The winter of 1979 was a winter of political change. This change of direction involved the reassertion of the views of competition, freedom of choice, self-reliance, incentives and non-intervention of the state in order that incentives and enterprise can be released and that commerce and industry could prosper. With this view in mind the newly elected Conservative party, under of the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, Britain was about to witness a political dominance that would change British society as it is today...

This paper will evaluate the key ideas that the Conservative party has implemented over their reign in the political forum. The main issues that will be reviewed have provided an essential historical backdrop to what is described as the 'New Right' policies which involved, reduced public spending, regressive taxation, rising unemployment, restricted powers of Trade unions and privatisation of the Government owned industries/services.

The key ideas that inform the 'New Right' can be summed up by the term 'Economic liberalism' as such derived from Adam smith (1723-90), Hayek (1899) and Friedman (1912). There are two inter-related principles. The

In Conclusion the 'New Right' stands against Nationalisation and adopts a more 20th century Victorian point of view of 'Lassie faire' where their should be as little of state intervention except for the legal frame work. The 'New Right' also sees that the police and defence should be of high priority and that the four main services that the state provides (NHS, Housing, Transport and Education) should be in the hands of the private sector. They also opt for regressive taxation system as suppose to progressive taxation. This means that the rich receive greater returns on income and are taxed along the same lines of the more unfortunate of earners. Another main factor that establishes the 'New Right' as the 'New Right' is the movement away from the Keynesian post-war agreement. Also there are the economic principles it adapts such as the fight for low inflation and rises of interest rates to stabilise the economy.

first being the maximum operation of the free market forces in the production and distribution of goods and services. And second, the minimum intervention of the state saves for the provision of a legal framework to facilitate free market exchange. With the two principles in operation it is believed that having a 'free' market will create competition and in turn benefit the public.

Privatisation as mentioned earlier was also one of the 'New Right' policies that separated it from the Labour government and it's policies. The means of doing this they used six methods of opening up the public sector to the private sector. First was the issue of shares in the stock exchange (B.T.) the second was sale to the consortium of employees/ management. Third was placement with institutional investors. Forth was to sell physical assets (British Railways Hotels). The fifth method was to merge with other companies (B.R. Hovercrafts with Hover Lloyd). Finally, the sixth was the contracting out of services (via either central or local government) such as cleaning of schools, refuse disposal.

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Approximate Word count = 1381
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)