(1a) A changing political landscape

Question 1

What was Plural voting?

Answer 1

Plural voting enabled businessmen who lived in one constituency and owned property in another to vote in both constituencies.

AND in their university constituency.

Question 2

How long did plural voting remain for?

Answer 2

Plural voting remained until 1948

Question 3

What happened in 1918?

conservatives

Answer 3

In 1918, constituency boundaries were redrawn to reflect population movements.

This change gave middle class suburbs – those people who owned their property - greater representation. These people tended to vote Conservative.

Question 4

What was unevenness in voting exacerbated by?

Give an example

Answer 4

By the first past the post electoral system.

In 1918 it was calculated that it took 15, 943 to return a Conservative MP, 29, 898 for a Labour MP and 26, 116 for a Liberal MP.

Question 5

What happened in 1921?

Ireland

Answer 5

the Irish Free State gained independence.

Independence from the UK resulted in the loss of 80 Nationalist MP’s, who had supported the Liberals. In contrast the Conservatives continued to receive support from 10 Northern Irish MPs.

Question 6

What was the main problem with the Liberal party?

Answer 6

They were played by division.

Question 7

Why were the Liberal party divided?

Answer 7

Lloyd-George had become Prime Minister in 1916 after successfully opposing Herbert Asquith over that man’s dislike of the DORA.

The result of this split meant that Lloyd George became Prime Minister because his “wing” of the Party received backing from Conservative MPs, but Asquith remained leader of the Liberal Party. Subsequently

Question 8

In the coalition how many seats did the conservatives have compared to the liberals in 1918?

Answer 8

Out of 459 Seats that the Lloyd George Liberals / Conservatives won,

The Conservatives won 332.

Question 9

What were the scandals around the liberal party?

Answer 9

Knighthood scandal in 1922 and the unpopularity of the Geddes Axe in 1922

Question 10

What did the conservatives do in response to the scandals?

Answer 10

The Conservatives were able to capitalise on their success when they felt strong enough to withdraw their support.

Question 11

What did Geddes Axe include?

Answer 11

The health, welfare and housing budgets were reduced from £205.8million in 1920-21 to £182.1million in 1922-23

Question 12

What was the labour party like in 1931?

Answer 12

the Labour government was deeply divided over how to handle the economic crisis and were decimated in the general election of that year

• the dominance of the National Government was established.

Question 13

What did the labour party do during the interwar years?

Answer 13

They did grow in influence during the interwar years, became the main Party of opposition and gained MPs for the first time in its small history

Question 14

When was the general strike?

Answer 14

1926

Question 15

What happened in the 1926 general strike?

Answer 15

On the 4th May 1926, the Trade Unions Congress announced all of its members (including bus conductors and railway workers) would go on strike in support of coal miners who were locked out of a pay dispute.

Question 16

What happened in response tp the General strike?

Answer 16

The country ground to a standstill, Middle-Class workers began to volunteer to get country up & running again.

A sense of class warfare was created in the country - the BBC came out in support of the government.

The militancy and widespread impact of the action, led to people associating the disruption with a perception of working class revolution & suspicion of the Socialist minded Labour Party grew.

Question 17

When did the rebranding of the conservative party begin?

Answer 17

Began in the 1870s moving away from the party of wealth and privilege to ‘one nation Tories’ - which promoted empire, patriotism and national defence. This move was designed to attract the uncommitted working class voter – which it did.

Question 18

Who was the leader of the Conservative party between 1923-1927?

Answer 18

Stanley Baldwin

Question 19

When was Stanley Baldwin PM?

Answer 19

1923-1927

Question 20

What did stanley Baldwin continue with?

Answer 20

He continued this rebranding, presenting himself as a straight-talking man of the people, although he could be seen as dull,

he largely found success through the ‘safety first’ campaign

• apart from in the complacent 1929 election year which saw Labour return to power.

Question 21

What was Baldwins reputation and what the benefit of this?

Answer 21

Although he owned a fortune in the steel industry, Baldwin was known to run his factories fairly and promote good working relationships between employers and workers.

Therefore, Baldwin gained a reputation for economic competence and this helped not only bolster support from traditional voters but also attracted wealthy, middle class Liberals

Question 22

How did ROPA damage the Liberals and help the labour party?

Answer 22

ROPA extended the electorate by 13 million people, including young, working class men

The working class made up the majority (80%) of the electorate - & (some) women.

Although remember: roughly 25% of the Working Class had become natural Conservative voters.

Question 23

What did ROPA led to?

Answer 23

The Representation of the People Act led to a growing number of working class voters which the Liberals failed to win over.

Question 24

How did the Labour take away voters from the Liberals?

Answer 24

Effectiveness of the Labour Party in adapting to the new areas of the electorate took votes away from the Liberals.

