Edward Heath

Sir Edward Richard George Heath K.G., M.B.E. (9 July 1916 – 17 July 2005) was popularly known as Ted Heath and was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1970 to 1974.

He became leader of the Conservative Party following the resignation of Alec Douglas-Home, 14th Earl of Home, following the party's defeat in the 1964 General Election.

Heath was known as "Mr Europe" being former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's choice to smooth the way for the UK to join the European Economic Community (EEC) against the opposition of France.

He became better known, however, as the party Leader who dismissed the popular Member of Parliament, Enoch Powell, following his forthright anti-immigration speech in 1968 in Birmingham which became popularly known as the "rivers of blood" speech. Being aware of the widespread support Powell had across the country and especially with the working classes, Heath nevertheless included in the party's 1970 General Election Manifesto that if elected into government the Conservative Party would halt immigration and set up a government agency to encourage, with financial assistance when necessary, the voluntary repatriation of aliens. Largely because of this his party was elected into government. This was, of course, the last the electorate would hear about these pledges, broken just a few years later with the government's admission into Britain of the expelled East African Asians, when Heath's detractors argued they should have been told they must return to the Indian sub-continent from whence they originally came.

Heath's popularity plummeted but his perceived arrogance did not allow him to recognise this. He then fulfilled his pledge to take the UK into the EEC without a referendum.

In 1972 the country suffered a miner's strike, leading to electricity outages. A new miners strike led by the Marxist National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) commenced in 1974. The strike began on February 9, after the government refused to compromise on a 7% pay rise offer when the union was calling for a 16.5% increase. The strike led to Heath declaring a state of emergency and introducing a three-day working week to conserve electricity and coal stocks.