Manufactured Schema: Thatcher, the Miners and the Culture Industry

A couple of decades after Margaret Thatcher managed to radically transform the rules of industrial relations in Britain, there has been a great deal of debate, comment and analysis by a wide range of commentators with various ideological persuasions. Thatcherism has, therefore, become an infamous concept in the study of modern British politics. This book re-examines one of the most controversial features of that era, the relationship between the media (in particular the press), the Prime Minister and the trades unions in the 1980s. The book is based on the assumption that Thatcher's policies were supported by the most partisan press industry to date. This assumption is empirically substantiated with the aid of a comprehensive research program. This research compares the editorials of the national press in the 1970s to provide a more in-depth understanding of the differential outlook of the press to the miners and their strikes. Through an added qualitative scrutiny of the role of Murdoch's newspapers in three successive general elections involving Thatcher, the book argues that the relationship between Thatcher and Murdoch had a deep impact not only upon the press but on British society as a whole.