Who governs Britain? examines the efforts of the 1970-74 Conservative government to impose a formal legal framework on British trade unions. This attempt to regulate collective bargaining arrangements and solve Britain's strike 'problem' descended into farce, and the Industrial Relations Act 1971 is known as a policy fiasco. Who governs Britain? explains why.
The book provides new insights through extensive use of primary sources from the National Archives, Modern Records Centre and Conservative Party Archives. It employs a novel, multi-dimensional framework to analyse the Government's failure to disengage from - and 'depoliticise' - this controversial process of reform. The attempt to pacify trade unions was thrown into doubt when presumptions about their deference to the rule of law proved unfounded. The National Industrial Relations Court was framed by trade unionists as 'political', an extension of government and therefore illegitimate. The book's empirical chapters analyse key events in the Act's short but tempestuous existence to provide fresh insights into the industrial battles that followed. The analysis illustrates how inadequate drafting, flawed assumptions about internal trade union dynamics, strategic failings and tensions linked to complex interdependencies at the heart of the core executive contributed to the government's downfall.
Who governs Britain? considers how the events of the early 1970s influenced Conservative attitudes towards trade unions in the 1980s, shaping the industrial relations landscape today. It will be of interest to scholars of British political and labour history and processes of (de/re)politicisation.
