Margaret Thatcher is political career and achievements Every thing about him Part 4

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00:00prime minister of the united kingdom 1979 to 1990 prime minister of the united kingdom

00:11iron lady margaret thatcher his political career and achievements everything about the crew and

00:20prime minister of the united kingdom margaret thatcher her life and everything about him

00:27part four by 1987 unemployment was falling the economy was stable and strong and inflation was

00:35low opinion polls showed a comfortable conservative lead and local council election results had also

00:41been successful prompting thatcher to call a general election for the 11th of june that year

00:46despite the deadline for an election still being 12 months away the election saw thatcher re-elected

00:51for a third successive term thatcher had been firmly opposed to british membership of the exchange rate

00:56mechanism erm a precursor to european economic and monetary union believing that it would

01:02constrain the british economy despite the urging of both chancellor of the exchequer nigel lawson

01:08and foreign secretary jeffrey howe in october 1990 she was persuaded by john major

01:13lawson's successor as chancellor to join the erm at what proved to be too high a rate thatcher reformed

01:20local government taxes by replacing domestic rates attacks based on the nominal rental value of a home

01:25with the community charge or poll tax in which the same amount was charged to each adult resident

01:30the new tax was introduced in scotland in 1989 and in england and wales the following year and proved

01:37to be among the most unpopular policies of her premiership public disquiet culminated in a 70 000

01:43to 200 000 strong demonstration in london in march 1990 the demonstration around trafalgar square

01:49deteriorated into riots leaving 113 people injured and 340 under arrest the community charge was

01:57abolished in 1991 by her successor john major it has since transpired that thatcher herself had failed

02:04to register for the tax and was threatened with financial penalties if she did not return her form

02:09thatcher believed that the trade unions were harmful to both ordinary trade unionists and the public

02:15she was committed to reducing the power of the unions whose leadership she accused of undermining

02:20parliamentary democracy and economic performance through strike action several unions launched

02:25strikes in response to legislation introduced to limit their power but resistance eventually

02:30collapsed only 39 of union members voted labor in the 1983 general election according to the bbc's

02:38political correspondent in 2004 thatcher managed to destroy the power of the trade unions for almost a

02:44generation the minor strike of 1984-85 was the biggest and most devastating confrontation between the

02:51unions and the thatcher government in march 1984 the national coal board ncb proposed to close 20 of the

03:00174 state-owned mines and cut 20 000 jobs out of 187 000 two-thirds of the country's miners led by the

03:09national union of mine workers and hume under arthur scargill went on strike in protest however scargill

03:17refused to hold a ballot on the strike having previously lost three ballots on a national strike in

03:23january and october 1982 and march 1983. this led to the strike being declared illegal by the high court of

03:31justice thatcher refused to meet the union's demands and compared the miners dispute to the falklands war

03:37declaring in a speech in 1984 we had to fight the enemy without in the falklands

03:44we always have to be aware of the enemy within which is much more difficult to fight and more

03:48dangerous to liberty thatcher's opponents characterized her words as indicating contempt

03:53for the working class and have been employed in criticism of her ever since after a year out on

03:58strike in march 1985 the new leadership conceded without a deal the cost to the economy was estimated

04:05to be at least 1.5 billion pounds and the strike was blamed for much of the pounds fall against

04:10the u.s dollar thatcher reflected on the end of the strike in her statement that if anyone has won

04:16it was the miners who stayed at work and all those that have kept britain going the government closed

04:2225 unprofitable coal mines in 1985 and by 1992 a total of 97 mines had been closed those that remained

04:31were privatized in 1994 the resulting closure of 150 coal mines some of which were not losing money

04:40resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and had the effect of devastating entire communities

04:46strikes had helped bring down heath's government and thatcher was determined to succeed where he had

04:51failed her strategy of preparing fuel stocks appointing hardliner ian mcgregor as ncb leader and ensuring

04:58that police were adequately trained and equipped with riot gear contributed to her triumph over the

05:03striking miners the number of stoppages across the uk peaked at 4583 in 1979 when more than 29 million

05:12working days had been lost in 1984 the year of the miners strike there were 1221 resulting in the loss of

05:20more than 27 million working days stoppages then fell steadily throughout the rest of thatcher's

05:26premiership in 1990 there were 630 and fewer than 2 million working days lost and they continued to

05:33fall thereafter thatcher's tenure also witnessed a sharp decline in trade union density with the

05:39percentage of workers belonging to a trade union falling from 57.3 percent in 1979 to 49.5 percent in

05:471985. in 1979 up until thatcher's final year in office trade union membership also fell from 13.5 million

05:56in 1979 to fewer than 10 million the policy of privatization has been called a crucial ingredient

06:02of thatcherism after the 1983 election the sale of state utilities accelerated more than 29 billion pounds

06:10was raised from the sale of nationalized industries and another 18 billion pounds from the sale of council

06:17houses the process of privatization especially the preparation of nationalized industries for privatization

06:23was associated with market improvements in performance particularly in terms of labor productivity

06:29some of the privatist industries including gas water and electricity were natural monopolies for

06:35which privatization involved little increase in competition the privatized industries that

06:40demonstrated improvement sometimes did so while still under state ownership british steel corporation had

06:47made great gains in profitability while still a nationalized industry under the government appointed mcgregor

06:54chairmanship which faced down trade union opposition to close plants and have the workforce regulation was

07:01also significantly expanded to compensate for the loss of direct government control with the foundation of

07:07regulatory bodies such as oftill 1984 of gas 1986 and the national rivers authority 1989 there was no clear

07:17pattern to the degree of competition regulation and performance among the privatized industries

07:23in most cases privatization benefited consumers in terms of lower prices and improved efficiency

07:28but results overall have been mixed not all privatized companies have had successful share price

07:34trajectories in the longer term a 2010 review by the free market think tank the institute of economic affairs

07:40states faili lol twit does seem to be the case that once competition and or effective regulation was

07:46introduced performance improved markedly but i hasten to emphasize again that the literature is not

07:52unanimous thatcher always resisted privatizing british rail and was said to have told transport

07:58secretary nicholas ridley railway privatization will be the waterloo of this government please never mention

08:05e-railways to me again shortly before her resignation in 1990 she accepted the arguments for privatization

08:12which her successor john major implemented in 1994 the privatization of public assets was combined with

08:18financial deregulation to fuel economic growth chancellor jeffrey howe abolished the uk's exchange

08:24controls in 1979 which allowed more capital to be invested in foreign markets and the big bang of 1986

08:31removed many restrictions on the london stock exchange in 1980 and 1981 provisional irish republican army

08:39pira and irish national liberation army in lay prisoners in northern ireland's maize prison carried

08:47out hunger strikes to regain the status of political prisoners that had been removed in 1976 by the

08:52preceding labor government bobby sands began the 1981 strike saying that he would fast until death unless

08:59prison inmates won concessions over their living conditions thatcher refused to countenance a return to

09:05political status for the prisoners having declared crime is crime is crime it is not political nevertheless

09:11the british government privately contacted republican leaders in a bid to bring the hunger strikes to an

09:16end after the deaths of sands and nine others the strike ended some rights were restored to

09:22paramilitary prisoners but not official recognition of political status violence in northern ireland escalated

09:30significantly during the hunger strikes thatcher narrowly escaped injury in an ira assassination

09:36attempt at a brighton hotel early in the morning on the 12th of october 1984. five people were killed

09:43including the wife of minister john wakem thatcher was staying at the hotel to prepare for the conservative

09:48party conference which she insisted should open as scheduled the following day she delivered her speech

09:54as planned though rewritten from her original draft in a move that was supported across the political

10:00spectrum and enhanced her popularity with the public on the 6th of november 1981 thatcher and

10:06tallisach irish prime minister garrett fitzgerald had established the anglo-irish intergovernmental

10:12council a forum for meetings between the two governments on the 15th of november 1985 thatcher and fitzgerald

10:20signed the hillsborough anglo-irish agreement which marked the first time a british

10:24government had given the republic of ireland an advisory role in the governance of northern ireland

10:29in protest the ulster says no movement led by ian paisley attracted 100 000 to a rally in belfast

10:37ian gow later assassinated by the pi ra resigned as minister of state in hm treasury and all 15 unionist

10:45mps resigned their parliamentary seats only one was not returned in the subsequent by-elections on the

10:5123rd of january 1986 thatcher supported an active climate protection policy she was instrumental in

10:59the passing of the environmental protection act 1990 the founding of the hadley center for climate

11:05research and prediction the establishment of the intergovernmental panel on climate change

11:11and the ratification of the montreal protocol on preserving the ozone thatcher helped to put climate

11:16change acid rain and general pollution in the british mainstream in the late 1980s calling for a global

11:23treaty on climate change in 1989 her speeches included one to the royal society in 1988 followed by another

11:31to the u.n general assembly in 1989 thatcher appointed lord carrington an ennobled member of the party and

11:38former secretary of state for defense to run the foreign office in 1979 although considered a wet he avoided

11:45domestic affairs and got along well with thatcher one issue was what to do with rhodesia where the

11:52white minority had determined to rule the prosperous black majority breakaway colony in the face of

11:57overwhelming international criticism with the 1975 portuguese collapse in the continent south africa which

12:04had been rhodesia's chief supporter realized that their ally was a liability black rule was inevitable and

12:11the thatcher government brokered a peaceful solution to end the rhodesian bush war in december 1979 via the

12:18lancaster house agreement i stop at this point today until next time stay curious stay informed and keep

12:26exploring the world's incredible stories soon we will publish part five if you have any comments please leave

12:34us your comments because they are important to us thank you for watching

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