Thatcher/Scotland
February 14, 2010 by David Torrance · Leave a Comment
I’ve been looking through the recent release of Margaret Thatcher’s private political papers from 1979 and distilled the following relating to Scotland:
FULSOME press coverage, enthusiastic crowds and increased political support – that is how Scotland must have appeared to Margaret Thatcher as she negotiated her first year as Prime Minister 30 years ago. But newly released private papers also reveal signs that the honeymoon would not last long.
Although the Conservatives had gained six new Scottish MPs and increased their share of the vote to more than 30 per cent, Scotland’s economy was on the verge of a deep recession and the political battle lines over the constitution, industry and what became known as “Thatcherism” were already being drawn.
Among the papers – hundreds of which have been made public by Cambridge University’s Churchill Archives Centre – is a wistful letter from Teddy Taylor, who would have become Mrs Thatcher’s first Scottish Secretary had he not lost his Cathcart constituency to Labour at the 1979 general election.
Offering “a few thoughts on the Scottish scene and the election result”, Taylor expresses disappointment that the Conservatives made no impact on the Labour vote in west and central Scotland. “The Labour Party ran a furious campaign to imply that there would be a jobs collapse if the Conservatives were to be elected and cut off aid”, he wrote, “and there was also the implication that we didn’t care about Scotland We tried to counter it…But we didn’t succeed.”
Taylor then warned the Prime Minister that this “basic problem could be the beginning of a Labour campaign in opposition”, particularly against the closure of Clyde shipyards, which would soon run out of work. Taylor wrote that without an appropriate gesture, “Labour could run a simple campaign on the basis that Labour kept the shipyards open and the Conservatives closed them down!”
Taylor – who returned to the House of Commons as the MP for Southend East in 1980 – also expresses reservations about the government’s plans to sell off council houses. “If we are going to change the face of Scottish housing,” he wrote, “I think that it is vital that we sell some houses and flats in the more difficult areas. Otherwise they will become massive ghettoes.”
He concluded by telling Mrs Thatcher that he had decided not to attend the Scottish Tory conference in Perth the following week, fearing that he would be “a distraction and minor embarrassment”, with the media focussing on “the human interest aspect of the ‘sad man’ when all attention should be paid to the optimism and hope of a new Prime Minister and a new team.”
Preparations for the 1979 Scottish Conservative conference, at which Mrs Thatcher made her first public speech as Prime Minister, also feature in the declassified papers. Enthusiastic Tories mobbed her at the Station Hotel in Perth, while one young activist even presented her with a “blue Tory rabbit” to celebrate the election victory.
But one spectator was less than amused. Mrs Rachel Drew wrote to complain that Mrs Thatcher “could have spared a moment to pause and give a wave of the hand in greeting to the patient people – it would have been greatly appreciated. As an Englishwoman living in Scotland I sense the atmosphere at times and this greeting would have been welcome.”
Generally, however, the new Prime Minister’s reception in Scotland was favourable. Sending copies of uniformly positive press coverage following the conference visit, a Downing Street aide attached a note which read: “You will notice that for once, at least, the Glasgow Herald coverage is fulsome.”
The Prime Minister’s next visit to Scotland was scheduled for 11 July, although advisers feared that this might be “an unfortunate time to be seeking to turn public attention to Scotland” as the repeal of the Scotland Act – which would have established a devolved Scottish Assembly – was also scheduled to take place in the House of Commons that day.
In the event, the repeal debate took place two weeks earlier and the Scottish visit went ahead as planned, although a proposed tour of St Andrew’s House – the Edinburgh HQ of the Scottish Office – also proved politically sensitive. While Mrs Thatcher would meet union representatives, she was advised to “avoid a separate special meeting with union representatives: there are still difficulties in the Scottish Office in the aftermath of the Civil Service industrial action earlier in the year.”
Finally, it fell to Mrs Thatcher to appoint a new chairman of the Scottish Development Agency (SDA, later Scottish Enterprise); an interventionist government body many Scottish Tory MPs wanted to abolish altogether. Lewis Robertson, the serving chief executive, was considered too close to “the old SDA which the Party disliked”, so the Prime Minister opted for Robin Duthie, the chairman of tent supplier Black and Edgington, whose “commercial experience” was considered “essential”.
This was probably an appointment Mrs Thatcher came to regret. Two years later, Duthie likened her government’s monetarist economic policy to a “blunt instrument”.
Indications that Scotland was not warming to Mrs Thatcher came in November 1979 when the Conservative Research Department sent the prime minister a summary of opinion polling since the election. While this was good across much of the country, a party official warned that “support for the Conservatives in Scotland is continuing to drop, whilst support for Labour is increasing at the expense of both the Conservatives and SNP”.
The Margaret Thatcher Foundation and Churchill Archives Centre intend to digitise all of the former Prime Minister’s official and private files, many of which can already be viewed at www.margaretthatcher.org.
ENDS