ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes Rose’s typology of factions and tendencies to examine the existence and consequences of a libertarian ‘faction’ — the Thatcherite wing - controlling the party machine while opposed by a centre-left ‘tendency’. Rose’s book was published in 1975 and has no mention of Margaret Thatcher in the index but importantly, it points out that the emergence of a leader can be the catalyst for a tendency to crystallise into a recognised faction. The catalyst for factional control of the party emerged in 1974 when the now DEA educated Sir Keith Joseph, along with Margaret Thatcher, set up an alternative source of policy, the Centre for Policy Studies. The generation of such ideas and policies on devolution, autonomous organisation and federalism were inherently sensible just as were those from the right. Factional control was to a large extent, responsible for the atrophy of much needed sensitive political antennae.
