Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Internal Warfare

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Heath and Thatcher in Opposition

  • 284 Accesses

Abstract

After two election defeats in 1974 and a change of leadership in 1975, the Conservative Party was faced once again with the need to determine the grounds on which to fight the next election. As Margaret Thatcher’s appointed policy supremo, Keith Joseph oversaw the deliberations of various working groups, with a view to identifying the general direction of travel for a new Conservative government. Chapter 9 traces the bitter disputes which ensued, particularly between the Conservative Research Department – the Party’s usual source of policy advice when in opposition – and the Centre for Policy Studies, Joseph’s personal think-tank.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 19.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Churchill College Archive (hererafter CCA), Thatcher MSS (2/6/1/156).

  2. 2.

    C. Patten, ‘The Thatcher Years’ in A. Cooke (ed.), Tory Policy-Making: The Conservative Research Department 1929–2009 (Manor Creative, Eastbourne, 2009), p. 81.

  3. 3.

    CPA, Leader’s Steering Committee (hereafter LSC) (74), Second Meeting, 25 March 1974.

  4. 4.

    CPA, CRD (Uncatalogued Papers), Box 50.

  5. 5.

    CPA, CRD (Uncatalogued Papers), Box 39.

  6. 6.

    CPA, LCC (74), 12 March 1974.

  7. 7.

    Cooke (ed.), Tory Policy-Making, pp. 80–1.

  8. 8.

    K. Middlemas, Power, Competition and the State, Volume 3. The End of the Post-war Era: Britain since 1974 (Macmillan, London, 1991), pp. 20 and 21.

  9. 9.

    M. McManus, Edward Heath: A Singular Life (Elliott and Thompson Limited, London, 2016), pp. 165–6.

  10. 10.

    J. Campbell, Edward Heath: A Biography (Jonathan Cape, London, 1993), pp. 654 and 655.

  11. 11.

    M. Thatcher, The Path to Power (HarperCollins, London, 1995), p. 290.

  12. 12.

    The nature of the process is captured by the then director of CRD, Brendon Sewill:

    The apogee of all our research was the legislative programme for the first year of the new Parliament. Typed on large sheets of paper (spread-sheets were unknown in those days) it showed, week by week: first, the dates of known events such as the day fixed for changing to decimal currency; second, Parliamentary business – with proposed dates for introducing a score of Bills; third, suggested dates for government announcements; and fourth, the timetable for drafting legislation. I delivered the final version of this document to 10 Downing Street on the evening after polling day. (B. Sewill, ‘Policy-Making for Heath’ in Cooke (ed.), Tory Policy-Making, p. 69)

  13. 13.

    J. Ramsden, The Making of Conservative Party Policy: The Conservative Research Department Since 1929 (Longman, London, 1980), pp. 308–9.

  14. 14.

    CCA, Thatcher MSS (2/6/1/156).

  15. 15.

    CPA, KJ 26/4, ‘An Instant Impression’. Paper by Douglas to Joseph et al., 2 March 1976.

  16. 16.

    CPA, KJ 26/4, ‘An Instant Impression’, 2 March 1976.

  17. 17.

    M. Parris, Chance Witness: An Outsider’s Life in Politics (Viking, London, 2002), p. 169.

  18. 18.

    J. Ranelagh, Thatcher’s People (HarperCollins, London, 1991), p. x.

  19. 19.

    Thatcher, The Path to Power, p. 292.

  20. 20.

    A. Sherman, Paradoxes of Power (imprint-academic.com, Exeter, 2005), p. 48.

  21. 21.

    W. Keegan, Mrs Thatcher’s Economic Experiment (Allen Lane, London, 1984), p. 47.

  22. 22.

    CPA, KJ 10/8, Letter from Joseph to Sir Ernest Woodroofe, 18 April 1974.

  23. 23.

    Patten, for example, ‘did not just dissent from Thatcher’s tone (to which his pained reaction was very obvious) but from some of the core of what she was aiming to do’. M. Parris, Chance Witness, p. 175.

  24. 24.