Question 25

How did the Labour and liberal share of the vote change from 1910 and 1923?

Answer 25

the Labour party went from having 7.1% of the vote to having 30.5%,

meanwhile the Liberals share of the vote declined – from 43.9% to 29.6% -

evidence that the new influx of voters led to a rise in the Labour Party’s power –

and a decline of the Liberals.

Question 26

How did ROPA not change anything?

Answer 26

The working class vote did not increase to the extent where it could have led to such a decline in Liberal seats.

Liberals failed to challenge the development of the first past the post system and this only really damaged the Liberals in the 1930s – by then the decline was too far gone.

Question 27

What scandal happened in 1922?

Answer 27

A scandal emerged where DLG was selling knighthoods & peerages amassing a huge political fortune - knighthood could be bought for £10 000 -[which he refused to share with the Liberals unless they followed his ideas].

Question 28

Why the Liberals lost the 1922 General Election.

Answer 28

• Lloyd George’s personal unpopularity
• Divisions between the Liberals
• The rise of the Labour Party

Were all significant reasons

Question 29

What did the Liberals lack in the elections ?

Answer 29

In the 1922, 1923 and 1924 elections the Liberals lacked the proper funds to run successful campaigns or field as many candidates as the Conservative and Labour (this was partly due to Lloyd George withholding funds from the Liberal party unless they gave him their full support).

Question 30

What happened in the 1924 election?

Answer 30

Although it supported a minority Labour government in 1924, their share of the vote fell by 12% in the 1924 General Election, This was down to the Liberals losing the confidence of their traditional voter base as many turned to the Conservatives.

Question 31

How did Lloyd Geogre try to fix the promblem?

Answer 31

Lloyd George tried to create a viable set of policies to solve the growing problem of unemployment and investment in industry presented in their ‘The Yellow Book’.

They never gained the support of the electorate and the Liberals became increasingly marginalised and their share of the vote continued to fall throughout the 1920s.

Question 32

When was the national government?

Answer 32

1931

Question 33

Who were the leaders of the national government between 1931 and 1945?

Answer 33

Ramsey MacDonald
Stanley Baldwin
Neville Chamberlin
Winston Churchill

Question 34

What was the threats that the national government had to deal with?

Answer 34

Economic threats
The opposition of the Labour Party
Rise of extreme politics
Foreign Policy threats

Question 35

How did the National government support British industry?

Answer 35

This was done by introducing the 1932 Imports Duties Act which put a 10% tariff on most imports.

Question 36

What were some successful conservative spending measures?

Answer 36

The Unemployment Act of 1934

Unemployment Insurance Act of 1920,

Question 37

What was the Unemployment Insurance Act of 1920 and the The Unemployment Act of 1934?

Answer 37

introduced a “means test” which meant that while most workers were covered by the 1920 Unemployment Insurance Act of 1920, most benefits only lasted for 15 weeks per year.

Question 38

What had the May Report in 1931 predicted about spending?

What did this lead to?

Answer 38

had predicted that the spending deficit would be as high as £120million in 1932.

At the same time, spending cuts did work to make the poor, poorer and those who could take advantage of other measures - such as cheaper bank loans - tended to be Middle Class.

Question 39

How did the national government change interest rates?

what was this too encourage?

Answer 39

Interest Rates on bank loans were slashed from 6 to 2% in order to encourage borrowing

Question 40

What was the impact of slashing interest rates?

Answer 40

There is evidence that this had a good effect on the economy as car ownership increased & manufacturing in that area improved

The number of homeowners grew in the 1930s, suggesting some people were able to take advantage of more affordable mortgages.

Question 41

What was the most crucial thing that the national government did to do with the economy?

Answer 41

Breaking with the Gold Standard

Question 42

What was the Special Areas act 1934?

Answer 42

introduced grants for particular areas of the country that were particularly depressed areas.

Question 43

What impact did the Special Areas act 1934 have?

Answer 43

This money did not work in areas of traditional industry where productivity remained low & employment subsequently suffered.

Where there was recovery tended to be in the south-east of England where newer manufacturing industries were based.

Question 44

What divide was increased during the time of the national government?

Answer 44

This reality meant that a north / south divide in Britain further opened up and the reality was that the Depression in this country was regional and indeed drawn along class lines.

Question 45

What did the National Government run as?

Answer 45

The National Government was able to effectively operate as an elected Dictatorship due to the support offered to it by the British public.

Question 46

How many seats did the national government win in 1931?

Answer 46

In the 1931 General Election, the National Government won 554 Seats,

with the Conservatives winning 473 of those 554 (McDonald’s Labour the rest).

The independent Labour opposition, led by George Lansbury, won only 52 Seats.

Question 47

What extremist views did Britain face?

Answer 47

On the left, the CPGB called for a Communist Revolution.

