How Successful Was the Heath Government of 1970-74
How Successful was the Heath Government of 1970-74?
Edward Heath came into power in 1970 in a surprise victory against Harold Wilson. Heath was very different to other conservative leaders; he was a middle class grammar school boy, the youngest ever Conservative leader and the first to become a leader through an open election. His accession marked a change in the leadership of the Conservative Party from aristocratic to meritocratic, which many people saw as a refreshing change. However, the Heath Government is widely considered to be a failure, there are many factors of the failure of the heath government, whether it be his failure in dealing with the trade unions, the devastating actions of Bloody Sunday or perhaps it was Heaths incredible bad luck during his time in power.
Heath’s government suffered an early blow with the sudden death of Chancellor of the Exchequer Iain MacLeod on 20 July 1970. MacLeod would have proved very useful to Heath, as he could have done with MacLeod’s economic nous. Another disaster to fall on Ted Heath’s government was the happening of Bloody Sunday in which the British Army interrupted an Irish Civil Rights march and 13 Irish citizens were killed as a result of gunfire. The lack of intervention to prevent this from the government meant that the finger was pointed at Ted Heath, as he was an obvious target for the blame.
However, one would argue that the biggest failure of the Heath government was the problems with the Trade Unions. The unions had already caused many problems for Harold Wilson and they became even more militant when Heath came to power, the problems with the unions continued during the Callaghan government. It is said that an incredible seven million working days were lost due to the union strikes. The worst of the strikes came in 1972 when the Arthur Scargil led the national Union of Miners to strike after they demanded a 45 per cent increase in wages. The strike led to a lack of coal and without the coal
Edward Heath came into power in 1970 in a surprise victory against Harold Wilson. Heath was very different to other conservative leaders; he was a middle class grammar school boy, the youngest ever Conservative leader and the first to become a leader through an open election. His accession marked a change in the leadership of the Conservative Party from aristocratic to meritocratic, which many people saw as a refreshing change. However, the Heath Government is widely considered to be a failure, there are many factors of the failure of the heath government, whether it be his failure in dealing with the trade unions, the devastating actions of Bloody Sunday or perhaps it was Heaths incredible bad luck during his time in power.
Heath’s government suffered an early blow with the sudden death of Chancellor of the Exchequer Iain MacLeod on 20 July 1970. MacLeod would have proved very useful to Heath, as he could have done with MacLeod’s economic nous. Another disaster to fall on Ted Heath’s government was the happening of Bloody Sunday in which the British Army interrupted an Irish Civil Rights march and 13 Irish citizens were killed as a result of gunfire. The lack of intervention to prevent this from the government meant that the finger was pointed at Ted Heath, as he was an obvious target for the blame.
However, one would argue that the biggest failure of the Heath government was the problems with the Trade Unions. The unions had already caused many problems for Harold Wilson and they became even more militant when Heath came to power, the problems with the unions continued during the Callaghan government. It is said that an incredible seven million working days were lost due to the union strikes. The worst of the strikes came in 1972 when the Arthur Scargil led the national Union of Miners to strike after they demanded a 45 per cent increase in wages. The strike led to a lack of coal and without the coal