Thatchers GovernmentThe Conservative party was ruling Britain in 1982 when the conflict occured.. They were led by Margaret Thatcher, the first female Prime Minister. In a similar situation to the Military Junta, the Conservative government was struggling with a financial crisis, linked heavily to a rapid rise in unemployment. The party was also gifted a more secure position in office because of deep divisions between the Labour party. The people of Britain strongly disliked Thatcher and her government because they had raised many taxes in an economic recession. Parliament and government were working together to reduce the power of trade unions, which had dominated and guided the Heath government of 1970. Most famous of all strikes during the Thatcher government was that of the Miners Strikes, led by the National Union of Mineworkers, who went on strike for the best part of a year, but returned to work without winning a single concession. |
Historically speaking, the Falklands war was the best thing to happen to the Thatcher government. The conflict provided the Conservative party with a landslide victory in the Houses of Commons and rallied a tired and disgruntled nation behind them. The War Cabinet backed Thatcher's speech to the House of Commons to create a Task Force to retake the Falkland Islands after initial Argentinean attacked. The War Cabinet, or as it was formally known the ODSA (Oversea's Defence South Atlantic) was made up of the Prime Minister; her deputy and the Home Secretary (William Whitelaw), the Foreign Secretary (Francis Pym), the Defence Secretary (John Nott) and the Chief of the Defence Staff (Sir Terence Lewin). The cabinet also, quite contraversially, included Cecil Parkinson who was the chairman of the Conservative Party, but lacked political or military experience. Some individuals with non military skills were seconded to the cabinet for short periods of time. An example of this was John Biffen (Trade Secretary) to see if sanctions could be brought against Argentina through trade to stop actual war taking place. |
The government was initially doubtful that actual war would take place. Most politicans believed that the huge Task Force sailing from Portsmouth and Southampton would force the Military Junta to return the Falklands to Britain. However, when fighting did begin the decisions they made saw that the war was ended as quickly as possible. The sinking of ARA Belgraneo was highly contraversial but its authorisation by the War Cabinet demonstrated its determination to fight Argentina from an early stage of the conflict. |