WI: Edward Heath stuck to his manifesto?

Inspired by the recent Heath Night on BBC Parliament, I've been wondering what might have happened had Ted Heath stuck to his "Selsdon Park manifesto".

The 1970 Conservative Party manifesto laid down plans for lowering taxes, cutting government spending, reforming industrial relations, promoting free enterprise and stopping any further nationalisations of industry. These promises were reneged on pretty quickly.

But, what if they hadn't been so quickly discarded? What if Iain Macleod lived and persuaded Heath to keep to the course the manifesto had set instead of making constant u-turns?
 
I think you need Macleod to live, though I'll let the 70s-Tory-Party-Heavyweights wade in on this one. One reason Heath backed off was - AFAIK - he wasn't 100% personally on-board, and political expediency offered him an excuse.

However, I can offer some REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE here and say I deliver newspapers to the Selsdon Park Hotel once a month, and the Sir Edward Heath Room is still there in memorial to that fateful meeting.
 
The inherit problem with the OP is that Heath was a modernising One Nation Tory. He was inclined towards a Macmillan like economic policy. The manifesto meant that Heath had a reputation before taking office as a right wing class warfare type, hurting his attempts to work with the unions. Another factor was that the sheer upset of the 1970 election meant he was given credit for his success, a rapid contrast from his low standing before the poll were the inner circle of the tory party were planing his removal following a second defeat to Wilson. By sheer nature of him having on power, the tory party was inclined to trust him, to a certain extent. Having Macleod live is a good place to start as it would probably avoid the Barber Boom, but so would butterflied such as postponing the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
 
Heath's politics were so heavily shaped by his experience of the 1930s and 40s. This included both his ideological commitment to a European Community to prevent future war and his determination to do whatever it took to prevent the mass unemployment which scarred that decade.

Having Macleod alive could be helpful, he was the big beast of the cabinet and as Chancellor was the one person formidable enough to challenge Heath on economic policy. But ultimately, once unemployment creeped over a million I think Heath would have done whatever he felt necessary to stem this.
 
Top