To what extent – and through what channels – did Margaret Thatcher influence the course of British politics in the twelve years following her resignation as Prime Minister in 1990? Candidate: Ragnhild Vestli A Thesis presented to the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages at the University of Oslo Autumn 2009 In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master’s Degree in English. Supervisors: Atle L. Wold and Øivind Bratberg Chapter 1: ................................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction to the dissertation................................................................................................... 5 1.1: Question and three hypotheses........................................................................................ 5 1.2 Sources ........................................................................................................................... 12 1.3: Political science research and qualitative method......................................................... 14 1.4: Outline of dissertation................................................................................................... 16 Chapter 2: ................................................................................................................................. 18 British politics and political influence in general..................................................................... 18 2.1: What is politics?............................................................................................................ 18 2.1.1: The British polity ................................................................................................... 22 2.1.2: The British parliamentary system and democracy................................................. 23 2.1.3: Different democracy perspectives.......................................................................... 24 2.1.4: The British Parliament ........................................................................................... 25 2.2: Power in Britain: different perspectives and models .................................................... 28 2.3: Pressure groups and lobbying ....................................................................................... 29 2.4: The Conservative Party................................................................................................. 30 2.4.1: The Conservative Party leader ............................................................................... 30 2.4.2: The role of the backbenchers and the party whips................................................. 31 2.4.3: The Conservative peers .......................................................................................... 34 2.5: Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 35 Chapter 3: ................................................................................................................................. 36 How Margaret Thatcher influenced Parliament and the Conservative Party since 1990......... 36 3.1: Backbenchers and peers: How politicians and debates were influenced ...................... 36 3.1.1: Thatcher in the House of Commons....................................................................... 36 3.1.2: Thatcher in the House of Lords.............................................................................. 43 3.2: Wavering support for the Conservative Party............................................................... 46 3.3: Thatcher’s influence on different leaders of the Conservative Party 1990-2003.......... 50 3.3.1 Margaret Thatcher and John Major......................................................................... 50 3.3.2: Margaret Thatcher and William Hague 1997-2001 ............................................... 52 3.3.3: Margaret Thatcher and Iain Duncan Smith 2001-2003.......................................... 54 3.4: How party conferences were influenced by Thatcher and her ardent supporters ......... 55 3.5: How Thatcher’s legacy was perceived and how it continued to influence the party.... 60 3.6 Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 61 Chapter 4: ................................................................................................................................. 62 How Margaret Thatcher influenced public opinion by her public appearances and books ..... 62 4.1: Key speeches and their consequences........................................................................... 62 4.1.1 The Hague Speech, May 1992 ................................................................................ 63 4.1.2 The CNN speech in Washington DC, September 1992 .......................................... 64 4.1.3 The Prague Speech, May 1996................................................................................ 67 4.1.4 The Keith Joseph Memorial Lecture, January 1996................................................ 68 4.1.5 The Plymouth election rally speech, May 2001...................................................... 71 4.2: Democracy in Hong Kong and support for British firms in Asia ................................. 73 4.3: Book publications and their impact............................................................................... 74 4.3.1 The Downing Street Years ....................................................................................... 75 4.3.2 The Path to Power ................................................................................................... 77 4.3.3: Thatcher’s last book Statecraft ............................................................................... 80 4.4: Influential articles, their timing and effect.................................................................... 82 4.4.1 “The autumn of our discontent” in The European , October 1992 .......................... 83 2 4.4.2 “Don’t Undo My Work” in Newsweek, April 1992 ................................................ 84 4.4.3 “Stop the excuses. Help Bosnia now” in New York Times , August 1992............... 85 4.5: Interviews and articles about Margaret Thatcher.......................................................... 86 4.6: Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 90 Chapter 5: ................................................................................................................................. 92 The indirect influence via Eurosceptic, Thatcherite groups and Eurosceptic newspapers ...... 92 5.1: Think-tanks and Thatcherite Eurosceptic organizations............................................... 92 5.2: The Bruges Group ......................................................................................................... 93 5.3: Fresh Start ..................................................................................................................... 96 5.4: No Turning Back........................................................................................................... 99 5.5: Conservative Way Forward......................................................................................... 100 5.6: The 92 Group .............................................................................................................. 102 5.7: The European Foundation and the Referendum Party ................................................ 103 5.8: British newspapers and their support for Thatcher and her Eurosceptic views .......... 107 5.9: Conclusion................................................................................................................... 111 Chapter 6: ............................................................................................................................... 114 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................. 114 6.1: Margaret Thatcher’s influence on the Conservative Party in general and the parliamentary Conservative Party ...................................................................................... 114 6.2: Margaret Thatcher influenced public opinion through her public appearances, books and articles.......................................................................................................................... 116 6.3: Margaret Thatcher’s influence on Eurosceptic organizations contributed to increased Euroscepticism in Britain in the 1990s .............................................................................. 119 6.4: Final comments ........................................................................................................... 121 Bibliography........................................................................................................................... 123 3 Note: Micheal Heath’s cartoon on the title page was originally published in The Independent on 12 January 1996. This has been reproduced with the kind permission by Michael Heath in an e- mail exchange on 14 May 2009. The Independent was also contacted in the matter. Unfortunately the original was unavailable, so this reproduction is a scanned version from the newspaper. 4 Chapter 1: Introduction to the dissertation 1.1: Question and three hypotheses Margaret Thatcher was Britain’s premier