Margaret Thatcher: The Autobiography (129 page)

BOOK: Margaret Thatcher: The Autobiography
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Receiving a standing ovation at the Party Conference in October 1989.

With members of the Cabinet and Denis at the Carlton Club for a dinner to mark my tenth anniversary as Prime Minister, May 1989.

Answering questions in the House of Commons in October 1990.

Driving away from Buckingham Palace having handed over the seals of office, 28 November 1990.

Leaving No. 10 for the last time.

CHRONOLOGY, 1955–1990
 
 
1955
 
5 April
Churchill resigned as Prime Minister; succeeded by Eden.
26 May
General election: Conservative majority sixty.
 
 
1956
 
26 July
Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.
29 October
Israel invaded Sinai.
30 October
Joint Anglo-French ultimatum to Egypt and Israel; Soviet troops invaded Hungary.
5 November
British and French landings at Port Said; intervention aborted two days later under US pressure.
 
 
1957
 
9 January
Eden resigned as Prime Minister; Macmillan succeeded him.
25 March
Treaty of Rome signed, establishing EEC.
25 July
Macmillan: ‘Most of our people have never had it so good.’
19 September
Thorneycroft increased Bank Rate from 5 to 7 per cent.
 
 
1958
 
6 January
Treasury Ministers (Thorneycroft, Powell and Birch) resigned from the Government over public expenditure plans; Macmillan left the following day for a Commonwealth tour, describing the resignations as ‘little local difficulties’.
3 July
Credit squeeze relaxed.
31 August
Notting Hill and Nottingham riots.
 
 
1959
 
7 April
Budget: 9d reduction in income tax.
8 October
General election: Conservative majority 100; MT first elected MP for Finchley.
28 November
Gaitskell called for reform of Clause IV of Labour’s constitution – forced to retreat the following year.
 
 
1960
 
3 February
Macmillan in South Africa: ‘A wind of change is blowing through the continent.’
5 February
MT’s maiden speech.
February–October
Parliamentary passage of MT’s Public Bodies (Admission of the Press to Meetings) Bill.
 
 
1961
 
25 July
Deflationary emergency budget; ‘Pay Pause’ for government employees.
31 July
Macmillan announced beginning of negotiations for Britain to join EEC.
13 August
East Germany sealed the border with West Berlin; Berlin Wall begun.
9 October
Reshuffle: MT appointed to her first government post – Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance.
 
 
1962
 
14 March
Orpington by-election: Liberals took Conservative seat, overturning a majority of 14,760.
13 July
‘Night of the Long Knives’ – seven of twenty-one Cabinet ministers fired by Macmillan.
October
Cuban missile crisis.
November
Vassall affair.
21 December
US agreement to sell Britain Polaris.
 
 
1963
 
14 January
De Gaulle rejected first British application to join the EEC.
14 February
Harold Wilson elected Labour Leader following death of Hugh Gaitskell.
4 June
Profumo resigned.
1 July
Philby named as ‘the third man’.
10 October
Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister during Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool.
19 October
Douglas-Home became Prime Minister; Iain Macleod and Enoch Powell refused office.
 
 
1964
 
July
Legislation enacted to abolish Resale Price Maintenance.
15 October
General election: Labour won a majority of four; Wilson became Prime Minister.
28 October
MT became Opposition spokesman on Pensions.
November
Sterling crisis.
 
 
1965
 
24 January
Churchill died, aged ninety.
12 July
Crosland’s circular 10/65 on comprehensive schools: LEAs to submit plans within a year to reorganize on comprehensive lines; Government’s aim declared to be ‘the complete elimination of selection and separatism in secondary education’.
22 July
Douglas-Home resigned as Conservative Leader; Heath elected to succeed him, defeating Maudling and Powell.
16 September
Labour’s National Plan published.
5 October
Reshuffle of Opposition spokesmen: MT moved to Shadow Housing and Land.
8 November
Abolition of capital punishment.
11 November
Rhodesia: Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI).
 
 
1966
 
31 March
General election: Labour returned with an overall majority of ninety-seven.
19 April
Reshuffle of Opposition spokesmen: MT appointed Iain Macleod’s deputy, shadowing the Treasury.
3 May
Budget introduced Selective Employment Tax (SET).
May–July
Seamen’s strike.
15 June
Abortion Bill passed Second Reading.
July
Sterling crisis; deflation; wage freeze to be followed by a prices and incomes policy.
5 July
Sexual Offences Bill (legalizing homosexuality) passed Second Reading.
12 October
MT spoke against SET at the Conservative Conference.
10 November
Labour announced Britain to make a second application to join the EEC.
 
