ABSTRACT
Heath's ambitious industrial relations strategy assumed a substantial intrusion by the state into the conduct of workplace life, still dominated by the instinctive belief that 'most workers want nothing more of the law than that it should leave them alone'. The Party leadership accepted that most trade union activists disliked the new industrial relations strategy, but also believed they would accept it when the new Bill became law. Industrial relations policy was not on the agenda at that controversial meeting, nor was how a future Conservative government should handle pay demands in the unionised public sector, but Heath made his own views clear enough on both issues in some robust remarks that do not really square with his reputation as the great conciliator. Heath announced stage three of his government's statutory prices and incomes policy on 8 October 1973 in the ornate surroundings of Lancaster House with Armstrong at his side.
