Winter of Discontent

The "Winter of Discontent" is a nickname given to the British winter of 1978–79, during which there were widespread strikes by Trade Unions demanding larger pay rises for their members. The strikes were a result of the attempted enforcement of a government rule that pay rises be kept below 5%, and began in private industry before spreading to the public sector; many of them seriously disrupted everyday life. Whilst the strikes were largely over by February 1979, the government's inability to contain the strikes earlier helped lead to Margaret Thatcher's victory in the 1979 general election and legislation to restrict unions.

References

• Report of the Seventyseventh Annual Conference of the Labour Party, Blackpool, 1978 (ISBN 0861170350)
• The British General Election of 1979 by David Butler and Dennis Kavanagh (Macmillan, London, 1979) ISBN 0333269349
• Secret History: Winter of Discontent (Brook Lapping Productions for Channel Four, 1998)
• New Labour, Old Labour: The Wilson and Callaghan Governments 1974-79 ed. by Anthony Seldon (Routledge, London, 2004) ISBN 0415312817