Monetarism and the end of consensus in British politics

Monetarism and the end of consensus.

The Conservatives had a majority of 43 seats after the 1979 election, enough to let her undertake a radical shake up of the British economy. She had in mind three objectives;

·         Reversing Britain’s economic decline.

·         Spending had to be cut.

·         There had to be a fundamental change in the direction of economic policy, regardless of the short term hardships.

Her intention was to change the economic structure of Britain. In order to change this, she identified three main areas of consensus which had to change;

• High levels of government spending which…