ABSTRACT
Not much can be salvaged from the Wilson-Callaghan years of 1974-9 except lessons.1 They were among the low points of British Government in the twentieth century, perhaps the lowest point. At no time since before the First World War was there such a feeling that Britain had become ungovernable, and that a change of regime – a change in the way of governing, and not just a change of government – was required. This change came about through the election of Margaret Thatcher, who inaugurated eighteen years of Thatcherism. But the previously congealed mould of politics was also broken by the emergence of the SDP which promised, for a time, to replace the Labour Party. Today’s Blair Government is the stepchild of both Margaret Thatcher and David Owen. A new style of governing has become entrenched and, barring a political or economic earthquake, is likely to endure.
