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: