ABSTRACT
Unity as the period from 1975 to the early 1990s possesses derives, politically, from the impact made by Margaret Thatcher. It was indeed one of the themes she stressed. In the 1950s, Conservative and Labour had the support of more than 90 per cent of those who voted, by the 1970s their combined support was only more than 70 percent. That difference is largely accounted for by the rise of the Liberal/Liberal Democrat vote and of the emergence of Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party as fixtures in the political landscape in Wales and Scotland. The division was masked by the fact that the two main parties continued to hold more than 90 per cent of the seats at Westminster between them. Linked to these regional and national divisions were other divisions which seemed to some commentators to be as defining of the Thatcher years as the 'enterprise culture'.
