The Tory Right from Enoch Powell to Margaret Thatcher: 1957-1979

In the years following the Conservative Party's defeat in the 1945 general election, the Tories were forced to accept significant parts of Labour's programme, recognising their un-electability otherwise. A right wing fringe of the party rejected this centre ground compromise and demanded an extreme brand of supply side economics known as monetarism. The opportunity to impose this on the party and later the country emerged in the crisis years of the 1970s.