Crisis? What Crisis? The Callaghan Government and the British ‘Winter of Discontent’
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John Shepherd is Professor of Modern British History at the University of HuddersfieldOver thirty years later, the ‘winter of discontent’ of 1978–79 still resonates in British politics. On 22 January 1979, 1.5 million workers were on strike and industrial unrest swept Britain in an Arctic winter. Militant shop stewards blocked medical supplies to hospitals, mountains of rubbish remained uncollected, striking road hauliers threatened to bring the country to a standstill. Even the dead were left unburied. Within weeks, the beleaguered Callaghan Labour government fell from power. In the 1979 general election, Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister, beginning eighteen years of unbroken Conservative rule.
Based on a wide range of newly available historical sources and key interviews, this full-length account, now available in paperback, breaks new ground, analysing the origins, character and impact of a turbulent period of industrial unrest.
1. Winters of discontent
2. Government, unions and the collapse of the Social Contract
3. The Ford strike, 1978
4. The oil tanker drivers’ dispute and the road hauliers’ strike
5. Public sector strikes
6. Media coverage
7. The Conservative Party and the ‘winter of discontent’
8. Political aftermath
9. Winter of discontent: a view from abroad
Index
On 22 January 1979, one and a half million workers were on strike – the highest number since the 1926 General Strike. Iconic images in the media of the industrial unrest that swept Britain in an Arctic winter captured mountains of uncollected rubbish in London’s theatre land; militant shop stewards turning patients away from hospitals and a national strike by road hauliers that threatened to bring the country to a standstill. Even corpses were left unburied. Within weeks the beleaguered Callaghan government fell from power by a single vote. In the 1979 general election, Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister, beginning eighteen years of unbroken Conservative rule.
Over thirty years later, the British ‘winter of discontent’ still resonates in British politics and contemporary public rhetoric. This is the first full-length account of a major turning point in late twentieth-century Britain. Based on a wide range of recently available historical sources and key interviews with politicians, trade unionists, civil servants and journalists, it breaks new ground in analysing the origins, character and impact of this turbulent period. How did industrial relations break down between the government and the unions? Why was no state of emergency declared? Was the ‘winter of discontent’ inevitable or avoidable? Who was to blame – the Labour government or trade union power? This important study will appeal to all those interested in contemporary history and British politics.