APPENDIX II
Political Chronology 1955–1979
1955
5 April: Churchill resigned as Prime Minister; succeeded by Eden
26 May: General election: Conservative majority sixty
1956
26 July: Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal
20 October: Israel invaded Sinai
30 October: Joint Anglo-French ultimatum to Egypt and Israel; Soviet troops invaded Hungary
5 November: British and French landings at Port Said; intervention aborted two days later under US pressure
1957
9 January: Eden resigned as Prime Minister; Macmillan succeeded him
25 March: Treaty of Rome signed, establishing EEC
25 July: Macmillan: ‘Most of our people have never had it so good’
19 September: Thorneycroft increased Bank Rate from 5 to 7 per cent
1958
6 January: Treasury Ministers (Thorneycroft, Powell and Birch) resigned from the Government over public expenditure plans; Macmillan left the following day for a Commonwealth tour, describing the resignations as ‘little local difficulties’
3 July: Credit squeeze relaxed
31 August: Notting Hill and Nottingham riots
1959
7 April: Budget: 9d reduction in income tax
8 October: General election: Conservative majority 100; MT first elected MP for Finchley
28 November: Gaitskell called for reform of Clause IV of Labour’s constitution — forced to retreat the following year
1960
3 February: Macmillan in South Africa: ‘a wind of change is blowing through the continent’
5 February: MT’s maiden speech February-October Parliamentary passage of MT’s Public Bodies (Admission of the Press to Meetings) Bill
25 July: Deflationary emergency Budget; ‘Pay Pause’ for Government employees
31 July: Macmillan announced beginning of negotiations for Britain to join EEC
13 August: East Germany sealed the border with West Berlin; Berlin Wall begun
9 October: Reshuffle: MT appointed to her first Government post — Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance
1962
14 March: Orpington by-election: Liberals took Conservative seat, overturning a majority of 14,760
13 July: ‘Night of the Long Knives’ — seven of twenty-one Cabinet ministers fired by Macmillan
October: Cuban missile crisis
November: Vassall affair
21 December: US agreement to sell Britain Polaris
1963
14 January: De Gaulle rejected first British application to join the EEC
14 February: Harold Wilson elected Labour Leader following death of Hugh Gaitskell
4 June: Profumo resigned
1 July: Philby named as ‘the third man’
10 October: Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister during Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool
19 October: Douglas-Home became Prime Minister; Iain Macleod and Enoch Powell refused office
1964
July: Legislation enacted to abolish Resale Price Maintenance
15 October: General election: Labour won a majority of four; Wilson became Prime Minister
28 October: MT became Opposition spokesman on Pensions
November: Sterling crisis
1965
24 January: Churchill died, aged ninety
12 July: Crosland’s circular 10/65 on comprehensive schools: LEAs to submit plans within a year to reorganize on comprehensive lines; Government’s aim declared to be ‘the complete elimination of selection and separatism in secondary education’
22 July: Douglas-Home resigned as Conservative Leader; Heath elected to succeed him, defeating Maudling and Powell
16 September: Labour’s National Plan published
5 October: Reshuffle of Opposition spokesmen: MT moved to Shadow Housing and Land
8 November: Abolition of capital punishment
11 November: Rhodesia: Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI)
1966
31 March: General election: Labour returned with an overall majority of ninety- seven
19 April: Reshuffle of Opposition spokesmen: MT appointed Iain Macleod’s deputy, shadowing the Treasury
3 May: Budget introduced Selective Employment Tax (SET)
May–July: Seamen’s strike
15 June: Abortion Bill passed Second Reading
July: Sterling crisis; deflation; wage freeze to be followed by a prices and incomes policy
5 July: Sexual Offences Bill (legalizing homosexuality) passed Second Reading
12 October: MT spoke against SET at the Conservative Conference
10 November: Labour announced Britain to make a second application to join the EEC
1967
11 April: Massive Conservative gains in local government elections
10 October: Heath moved MT to Shadow Fuel and Power, with a place in the Shadow Cabinet
