We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
A War of Position? The Thatcher Government's Preparation for the 1984 Miners' Strike<sup />.
- Authors
Vinen, Richard
- Abstract
It has sometimes been suggested that the government of Margaret Thatcher responded to the miners' strike of 1984/5 with plans that had been conceived long in advance. This article argues that Conservatives certainly discussed the prospect of a strike from the mid-1970s. However, they did not have clearly worked-out plans or much confidence in their ability to win such a dispute, and they became even more cautious after their humiliating retreat when faced with the threat of a strike in February 1981. Stockpiling coal was, initially, designed to deter a strike rather than to defeat one. Only slowly did some Tories reconcile themselves to the prospect that there was likely to be a strike and that 1984 was the least bad time to face it. Furthermore, Margaret Thatcher herself was not always keen to confront the miners and many of those who did the most to prepare and execute government strategy were not Thatcherites; some were civil servants rather than politicians.
- Subjects
UNITED Kingdom; THATCHER, Margaret, 1925-2013; MINERS strikes &; lockouts; CONSERVATIVE Party (Great Britain); COAL miners; BRITISH politics &; government, 1979-1997
- Publication
English Historical Review, 2019, Vol 134, Issue 566, p121
- ISSN
0013-8266
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/ehr/cez001