The Failure of the Heath Government

'important and strongly recommended, neatly packaged and eminently readable, and written with a clarity and authority that one can but envy.' - Cyril Townsend, The House Magazine 'refreshing for a political writer to treat economic policy seriously rather than as a form of black magic which affects the parties' standing in the polls.' - Samuel Brittan, Financial Times 'interesting, detailed and often stimulating contribution to the acromonious debate about the nature of true Conservatism.' - Andrew Gamble, Political Studies After its fall in 1974 the Heath government was widely accepted to have been a failure both by Conservative free market critics and by those on the left. By the late 1990s, however, several revisionist studies portrayed the Heath government more favourably exonerating Heath from culpability for the economic and industrial meltdown of 1972-4. This book seeks to refute this picture of a tragic yet heroic administration by showing the full extent of the economic, political and electoral misjudgements of the Heath government which left to the Conservative party, and to the British people, only the lessons of failure.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements - The Failure of the Heath Government: Introduction to the Second Edition - PART 1: INTRODUCTION - Electoral Victory and the 'Quiet Revolution' - PART 2: POLITICAL PRESSURE AND ECONOMIC POLICY - The Industrial Relations Act: Its Origins, Operation and Consequences - The U-Turn over Industry Policy - The 'N minus 1' Experiment and the Reaction to Rising Unemployment - The 'Heath Dilemma' and the Drift to Incomes Policy - The Operation of Stages I and II - Stage III, the Miners' Strike and the February 1974 Election - PART 3: CONCLUSIONS - Policy Reversals and Prime Ministerial Power - Policy Reversals and Contemporary Conservatism - PART 4: APPENDICES - Chronology - Select Bibliography - Index

Review :
'...important and strongly recommended, neatly packaged and eminently readable, and written with a clarity and authority that one can but envy.' - Cyril Townsend, House Magazine '...refreshing for a political writer to treat economic policy seriously rather than as a form of black magic which affects the parties' standing in the polls.' - Samuel Brittan, Financial Times '...interesting, detailed and often stimulating contribution to the acromonious debate about the nature of true Conservatism.' - Andrew Gamble, Political Studies '...revisionist, readable study seeks to show the full extent of the political, economic and electoral misjudgements of Heath's government.' - Sunday Times