How far do you agree that the Heath government was unsuccessful because of circumstances out of its control?

One argument in favour of Heath’s governments failure being down to unpopular policies was the Industrial Relations Act of 1971. Heath wanted to curb the power of the unions by introducing measures that would allow the government to force the unions to hold a ballot to decide whether to strike or not, and for ‘cooling down’ periods to occur between strikes. This was popular with middle class, who saw it as a way of controlling the unions which Labour had failed to do in 1968 with ‘In place of strife’. However it was highly unpopular with the trade unions and the working class, resulting in 100,000 workers on strike in London. The TUC instructed workers to de-register and defy the National industrial relations court. Heath did not repeal the act, but its effectiveness was very limited when only 32 TUC unions registered with the National Industrial Relations Court and the Industrial relations commission. All this policy created was chaos and harsher relations between the government and the trade unions, since its actual effectiveness was limited. Whereas Wilson abandoned ‘In place of strife’, Heath stubbornly stood by the policy until Labour repealed it in 1974. An extra ten million days were lost in strikes in 1972 as a result of this unpopular policy, contributing to the 1974 February election later on as the act was the start of the conflict between Heath and the unions. The miner’s strike of 1972 occurred later on, leading to the unions defeating the government and gaining their 47% wage increase after 280,00 striking miners forced the government to call a state of national emergency. The state of emergency led to the three-day week, which saw electricity rationed as the coal output from the mines had been reduced. Britain depended a lot on the mines during this crisis, and the governments decision to reward the wage increase meant that it looked weak in from of the electorate another contributing factor to the Conservative defeat in 1974. The Heath governments defeat to the miners in 1972 and the failure of the Industrial Relations Act 1971 showed how unpopular its policies were. The Industrial Relations Act 1971 showed how the government seemed out of touch with the working class, while its wage policy showed how reluctant it was to promise the miners a large enough wage increase that would stop them from striking. Compared to the OPEC oil crisis, industrial action had troubled the previous labour government as well with the failure of ‘In place of strife’. The Oil crisis did lead to further miner strikes, but it was caused by an event that was out of the government’ control rather than a policy that they implemented. The Conservative leader Edward Heath won the general election of 1970 by a 30 seat majority. However problems in the form of the OPEC oil crisis that saw oil prices quadrupled in Britain and the USA, the Industrial Relations Act that led to unions calling for strikes that defeated the act, the U-turn that created economic disaster for the country with a high inflation rate of 10%. The failures for Heath were mostly due to circumstances out of his control like the OPEC crisis, but the other failures did have some significance in showing Heath’s failure as a prime minister.      Another argument in favour of Heath’s governments failure being down to their unpopular policies was the Selsdon man policies. Heath promised in his ‘Selsdon man’ speech to adopt an anti-Keynesian economic plan involving the reduction of state intervention. Heath wanted to reduce state-intervention in order to reduce the inflation rate that was at 5% per year. This would mean that failing businesses ‘lame duck industries’, would be allowed to collapses it use would no longer be needed. Heath started implementing this in his first year, but he then realised that it was leading to high numbers of unemployment in the country in 1972 at almost a million. The neoliberal ideology said that controlling inflation was the aim rather than unemployment, but Heath decided that it would be damaging for the country to have a high unemployment rate. Heath’s U-turn involved him adopting one-nation conservative ideology of increasing state spending and propping up failing industries like Rolls-Royce in January 1971. £35 million was also spent on protect the 3000 jobs in the Upper Clyde shipbuilders. This policy was damaging economically for Heath in terms of inflation, s cutting taxes and increasing government spending led to a growing inflation rate of 10% by 1974. This U-turn was humiliating for Heath in the eyes of the Labour party and figures like Thatcher and Sir Keith Joseph, but to the people it was well received. The professor of history at Plymouth university Kevin Jeffrey’s revealed in his book the 'Finest and Darkest Hours' that the decision for the government to prop up failing industries and increase spending to preserve jobs led to unemployment drop sharply in Britain. The polls showed a surge in popularity for the Conservatives, as they drew level with labour. This showed that actually it was circumstances out of Heath’s control that cost him the 1974 election, such as the OPEC oil crisis, as it led to high oil prices, and trade and budget deficits. The miner’s strike of 1972 was caused by the government’s failure to give the miners a large enough wage increase, and the Industrial Relations Act 1971 did cause the government a lot of problems with the TUC leading to only 32 TUC unions registering. Both of these problems were caused by the government’s unpopular policies, but the U-turn did lead to success for the Conservatives afterwards as the unemployment numbers dropped and the number of days lost in strikes in 1973 were half that of 1972. However the OPEC oil crisis led to a surge of problems for the government, which it made overall unsuccessful as an administration.