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In order to sustain the government, Labour formed the Lib–Lab pact in March 1977 and this remained in force for sixteen months. This minority government also managed to stay in power with unofficial deals with the Ulster Unionist Party and Scottish National Party.
The Winter of Discontent was the period between late September 1978 and February 1979 in the United Kingdom characterised by widespread strikes by private, and later public, sector trade unions demanding pay rises greater than the limits Prime Minister James Callaghan and his Labour Party government had been imposing, against Trades Union Congress (TUC) opposition, to control inflation.
In March 1977, the Labour government – lacking a majority following a by-election defeat – faced a motion of no confidence. In order to remain in office, Prime Minister James Callaghan approached the Liberal Party, at the time led by David Steel.
A Committee of Enquiry into Industrial Democracy was set up by the Labour government of Harold Wilson in December 1975, in response to the European Commission's Draft Fifth Company Law Directive which sought to harmonise worker participation in management of companies across Europe. Its terms of reference started with the words,
In August 1977 Sir Keith Joseph, a prominent Conservative politician, called the Grunwick dispute "a make-or-break point for British democracy, the freedoms of ordinary men and women" and described Labour ministers who joined the pickets as "'[m]oderates' behind whom Red Fascism spreads".
"Ministry" refers collectively to all the ministers of a government, including Cabinet members and junior ministers alike. Only the Civil Service is considered outside of the ministry. While the term was in common parlance in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it has become rarer, except in official and academic uses. [ 1 ]
Districts formed the second tier in local government in Scotland under the 1975 reorganisation, with regional councils forming the upper tier. It was intended that elections would normally take place on a four-year cycle, but as an interim measure the first two sets of district councils had terms of three years: 1974–77 and 1977–80.
By March 1977, Labour had become a minority government after two by-election defeats cost them the three-seat majority they had won in October 1974, and from March 1977 to August 1978 Callaghan governed by an agreement with the Liberal Party through the Lib–Lab pact.