Ted Heath: sailor sunk by the class war

Former prime minister Edward Heath, who died on Sunday, is remembered as a relative failure who took Britain into Europe. But he's also a reminder of a distant time when class mattered.

Heath became prime minister at a time when the postwar boom had ended and Britain was heading for economic crisis. In order to try to resolve the inflationary pressures that resulted, Heath made the first attempt at controlling wages, bringing him into direct conflict with the trade unions. His first attempt at an incomes policy was wrecked by the miners in 1972, and when he tried to introduce statutory wage controls in 1973, the miners again threatened an all-out strike.

As a result, he called an election in February 1974 on the basis of 'who runs the country' and lost to Labour, if only just. When a second election was called in October 1974, Labour won an overall majority, although a very narrow one. In the event, the Labour government went even further in reducing living standards than Heath had and it lost power after the disenchantment of its working-class constituency led to a prolonged series of strikes - the 'winter of discontent'.

But the Tories learned their lessons from Heath's defeat, paving the way for the much more explicit battle that Thatcher fought, and won, against the working class in general, and the miners in particular, in the 1980s. Today, 'class' is usually defined in terms of how much money you earn, or where you shop. Heath reminds us of a time when the class war could bring down governments.

Obituary: Sir Edward Heath, BBC News, 17 July 2005