19 October: Douglas-Home became Prime Minister; Iain Macleod and Enoch Powell refused office
1964
July: Legislation enacted to abolish Resale Price Maintenance
15 October: General election: Labour won a majority of four; Wilson became Prime Minister
28 October: MT became Opposition spokesman on Pensions
November: Sterling crisis
1965
24 January: Churchill died, aged ninety
12 July: Crosland’s circular 10/65 on comprehensive schools: LEAs to submit plans within a year to reorganize on comprehensive lines; Government’s aim declared to be ‘the complete elimination of selection and separatism in secondary education’
22 July: Douglas-Home resigned as Conservative Leader; Heath elected to succeed him, defeating Maudling and Powell
16 September: Labour’s National Plan published
5 October: Reshuffle of Opposition spokesmen: MT moved to Shadow Housing and Land
8 November: Abolition of capital punishment
11 November: Rhodesia: Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI)
1966
31 March: General election: Labour returned with an overall majority of ninety-seven
19 Apriclass="underline" Reshuffle of Opposition spokesmen: MT appointed Iain Macleod’s deputy, shadowing the Treasury
3 May: Budget introduced Selective Employment Tax (SET)
May–July: Seamen’s strike
15 June: Abortion Bill passed Second Reading
July: Sterling crisis; deflation; wage freeze to be followed by a prices and incomes policy
5 July: Sexual Offences Bill (legalizing homosexuality) passed Second Reading
12 October: MT spoke against SET at the Conservative Conference
10 November: Labour announced Britain to make a second application to join the EEC
1967
11 Apriclass="underline" Massive Conservative gains in local government elections
10 October: Heath moved MT to Shadow Fuel and Power, with a place in the Shadow Cabinet
18 November: Devaluation of sterling by 14 per cent ($2.80 to $2.40)
27 November: Britain’s second EEC application vetoed by France
29 November: Jenkins replaced Callaghan as Chancellor of the Exchequer; Callaghan succeeded Jenkins as Home Secretary
1968
22 February: Callaghan announced emergency legislation to curb immigration of Asians expelled from Kenya; Shadow Cabinet divided
17 March: Grosvenor Square riot — violent demonstration against Vietnam War
19 March: Budget increased indirect taxes by almost £900 million — austerity under Jenkins
20 Apriclass="underline" Enoch Powell’s ‘River Tiber’ speech in Birmingham; Heath dismissed him from the Shadow Cabinet the following day
10 October: MT gave her CPC lecture What’s Wrong With Politics?
14 November: MT moved by Heath to Shadow Transport
1969
17 January: Barbara Castle introduced In Place of Strife — Labour’s proposals to reform industrial relations law; opposition from within the Labour Party, led by Callaghan, forced their withdrawal in June
14 August: British troops deployed on the streets of Londonderry
21 October: MT appointed Opposition spokesman on Education in succession to Edward Boyle
1970
30 January–1 February: Selsdon Park Conference — Shadow Cabinet discussion of Conservative policy for next manifesto
18 June: General election: Conservatives won majority of thirty-one; Heath became Prime Minister; MT appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science
30 June: MT issued Circular 10/70, withdrawing Labour’s comprehensive education Circulars
20 July: Iain Macleod died suddenly
6–30 September: Leila Khalid affair
27 October: Budget — ending free school milk for children over seven; increasing school meal charges; Open University reprieved
1971
4 February: Nationalization of Rolls-Royce
5 August: Industrial Relations Bill became law
28 October: House of Commons on a free vote approved terms of entry to EEC
1972
9 January: Miners went on strike
20 January: Unemployment total passed one million
10 February: Mass picketing closed Saltley Coke Depot
19 February: Government conceded miners’ demands to end the strike
29 February: Government announced U-turn on Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
March: Government began search for voluntary pay policy in talks with TUC and CBI
21 March: Budget — reflation began in earnest
22 March: Industry White Paper published
24 March: Suspension of Northern Ireland Parliament at Stormont; direct rule began
June-July: Industrial Relations Act badly damaged following court decisions leading to arrest of pickets in docks dispute
23 June: Sterling floated after only six weeks’ membership of the European currency ‘snake’
Summer-autumn: ‘Tripartite talks’ between Government, TUC and CBI — Government attempted to negotiate a voluntary pay policy
2 November: Collapse of ‘Tripartite talks’
6 November: Heath announced Stage 1 of statutory pay policy
6 December: MT’s White Paper Education: A Framework for Expansion
1973
1 January: Britain joined EEC
17 January: Heath announced Stage 2 of statutory pay policy
16 March: End of Bretton Woods system — all major currencies floated May Heath/Barber boom at its height; Budget reduced spending plans
6-24 October: Yom Kippur War; oil prices dramatically increased
8 October: Heath announced Stage 3
12 November: Miners began overtime ban, sharply cutting coal production
2 December: Reshuffle — Whitelaw became Employment Secretary
13 December: Heath announced three-day week
17 December: Emergency Budget cuts £1,200 million from expenditure plans
1974
9 January: NEDC meeting at which TUC suggested miners could be treated as a special case within Government pay policy
5 February: Miners voted to strike from 10 February
7 February: General election called for 28 February
21 February: Relativities Board leak suggesting that miners’ claim could have been accommodated within Stage 3