Abstract
The post-war consensus in government communications was progressively challenged by mediatization and politicians’ response to it after 1979 as subtle and largely hidden institutional changes introduced more aggressive promotional approaches to sell an initially unpopular neoliberal programme. Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990) and John Major (1990–1997) cared deeply about how they and their ideas and policies were portrayed in the media and saw this as crucial to political survival. Neither could ignore the media, or leave media coordination entirely to others, however distasteful the process. Where Margaret Thatcher had entertained media owners at Number 10, John Major was not prepared to cajole or browbeat press barons and broadcasters. Their contrasting experiences played an important part in the transformation of Labour’s approach to the media after Tony Blair’s election as leader in 1994.
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Notes
- 1.
Two main tranches of archived documentary evidence have informed this chapter. These are records concerned with the presentation of government policy from 1981–1983 (PREM 19/ 720/ 721) and 1983–1986 (PREM 19/ 1775); and documents from the Ingham archive held by the Margaret Thatcher Foundation dated May 1979 to April 1985.
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Garland, R. (2021). Thatcher and Major: Covert Changes to the Rules of the Game. In: Government Communications and the Crisis of Trust. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77576-6_3
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