Murmuring Judges Context * High inflation * Unemployment
Franklin river-labour gov * -In the early 1980s, the Franklin River campaign helped gather support for the conservation movement in Australia. The Tasmanian Government proposed to build a dam to produce cheap hydroelectricity, which would have involved flooding the picturesque Franklin River. A fiercely-fought campaign ensued, as thousands of people from all over Australia objected to the plans. In 1983, the newly elected Labor Government stepped in to prevent the dam from being built.
Government
* Throughout the 1980’s the UK government held steadfastly to an aggressive defence policy. * Nuclear weapons were seen as the best deterrent against any military threat. * US president, Ronald Reagan was a staunch ally of the ‘Iron Lady’ and the two leaders prided themselves on their respective, united, foreign policies. * Some commentators have praised Thatcher for bringing Russia (then known as the Soviet Union) to heal. But it was the emergence of a moderate leader in the Kremlin, Mikhail Gorbachev, that came a distance to making peace with the west after years of distrust. * Thatcher and Reagan, it is fair to say, didn’t make any real concessions. It was the softer tone of Gorbachev that took Russia out of the ‘Cold War’ while the leadership of the US and UK wanted to keep the relationship with Moscow firmly in the deep freeze.

* At the close of the decade however, Mrs Thatcher’s popularity, among Conservative voters, had been exhausted.

* The crazy policy of the Poll Tax made her extremely unpopular and subsequently her colleagues in cabinet, most notably Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson, no longer felt they could tolerate her.

* By the end of 1990 Thatcher was no longer Prime Minister and British politics was once again in transition.

* After she had home her successor John major began to forge better relations with the Irish government (under Albert Reynolds) the ‘Peace Process’ in Ulster went up a gear.

* A new era had dawned and the word progress could be spoken again. The polarisation of British politics had come to an end and with it the career of one of the UK’s most controversial leaders.