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Edward Heath's government (June 1970–March 1974) represents one of the most dramatic reversals in post-war British political history. Heath came to power promising to break with the post-war consensus — to reduce state intervention, curb trade union power, and modernise the economy through competition. By 1972, he had executed a spectacular "U-turn," returning to interventionism, incomes policies, and the very approaches he had denounced. His government ended in defeat by the National Union of Mineworkers and electoral humiliation.
In January 1970, the shadow Cabinet met at the Selsdon Park Hotel in Croydon and produced a programme that Wilson mockingly dubbed "Selsdon Man" — a reference to the prehistoric Piltdown Man, implying that Heath's free-market ideas were Neanderthal. The Selsdon agenda included:
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