Do you agree with the view that the ‘industrial chaos of the winter of 1978-9 primarily accounts for Mrs Thatcher’s election victory in 1979?
The Winter of Discontent was the the winter of 1978–79 in the United Kingdom, during which there werestrikes by public sector trade unions demanding larger pay rises, following the on-going pay limits of the Labour Party government led by Callaghan against TUC opposition to control inflation, during the coldest winter for 16 years.
In source 3, Pugh states that, 'the industrial chaos of the winter of 1978-79 gave Mrs Thatcher her opportunity'. This suggests that industrial chaos of winter of discontent was the reason for Thatcher's victory in the 1979 election. Source 3 therefore strongly agrees with the statement. Pugh also says that if 'Callaghan held an election in the autumn of 1978, he might well have won.' This shows that Callaghan was personally more popular than Margaret Thatcher. Even though this was the case, the Conservatives had a parliamentary majority. This therefore suggest that it was the more short term reasons like the winter of discontent that gave Margaret Thatcher her victory. Additionally, the winter of discontent lead to a number of strikes by public workers who felt that they were being mistreated by the government following the cuts in public expenditure. These strikes lead to industrial chaos which in turn made Callaghan's government lose support which gave Thatcher an advantage.
Another result from the industrial chaos was an increase in unemployment. Unemployment rose to more than 1.6 million by 1978. Source 2, a conservative campaign poster displays the mass unemployment. As Conservative is the opposing the party, the source would be biased and therefore would make Labour seem weak, 'Labour isn't working' and give the message that Britain would be in a better state under the Conservative party.