Use this URL to cite or link to this record in EThOS: | https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.777519 |
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Title: | Preparation to "provoke a battle" : New Right Conservatism, the trade unions and the Conservative Party, 1974-1984 | ||||||
Author: | Hawkins, James David |
ISNI:
0000 0004 7963 3010
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Awarding Body: | Goldsmiths, University of London | ||||||
Current Institution: | Goldsmiths College (University of London) | ||||||
Date of Award: | 2019 | ||||||
Availability of Full Text: |
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Abstract: | |||||||
This research makes an original contribution to the literature on the relationship between the Conservative Party and trade union movement between 1974 and 1984. Through primary source material I analyse how an emergent New Right within the Conservative Party planned, prepared and enacted industrial conflict with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in 1984. This conflict was a result of ideological change in the Conservative Party, which saw internal cabinet opposition marginalised through a challenge to One Nation "wets" within the Cabinet. I argue that the government's industrial policy counters statecraft interpretations of the Conservative Party at this time. This is demonstrated in the following key areas: the radicalism of the party's industrial policy; the planning and preparation for industrial conflict; the creation of a recently unclassified "Hit List" of UK pit closures, one that was denied to full Cabinet scrutiny in 1984; and the use of direct government interference with the policing of "The Battle of Orgreave" and its aftermath. These actions fit the remit of The Ridley Report of 1977, a template for ideologically driven reform of which the desire to 'fragment' nationalised industries was a precondition for denationalisation. I argue that a group within the Conservative Party pushed through these changes to construct a new relationship between labour, industry and government.
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Supervisor: | Not available | Sponsor: | Not available | ||||
Qualification Name: | Thesis (Ph.D.) | Qualification Level: | Doctoral | ||||
EThOS ID: | uk.bl.ethos.777519 | DOI: | |||||
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