    Sherman Papers, ARCP/A80/1/2, Draft by Simon Webley, ‘Statement of Aims’ for CPS, 7 June 1974.

  25. 25.

    Sherman Papers, AR CPS/AS O/2/6 box 7, 17 April 1975.

  26. 26.

    Sherman Papers, AR CPS/A80/1/16 Box 7, 18 November 1974.

  27. 27.

    Sherman Papers, AR CPS/A80/3/3 Box 7, 23 May 1976.

  28. 28.

    J. Hoskyns, Just in Time: Inside the Thatcher Revolution (Aurum Press, London, 2000), p. 17.

  29. 29.

    Sherman obituary by Bruce Anderson, The Times, 31 August 2006.

  30. 30.

    M. J. Todd, ‘The Centre for Policy Studies: Its Birth and Early Days’, Essex Papers in Politics and Government, No. 81, July 1991, p. 9.

  31. 31.

    Hoskyns, Just in Time, p. 71.

  32. 32.

    Sherman Papers, AC 5-42 Box 3 (Folder 2).

  33. 33.

    Sherman Papers, AR MT/M/1/5 Box 8, 25 October 1975.

  34. 34.

    Sherman Papers, AR MT/5/2/4 Box 6, 7 March 1979.

  35. 35.

    R. Cockett, Thinking the Unthinkable (Fontana, London, 1995), p. 258.

  36. 36.

    Thatcher, The Path to Power, p. 251.

  37. 37.

    Lord Vinson, private interview with author, 11 March 2010.

  38. 38.

    Thatcher, The Path to Power, p. 251.

  39. 39.

    Thatcher, The Path to Power, pp. 292–3.

  40. 40.

    H. Young, The Hugo Young Papers (Penguin, London, 2009), pp. 97–8.

  41. 41.

    Hoskyns, Just in Time, pp. 52, 78 and 177.

  42. 42.

    P. Whitehead, The Writing on the Wall: Britain in the Seventies (Channel 4, Michael Joseph, 1985), p. 332.

  43. 43.

    Young, Hugo Young Papers, p. 95.

  44. 44.

    J. Campbell, Margaret Thatcher, Volume I: The Grocer’s Daughter (Jonathan Cape, London, 2000), p. 385.

  45. 45.

    CPA, LCC1/3/1, LCC (74) 11 taken at LCC (74) 10th meeting, 3 May 1974.

  46. 46.

    C. Patten, ‘Policy-Making in Opposition’ in Z. Layton-Henry (ed.), Conservative Party Politics (Macmillan, London, 1980) pp. 19 and 20.

  47. 47.

    A. Gamble, ‘Economic Policy’ in H. Drucker et al. (eds.), Developments in British Politics (Macmillan, London, 1983).

  48. 48.

    P. Cosgrave, Thatcher, the First Term (Bodley Head, London, 1985), p. 33.

  49. 49.

    Young, The Hugo Young Papers, p. 94.

  50. 50.

    The Times, 6 September 1974.

  51. 51.

    R. Harris, ‘The end is in sight’, The Spectator, 26 October 1974.

  52. 52.

    Sherman Papers, AR CPS/AS O/2/6 Box 7, 22 April 1975.

  53. 53.

    Patten, ‘The Thatcher Years’, pp. 83–4.

  54. 54.

    T. Bale, The Conservatives Since 1945: The Drivers of Party Change (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012), p. 200.

  55. 55.

    Patten, ‘The Thatcher Years’, p. 85.

  56. 56.

    Bale, The Conservatives Since 1945, pp. 234–5.

  57. 57.

    Lord Patten, private interview with author, 16 February 2010.

  58. 58.

    Sherman Papers, AR CPS/LMPC/6 Box 5. Letter Sherman to Thomas, 6 June 1979.

  59. 59.

    A. Beckett, When the Lights Went Out (Faber & Faber, London, 2009), pp. 279–80.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Independent Scholar, Oxford, United Kingdom

    Eric Caines

Authors
  1. Eric Caines
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Caines, E. (2017). Internal Warfare. In: Heath and Thatcher in Opposition. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60246-6_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60246-6_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-60245-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-60246-6

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation