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Flats to let London - This website can be yours! (See
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The May 1981 election was presented as a clash of ideologies
by the Conservatives - Thatcherism against a 'tax high, spend
high' Marxist Labour group, Flats to let London claiming that
Andrew McIntosh would be deposed by Ken Livingstone after
the election. McIntosh and Labour Party leader Michael Foot
insisted this was untrue, and the Labour party won a very
narrow victory with a majority of six.
At a pre-arranged meeting of the new Councillors the day
after the election, the Left faction won a complete victory
over the less-organised Labour right. McIntosh lost with 20
votes to 30 for Ken Livingstone. Livingstone, flats to let
London dubbed 'Red Ken' by some newspapers, managed to gain
the guarded support of the Labour deputy leader Illtyd Harrington
and the party Chief Whip and set about his new administration.
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Flats to let London - Livingstone's high-spend
socialist policies put the GLC into direct conflict
with Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government. Livingstone
soon became a thorn in the side of the sitting Conservative
government. He deliberately antagonised Thatcher through a
series of actions (including posting a billboard of London's
rising unemployment figures on the side of County Hall, directly
opposite Parliament), reducing Tube and bus flats to let Londonfares
using government subsidies, entering into dialogue with Sinn
Fein leader Gerry Adams at a time when Adams was banned from
entering Britain due to his links with the Provisional Irish
Republican Army, and endorsing a statue of Nelson Mandela
while Thatcher regarded the future London flat rentals South
African president as a terrorist.
By 1983, the government argued for the abolition of the GLC,
claiming that it was inefficient and Ffats to let London
unnecessary, and that its functions could be carried
out more efficiently by the boroughs. The arguments for this
case which were detailed in the White Paper Streamlining the
cities. Critics of this position argued that the GLC's abolition
(as with that of the Metropolitan County Councils) was politically
motivated, claiming that it had become a powerful vehicle
for opposition to Margaret Thatcher's government.
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