share power together. In Scotland former Labour leader John Smith had committed the party to the idea of a devolved parliament. Blair allowed referendums for both a Welsh Assembly, which passed narrowly, and for a Scottish Parliament with tax-raising powers, which was strongly endorsed. The new Parliament in Edinburgh opened in 1998, after 291 years of political union with England (since 1707), and moved to smart new premises in The popularity of the Scottish Nationalists has steadily increased since then, and Edinburgh now feels more than 400 miles away from Westminster, even though there has been no constitutional separation - like two slices of pizza joined only by strands of hot mozzarella. Tony and Diana's celebrity status; anti-royal sentiment Cover-up of conflict of interests over Formula One

16 N.I. peace process; devolution in Scotland and Wales The 1998 devolution statutes laid down that elections to the new Edinburgh Parliament and Cardiff Assembly should be by proportional representation, which was also introduced for European Parliament elections. Labour also aimed to give London a directly elected executive mayor, scrutinized by an Assembly also elected by PR, and these proposals were approved in a London-wide referendum in 1998 and implemented in The party had also promised to hold a referendum on PR for Westminster elections and former Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, now Lord Jenkins, was appointed to head a non-party Commission to draft proposals. In 1998 it came up with a compromise, combining the Alternative Vote for the majority of seats in Parliament with regional list elections for the rest, with a view to obtaining Blair's support and a swift referendum (it actually only took place in 2011 under the Lib-Con coalition, and was not approved). The Human Rights Act was passed in 1998, incorporating the E.H.R.C. into British law. This too was a compromise: it did not empower the courts to strike down Acts of Parliament, as Scarman and Hailsham had advocated 20 years earlier. But if they believed that a statute conflicted with the Act they could issue a declaration of incompatibility and there was a fast-track procedure for its amendment. If Parliament and the government ignored the declaration complainants could go still to the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights. The judiciary has come under increasing attack from government ministers for overriding "democratically elected politicians" since the 2001 terrorist attacks, but the H.R.A. has made the E.H.R.C. a fundamental law, superior in status to ordinary laws, creating a stronger judicial check on the abuse of executive power. In this case, as in that of devolution, the substance of parliamentary supremacy had dissolved, even though formally it has survived. Constitutional reform, like suffrage reform in the 19th century, is a gradually evolving process, which accounts for these compromises and anomalies. But whatever ministers might claim, a quiet constitutional revolution was indeed under way: the conceptual and emotional foundations of the British tradition of autonomous executive power were crumbling. This was Blair's greatest achievement. Blair's contribution to process of constitutional change: 1998 devolution statutes; European Parliament electoral system; 1999 directly elected Mayor of London 1998 Jenkins Commission's proposals for electoral reform; Human Rights Act provides judicial check on abuse of executive power (5/5) The end of the millennium was celebrated in London with the building of the Dome, planned under the Conservatives and completed under Peter Mandelson as Minister for the Millennium. Mandelson, who was keen to create a confident symbol of British greatness, enjoyed his reputation of Machiavellian power and succeeded in obtaining funding and consensus for this striking architectural landmark for London, later reopened as a sports and entertainment centre.