 
1967
 
11 April
Massive Conservative gains in local government elections.
10 October
Heath moved MT to Shadow Fuel and Power, with a place in the Shadow Cabinet.
18 November
Devaluation of sterling by 14 per cent ($2.80 to $2.40).
27 November
Britain’s second EEC application vetoed by France.
29 November
Jenkins replaced Callaghan as Chancellor of the Exchequer; Callaghan succeeded Jenkins as Home Secretary.
1968
 
22 February
Callaghan announced emergency legislation to curb immigration of Asians expelled from Kenya; Shadow Cabinet divided.
17 March
Grosvenor Square riot – violent demonstration against Vietnam War.
19 March
Budget increased indirect taxes by almost £900 million – austerity under Jenkins.
20 April
Enoch Powell’s ‘River Tiber’ speech in Birmingham; Heath dismissed him from the Shadow Cabinet the following day.
10 October
MT gave her CPC lecture
What’s Wrong With Politics?
14 November
MT moved by Heath to Shadow Transport.
 
 
1969
 
17 January
Barbara Castle introduced
In Place of Strife –
Labour’s proposals to reform industrial relations law; opposition from within the Labour Party, led by Callaghan, forced their withdrawal in June.
14 August
British troops deployed on the streets of Londonderry.
21 October
MT appointed Opposition spokesman on Education in succession to Edward Boyle.
 
 
1970
 
30 January—
1 February
Selsdon Park Conference – Shadow Cabinet discussion of Conservative policy for next manifesto.
18 June
General election: Conservatives won majority of thirty-one; Heath became Prime Minister; MT appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science.
30 June
MT issued Circular 10/70, withdrawing Labour’s comprehensive education Circulars.
20 July
Iain Macleod died suddenly.
6–30 September
Leila Khalid affair.
27 October
Budget – ending free school milk for children over seven; increasing school meal charges; Open University reprieved.
 
 
1971
 
4 February
Nationalization of Rolls-Royce.
5 August
Industrial Relations Bill became law.
28 October
House of Commons on a free vote approved terms of entry to EEC.
 
 
1972
 
9 January
Miners went on strike.
20 January
Unemployment total passed one million.
10 February
Mass picketing closed Saltley Coke Depot.
19 February
Government conceded miners’ demands to end the strike.
20 February
Government announced U-turn on Upper Clyde Shipbuilders.
March
Government began search for voluntary pay policy in talks with TUC and CBI.
21 March
Budget – reflation began in earnest.
22 March
Industry White Paper published.
24 March
Suspension of Northern Ireland Parliament at Stormont; direct rule began.
June–July
Industrial Relations Act badly damaged following court decisions leading to arrest of pickets in docks dispute.
23 June
Sterling floated after only six weeks’ membership of the European currency ‘snake’.
Summer–autumn
‘Tripartite talks’ between Government, TUC and CBI – Government attempted to negotiate a voluntary pay policy.
2 November
Collapse of ‘Tripartite talks’.
6 November
Heath announced Stage 1 of statutory pay policy.
6 December
MT’s White Paper
Education: A Framework for Expansion.
 
 
1973
 
1 January
Britain joined EEC.
17 January
Heath announced Stage 2 of statutory pay policy.
16 March
End of Bretton Woods system – all major currencies floated.
May
Heath/Barber boom at its height; budget reduced spending plans.
6–24 October
Yom Kippur War; oil prices dramatically increased.
8 October
Heath announced Stage 3.
12 November
Miners began overtime ban, sharply cutting coal production.
2 December
Reshuffle – Whitelaw became Employment Secretary.
13 December
Heath announced three-day week.
17 December
Emergency budget cut £1,200 million from expenditure plans.
 
 
1974
 
9 January
NEDC meeting at which TUC suggested miners could be treated as a special case within government pay policy.
5 February
Miners voted to strike from 10 February.
7 February
General election called for 28 February.
21 February
Relativities Board leak suggesting that miners’ claim could have been accommodated within Stage 3.
23 February
Enoch Powell announced that he would vote Labour.
28 February
General election: no single party won a majority; Labour won the largest number of seats.
1–3 March
Heath attempted to form a coalition with the Liberals.
4 March
Heath resigned following Liberal rejection of his proposals; Wilson became Prime Minister, leading a minority Labour Government.

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