Labour, once dominated, ideologically and numerically by the trade unions, provided no effort to placate Thatcher era anti- union legislation .
In fact, the electoral defeat of 1992 was ascribed partially to Union influence, and Blair’s ‘New Labour’ conveyed that the last string of party-union dependency had been drawn, which only reinforced their new business-friendly identity, and furthered a bid to appeal to the median voter. It can be argued however that Labour defied unionism in the past, and that it was actually Kinnock and Smith rather than Blair at the forefront of party-union de-linkage.In broad policy terms, looking back it seems fair to say that for most part post 1945 the nature of consensus politics was the status quo. This status quo sanctioned by its longevity, envisioned the convergence of policy goals and dimensions irrespective of underlying ideology and rhetoric.
Crucially the Churchill administration and then successive Conservative government’s trying, to hold the centre ground from 1945-carried on from Labour’s social and economic reform. Throughout the entire period there was no direct attack on the on policy areas, which figured in consensus. Thus for Thatcher to come up and assert that she was “conviction politician” means there had to be a consensus for her populist class to smash through.
