Regardless of political or economic opinion, there’s little argument that the era of privatizing nationalised enterprises in the UK, particularly from the late 1970s through the 1990s, has been one of the most contentious issues in modern economic history. Praised by leaders as a revolutionary approach to allow the free market to prosper while keeping government spending and influence under control, denationalization and privatisation was also highly criticized by workers and ordinary citizens to what they saw as a betrayal by their government. While effective in certain cases and brutally ineffective in others, the far reaching nature of this movement has opened windows of opportunity to study how it has affected numerous different areas of the UK’s economy. The privatisation of British Airways and the British Airport Authority however, exemplifies that even within very similar industries operating on nearly identical timelines, the results of privatising nationalized enterprises can be unpredictable.
The utilization of nationalised industries in Britain has a deep rooted history, particularly from the Great Depression on. Seeing how the natural market forces had failed them in such a short period of time, and seeing the effects of wartime austerity under the Tories, the idea of a cradle to grave welfare state and state intervention in the economy was incredibly popular among citizens and armed forces (Brown). In the 1945 election, the party offering these promises, the Labour Party, rose to power, gaining party leader Clement Attlee as Prime Minister, and commanding 393 seats in the House of Commons (Brown). The in-power British Labour Party began their Keynesian inspired campaign of and nationalising critical public utilities ...
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To determine where the ideas behind the New Deal fit this paper will examine core areas within the new deal ranging from American Politics to economic roles of the New Deal including `Big Government' and `Big Labour'. It will also examine the New Deal's ideas concerning the environment, states, agriculture and social welfare.
The conservative approach to state intervention post 1979 has been on the whole to go for the minimum as is illustrated in their economic policy and this was included in their critique of government economic policy at that time. On the whole the government felt that levels of state intervention were far too high in regards to the economy which led to various negative consequences such as making industry uncompetitive and laid back since the government would bail them out at the first sign of smoke as Labour always did. They also felt it destroyed the incentives for individual entrepreneurship leading people into not achieving their full potential as it was not worth there while, this led to lack of money within the economy as well as top businessmen leaving for pastures new. On the whole Thatcher was a strong advocate of believing regulation by the state should be minimised as it had a large amount of control over things like wages, prices, profits and production systems which was thought to stifle business expansion. Most regulation was in nationalised industries and the way this problem was solved was through privatisation which was a major step towards reducing state intervention in the economy. This was passing major sections of the economy that were state run onto the private sector, although it did contain advantages such as managers pursuing profits it was primarily the disengagement of the state that was at the heart of “Thatcherism”, and this policy was indeed rather Thatcheresque. Classical economics believed state interference was negative and Thatcher considered herself as a modern heir to this classical view. Of course privatisation was a trend that continued beyond the 1980’s and with New Labour who converted to it b...
Previous to Margaret Thatcher, the government had always seen their main focus to be the achievement of ‘full employment’, a solution which in times of 1979 could prove somewhat impossible. The new Conservative government saw their future, as one of creating more jobs and encouraging greater success in competitive product markets, this was in an attempt to achieve full employment. The main priority of the new Conservati...
Public policy is enormously impacted by the importance of economic beliefs about the political world. Throughout history, there have been two prominent models of economic policy; Keynesianism and Neoliberalism. The increase of authoritarianism intermingled with the rise of communism essentially started World War 2. After this, the government instituted Keynesianism until the late 1970’s. After the stagflation of the late 1970’s, the political and economic movement of Neoliberalism began.
According to the International Air Transport Association, 2001 was only the second year in the history of civil aviation in which international traffic declined. Overall, it is believed that the IATA membership of airlines collectively lost more than US$12 billion during this time (Dixon, 2002).
Continuing high levels of unemployment was a major issue of concern in Britain during the interwar period of 1918 to 1939, and an issue which triggered a political commitment to full employment that lasted until the mid 1970’s. Despite an immediate post-war economic boom in 1918, the rate of unemployment throughout the period reached as high as 17.0 per cent (nearly three million people) and never fell below 7.4 per cent (M.E.F. Jones, 1984, p.386), a significantly higher rate than the pre-war (1870-1913) average of 5.8 per cent (T J Hatton, 2004, p.347). Much controversy exists about the specific causes of this high rate of unemployment. It is likely that no single factor was solely responsible. Instead here were a number of problems within the British economy and changes in export markets that must be considered in order to understand why the problem existed and why it persisted throughout much of the period.
When Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister the first thing she wanted to do was limit union power. She felt that union power applied to nationalized industrial monopolies resulted in poor service at exorbitant cost to the taxpayers. She pointed to inefficient work practices, over employment and restrictive employment conditions such as the all union “closed shop”. The Thatcher government declared its unwillingness to put further public money into an industry which had little chance of being able to recover its place in a competitive market.
In the event where one of these powerhouses were to fail, the nation’s ability to provide would be greatly diminished. The coal mining industry in Britain was a prime subject for this government scheme. For decades, this business had several issues hindering its effectiveness. Easily considered as a basic industry and a staple for Britain for providing the main source of heating, it would be best that coal be transition from control under private owners who have that much influence over society into control under the government for the interest of the public (Mowat 272). Coupled with obstinance between management and worker, declining coal production, and (dwindling) labor force, the coal industry was an important economic field to attend to (Mowat
The miners’ strike of 1984-1985 was one the most acrimonious industrial disputes Britain has ever seen. On March 6th the National Coal Board (NCB) announced its intention to close 20 coal pits resulting in the loss of 20,000 jobs, revealing as well the plan to in the long-term close over 70 pits. A yearlong strike followed which saw a time of Mass walk-outs, poverty and violence as mining communities all over the country fought to maintain their employment. Ultimately the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was defeated and the Strike ended on 3rd March 1985 following a NUM vote to return to work. Therefore in this essay I will analyse the strategic plans of both the British Government and the NUM, ultimately providing a judgement as to why the NUM and the miners’ strike failed to achieve its desired goal.
In this essay I will analyse the origins of Community Care and what benefits emerged when the NHS Community Care Act 1990 was established. Later on, I will explain and critically evaluate the effects of privatisation in social care and health.
During the ‘70s Margaret Thatcher used neoliberalism and a tendency toward free-market economy to help her country.Thatcher was a leader of the Conservative party leader who valued neoliberalism.When the U.K. is in a period of recession they have a tendency to swing right and go toward privatization and market economies. When the Labour party has control of the government there is a swing left and there tends to be more nationalization of industry.When situations start to get better the governments start to go toward a central alternative.
During her sovereignty which lasted eleven and a half years (May 1979-November 1990), she turned Britain upside down with her policies of fighting inflation, tackling the unions, intensify the British image in foreign affairs, the memorable privatisation and popular capitalism idea and many more. Though the pursue of those policies outcome high unemployment percentage and a lot of strikes from the public, Thatcher’s arguments on behalf for those alterations was the stressed importance of change in social attitudes in order for successfully compete with the rapidly developing world. Some of the noticeable new attitudes that persist in Britain to this day can be summarised as efficiency, entrepreneurialism, competition and independent responsibility. Thatcherism has served as a catalyst to the formation of the modern “Western/Capitalist culture” that has affected the everyday life of so many around the world.
Additionally, Thatcher was not always ruthless when dealing with trade unions, some may argue that only in her second and third terms was the government successful in handling industrial disputes. The idea that in her first term, Thatcher was not as successful in dealing with disputes in industry can be supported by the fact that in 1981 there was a government ‘climb-down’ where Thatcher gave in to unions. In 1981, miners resisted a pit closure program which Thatcher was pushing because of the high costs to the exchequer of coal mines as there was a decline in coal marketability (coal only made up 20% of Britain’s energy mix at the time.) Thatcher had to give in; coal stocks were not ready, neither was the legislation nor the organisation of the police force- the politicisation of the police force was key in Thatcher’s handling of strike action (demonstrated in 1984) which became extremely controversial. This indicates the unsuccessful nature of Thatcher’s first term in managing industrial
...ed heavily on public subsidy, and the gas and electricity companies had in many cases developed as municipal undertakings. They seem of proper national concern. The iron and steel industry proved more controversial, being denationalized and renationalized in subsequent years. In international affairs the Attlee government introduces a major change of direction, beginning the dismantling of the British Empire. The empire becomes gradually transformed into a Commonwealth of independent nations, capable of accommodating republics as well as monarchies.
Social justice is concerned by many people in the society nowadays and people are longing for social justice. Some people argue that there would be social justice when the market was truly free. Therefore, the relationship between the free market and social justice will be discussed in this philosophical essay.