Heath, the Miners, and Industrial Strife 1970–1974

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.

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Heath's Programme: The "Selsdon" Agenda

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:

Policy	Detail
Reduced state intervention	No more "lame duck" subsidies to failing industries
Trade union reform	Legislation to regulate strikes and union behaviour
Tax cuts	Reducing the burden of direct taxation
Law and order	Tougher approach to crime and industrial disorder
Competition	Abolishing the Prices and Incomes Board, ending interventionist industrial policy

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The Industrial Relations Act 1971

The centrepiece of Heath's trade union policy was the Industrial Relations Act 1971:

Provision	Detail
Registration	Unions were required to register with a new Registrar of Trade Unions and Employers' Associations
National Industrial Relations Court	A new court with the power to grant injunctions against strikes, award compensation, and impose cooling-off periods
Unfair industrial practices	Defined various forms of industrial action as "unfair" and subject to legal penalties
Closed shop	Restricted (but did not abolish) the closed shop — the practice of making union membership a condition of employment

The Act was a comprehensive failure. The TUC instructed unions not to register, making the Act unenforceable. Key confrontations included:

• The imprisonment of five dockers (the "Pentonville Five") in July 1972 for contempt of court, which provoked a national dock strike and forced the government to back down
• The Official Solicitor was used to secure the dockers' release — a legal device that exposed the government's desperation

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The "U-Turn" (1972)

The most dramatic moment of Heath's premiership was the reversal of the "lame duck" policy:

Event	Detail
Rolls-Royce	Nationalised in February 1971 after bankruptcy threatened — an early breach of the "no lame ducks" principle
Upper Clyde Shipbuilders	Workers staged a "work-in" (led by Communist shop stewards Jimmy Reid and Jimmy Airlie) in June 1971. The government provided £35 million in public funds to save the yards — a humiliating retreat
Industry Act 1972	Gave the government sweeping powers to intervene in industry through subsidies and grants — the opposite of the Selsdon programme
Incomes policy	In November 1972, Heath introduced a statutory prices and incomes policy — exactly the approach he had promised to abandon

Historiographical Debate: John Campbell (Edward Heath, 1993) argues that the U-turn reflected Heath's fundamental pragmatism — he was never the free-market ideologue his rhetoric suggested, and he reversed course because the alternative (mass unemployment in politically sensitive regions) was unacceptable. Margaret Thatcher, by contrast, later used Heath's U-turn as a cautionary tale — the lady was "not for turning." Denis Healey captured the view from the left: "He decided to run the economy my way — but not very well."

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The Miners' Strikes

First Miners' Strike (January–February 1972)