Which of Thatcher's policies caused political and social divisions more generally?

1. Section 28

1.1. Thatcher’s government wanted to promote family values but this included the repression of what they considered to be against traditional family views

1.1.1. In 1981, doctors diagnosed the first case of the disease HIV in Britain and over the next decade the illness became associated with gay men. Widespread public ignorance about the disease resulted in an increase in anti-gay attitudes; in 1987 three-quarters of people surveyed on their attitudes towards homosexuality believed that it was ‘always or mostly wrong’.

1.1.2. During the early 1980s press campaigns demanded that children should not be exposed to material about homosexuality. As a result, the government passed two controversial laws effectively banning discussion of homosexuality Section 28 itself outlawed the promotion of homosexuality or the publication of ‘material with the intention of promoting homosexuality’. It went further than the 1986 Act by outlawing any educational activity designed to ‘promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’.

1.2. Some consequences of Section 28 as well as making gay people feel excluded from the 'ideal society' that Thatcher was trying create, were factors like...

1.2.1. Popular culture changed throughout this period to support the popular resistance to anti-gay legislation, one example of this was in 1985, director Stephen Frears made the film My Beautiful Laundrette starring Daniel Day Lewis. One of the main storylines in the film featured a love affair between two gay men and while the film had a modest budget and featured then relatively unknown actors, it was nominated for both the Oscars and BAFTAs.

1.2.2. It also led to LGBT rights campaigners becoming more prominent and argued that Thatcher’s promotion of ‘family values’ was divisive. This was reasonably accurate as many of the laws associated with supposed family views, didn't allow for different approaches to family life.

1.2.3. The passing of the Local Government Act and Section 28 also led to several protests by gay and lesbian groups, including the ‘invasion’ of the BBC Six O'clock News studios.

2. The Poll Tax

2.1. The Poll Tax (otherwise known as The Community Charge), was an extremely divisive piece of legislation and even Thatcher knew this, waiting until her 3rd term to put it forward, and arguably was the policy which enabled rival Tory MPs to remove her from No 10.

2.1.1. The council rates were a tax system that homeowners had to pay based on the value of their property. The idea was that this money would fund local government.

2.1.2. This caused problems as two houses of the same size in the same street would have the same value and therefore the same rate of tax, however, the income of the two households could be radically different. For example, a single pensioner living alone would have been charged the same rates as a household of four wage-earners living in a property of equal value. The Community Charge was designed to address this problem by ensuring that all adults paid the same tax; it was a tax on people, not property. However, the poll tax was a flat rate tax to be paid by all adults residing in the local area, not just owners of property and therefore not related to income.

2.2. Some of the long-term and immediate consequences of this policy were...

2.2.1. One consequence of this was mass rioting. The most serious disturbance came in March 1990 with a violent anti-Poll Tax demonstration involving over 200,000 people in London’s Trafalgar Square. It was arguably some of worst rioting post-war Britain has seen. Tube stations were closed and much of the capital had to be cordoned off as cars and police vans were set alight, shops looted and police and firefighters were pelted. Nearly 5000 people were injured.

2.2.2. This large-scale unrest played a key part in Margaret Thatcher’s downfall. The popularity of the Conservative government fell in opinion polls after the riot in March 1990 and Labour gained a lead on the Conservatives. The policy’s unpopularity also influenced Tory MPs in vulnerable seats to try to remove her from office. Even prominent ministers campaigned against the tax as Michael Heseltine challenged Thatcher (unsuccessfully) for leadership of the party in November 1990 due to the staunch failure of the tax. This was the event that triggered her resignation as Prime Minister.

3. Miners' Strike

3.1. The causes leading up to the miners' strike had been brewing for a while and it could be argued that the replacement of the head of the National Coal Board was just the straw that broke the camel's back

3.1.1. The 1980 Employment Act meant workers did not have to join a union when they joined a particular firm; it also meant unions could only organise strikes against their direct employers and were not allowed to strike in sympathy with other workers.

3.1.2. The 1982 Employment Act meant the unions could be sued for illegal strike action.

3.1.3. The 1984 Trade Union Act meant that a strike had to be approved by a majority of union members in a secret ballot before it was legal.

3.2. The after-effects of such a militant strike were huge and divisions began to widen between those in power and the strikers

3.2.1. The total number of trade union members fell from 13.5 million in 1979 to under 10 million in 1990; the total number of working days lost to strike action fell from 10.5 million in 1980-84 to 0.8 million in 1990-94.

3.2.2. From 1985, Labour leaders took steps to distance the party from the unions. This gave the party less guaranteed votes, and the unions considerably less negotiating power.

3.2.3. . The number of miners fell from 200,000 to 10,000 in the same period. Many local communities were greatly affected by the end of a major local industry, such as shipbuilding in Sunderland, and steel manufacturing in Sheffield. This effectively crippled many small communities nationwide.

4. Race Riots and Institutional Racism

4.1. During the 1980s, a series of important battles were fought to establish the rights of black and Asian people in Britain, and this had definitely been a constant struggle for the past hundred or so years but came to a head due to protests groups becoming more frequent as a result of numerous reasons.

4.1.1. Continued racist discrimination, particularly in housing, employment, education and institutions like the police.

4.1.2. Thatcher’s stress on the importance of cultural uniformity, and the need for black and Asian people to assimilate (adopt ‘British values’ and ‘British customs’).

4.1.3. The impact of Thatcher’s economic policies, which disadvantaged black and Asian people to a far greater extent than white people, as they affected sectors of the economy in which black and Asian people tended to work.

4.1.4. Thatcher’s willingness to support police initiatives that targeted young black people such as 'stop and search' which disproportionately effected black people.

4.2. The result of these protests was a huge change in attitudes which allowed for future legislation although not in Thatcher's time.

4.2.1. There was a significant increase in the number of black and Asian MPs, such as Diane Abbott. Black and Asian people also became better represented in journalism and the media.

4.2.2. When the police mishandled the investigation of Stephen Lawrence's death, it led to a report declaring that the Metropolitan Police was ‘institutionally racist’.

4.2.3. Whilst there were many racially discriminative laws passed during Thatcher's premiership, this showed that John Major's government was much more willing to discuss changes that needed to be made.