Tackling inflation and the unions topped the "five tasks" the Conservatives listed at the start of their manifesto.
In the Thatcherite agenda pushing down inflation now outweighed preserving jobs.
In the field of trade union reform her party promised to repeal what they called a "militants' charter". Secondary picketing and the closed shop would be reformed and unions forced to pay for the upkeep of strikers rather than the social security system.
Cuts in the top rate and basic rate of income tax were promised as were some limited privatisations of nationally owned industries.
In its manifesto, The Labour Way is the Better Way, Labour also put rising prices and the war against inflation as a top priority, but this was also coupled with a commitment to full employment.
Inflation would be brought down to 5% within three years. The party also pledged to bring in a Standing Pay Commission along with the TUC to help deal with industrial strife.
The Liberal manifesto - The Real Fight is for Britain - hoped to capitalise on the failures of the other two parties while in government.
It argued that the relatively short Lib-Lab pact of 1977-1978 made the case for constitutional reform to enable moderate coalitions to marginalise the ‘lunatic’ fringes of the other parties.