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Keith Joseph himself was appointed as her private economic advisor with responsibility for policy and research. The remaining members of the Shadow Cabinet stayed. They were joined by Geoffrey Howe as Shadow Chancellor. Of five new faces only one was a woman, Sally Oppenheim, who took the classic woman’s portfolio of consumer affairs. One was Airey Neave, the only appointment that went to an outright supporter. He was given the post he wanted, Northern Ireland.
    The composition of the Shadow Cabinet was a reaction to the circumstances of her leadership, and preceded a struggle for the direction of the party that was to continue during the next four years in opposition. These were tiring and frustrating years for an inexperienced leader. Margaret Thatcher was becoming more and more convinced by right-wing monetarist policies, but in practice, it was clear that the party had to rebuild relationships with the trade unions, and had to retain some ‘middle ground’ credibility. The debate inside the Tory party, and outside in wider society, reflected a change in British politics that went further than ideas about Tories as necessarily right-wing and well-heeled and Labour as being on the side of the workers, into fundamental understandings of freedom and equality.
    When Clement Attlee was elected Prime Minister in 1945, he said ‘I will not cease from mental strife, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, ’Till we have built Jerusalem in England’s Green and Pleasant Land.’ Margaret Thatcher could have used exactly the same lines, but would have meant a very different Jerusalem. To Attlee, and to succeeding governments after the war, the dream was of a land where each and every individual was equal in the eyes of the government: where there was full employment, and where the state was responsible for the welfare and education of the people. To make this happen, economic theory drew on the work of John Maynard Keynes. Keynesian economic ideas meant that the government supported manufacturing industry either by providing subsidies or by taking control into their own hands through nationalisation. Subsidised or nationalised industries could support wage rises, so that workers could afford to buy the goods made. Keynes believed that this process would form a ‘virtuous circle’, where the amount gained from selling goods was always increasing, and therefore more people could buy goods and more people would be involved in the manufacturing process. The government would be able to support the circle through taxation, and would be responsible for using that taxation to support welfare – including full employment. In this ever-growing economy the government would also provide education and health services that gave free entry to everybody, and so minimised inequalities of class and wealth. In this way, people would be freed from anxiety, fear and the need to compete, and would create a free-thinking, well-educated, hard-working society supporting each other and the government.
    These ideas had been tested by changes in British society in the post-war years. World events had altered the economic climate in which governments operated. For instance, the pace of post-war reconstruction had been slowed by the need for American finance through the Marshall Plan, and later industrial expansion had been slowed by the rising price of oil. Britain’s ability to market its goods was threatened by cheaper alternatives made in the Far East. The population was increased by immigrant workers. Reports of life in communist Russia did not inspire confidence in socialism, while American images of free enterprise were exciting. The long-running debate about entry into the Common Market changed the climate in which the Keynesian closed circle could operate. But the biggest challenge came from home. Margaret Thatcher had already warned that Britain was paying itself more than it earned: Throughout the Heath