ABSTRACT
The election campaign itself was full of surprises, most of which were unhelpful to the Conservative Party. It was called in part to contain trade union power, but the outcome ensured that the miners and other unions were the short-term winners and able to dictate policy to the next Labour government. If Heath's leadership had been strengthened by the Conservatives' winning the 1970 general election, then he and his style of Conservatism were major casualties of the 1974 election defeat. Any European government was bound to be in difficulty in the 1970s because of international economic pressures. The government then embarked on its experiment with 'tripartism', trying to get the agreement of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Confederation of British Industry (CBI) to a joint approach to economic problems, including voluntary restraint over wages and prices. Heath had after all worked hard to reach some kind of long-term agreement with the trade unions.
