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Thatcherism and Wales: Impacts and Legacies

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Thatcherism in the 21st Century

Abstract

The Conservatives have usually been Wales’ second political party. Before the 2019 general election, the Party’s best performance was in the Thatcher era. This chapter explores the links between that period and the very recent one. It examines how Thatcher’s Welsh Office was, in some regards, proactive and interventionist in Wales, especially in the way it supported and bolstered the Welsh language. The Party also helped make Wales look and feel more like its own nation state. However, the chapter also covers the way in which the Party undermined a key symbol of Wales—its heavy industry—prompting long-lasting political divisions in the process.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Nicholas Edwards was made Lord Crickhowell in 1987.

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    Author information

    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Swansea University, Swansea, UK

      Sam Blaxland

    Authors
    1. Sam Blaxland
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    Correspondence to Sam Blaxland .

    Editor information

    Editors and Affiliations

    1. Department of English Studies, Durham University, Durham, UK

      Antony Mullen

    2. Department of Criminology and Social Sciences, University of Derby, Derby, UK

      Stephen Farrall

    3. Department of Politics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

      David Jeffery

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    Blaxland, S. (2020). Thatcherism and Wales: Impacts and Legacies. In: Mullen, A., Farrall, S., Jeffery, D. (eds) Thatcherism in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41792-5_8

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