On the Right, the British Union of Fascists led by Oswald Mosely wanted the introduction of a system similar to that of Mussolini’s of Italy and later Germany.

Question 48

How many members did the BUF have at its height?

Answer 48

At its height, the BUF had 50,000 members - so its presence should not be underplayed as a part of British life in the 1930s.

Question 49

What act did the government pass to help stop the rise of extremism?

Answer 49

the 1936 Public Order Act which banned inflammatory political meetings and the wearing of military-style uniforms by political groups.

Question 50

What was the March through Shadwell East?

Answer 50

In 1936, an intimidatory march through Shadwell East London’s Cable Street was planned and the Home Office refused to ban it, meaning Jewish support groups were left to fend for themselves and resist the intimidation of the Fascists.

Question 51

What was the aftermath of the march through Shadwell East?

Answer 51

In the aftermath of the riot, only when public sentiment against the BUF swelled did the government pass the Public Order Law

Even then, this was delayed sufficiently for Fascists to carry out another malicious endeavour, the Mile End pogrom - an event where many Jewish businesses along the Mile End Road in London were damaged.

Question 52

Were the government quick in responding to extremist groups?

Answer 52

The National Government was slow in dealing with the rise of extremists, particularly the BUF.

The BUF had grown to 40,000 years in its first four years of existence and were openly calling for authoritarian government and the adoption of wider institutional antisemitism in Britain.

Question 53

What surprise election did labour win?

Why did they win?

Answer 53

Labour won a surprise victory in the election of 1945. This was spurred on by the spirit of collectivism that had been fostered in British society by the wartime experience and the attractiveness of their manifesto: “Let us face the future”.

Question 54

Why did labour win the 1945 general election?

Answer 54

Leadership
Campaigns
Policies
Public Mood

Question 55

How did leadership help labour win the 1945 general election?

Answer 55

Atlee portrayed himself as a ‘man of the people’, though Churchill led the country through WW2 people were unsure whether he was the right leader for peacetime.

During WW2 Atlee had managed the home front, showing that himself and the Labour party were capable leaders.

Question 56

How did Campaigns help labour win the 1945 general election?

Answer 56

Labour broke off the wartime coalition after the war to force an election, campaigned on the slogan ‘let us face the future’ and campaign posters centred around the British people, with pictures of women of soldiers accompanied by the text ‘Labour for him’ or ‘Labour for her’.

Question 57

How did the conservative slogan help labour win the 1945 general election?

Answer 57

Conservative slogan ‘let’s finish the job’ Churchill’s spiteful ‘Gestapo’ speech was seen as distasteful and poorly judged.

In some respects, the Conservatives were demonstrating a complacency similar to Baldwin’s back in 1929.

Question 58

How did Policies help labour win the 1945 general election?

Answer 58

Labour promised to implement the policies of the extremely popular Beveridge Report,

Churchill rejected the report and did not have a clear strategy for post-war recovery.

Labour’s manifesto seems more specific, ambitious, detailed and thought through.

It showed a commitment to Beveridge, the economic philosophy of Keynesianism and ultimately Democratic Socialism.

Question 59

How did Public Mood help labour win the 1945 general election?

Answer 59

Public wanted a change after the harsh war years, they associated the Tories with the high unemployment of the 20s and 30s and the failed policy of appeasement.

Question 60

What did Labour do to some key industries?

Answer 60

The Labour Government nationalised many key industries such as coal mining, shipbuilding and the railways.

Question 61

What key reform/change did the labour government set up?

Answer 61

Most importantly, the nature of the amount of reforms in social and healthcare they introduced amounted to the creation of a Welfare State.

Question 62

What were the different consensus policies?

Answer 62

A mixed economy, 
Universal healthcare, 
A welfare state, 
Full employment 
Cooperation with the trade unions.

Question 63

What was the 1947 Industrial charter?

Answer 63

is an important document because it reflects the fact that the Conservative Party reconciled itself with many of the economic and social policies introduced by Clement Attlee’s Labour Government.

Although it still criticised overly planning the economy, it accepted many things like a commitment to full employment, protection of workers and protection of the Welfare State.

Question 64

Why did labour lose the 1951 election?

Answer 64

The reality was that despite wholesale changes in welfare and governance, living standards for individuals did not rise during the immediate years after WW2, because Labour had no choice but to follow a process of economic austerity

Question 65

What was Britain after WW2?

How much did they get in a loan from the USA?

Answer 65

At the end of World War Two, Britain was “six weeks away from famine”.

John Maynard Keynes negotiated a £2.2billion loan from the USA, and this loan was on top of the many billions Britain was in deficit as a need of paying back support for the war effort.

Question 66

What measures did debt after the war led to?

Answer 66

There was no choice but to continue some wartime measures like rationing, even though the war was over.

This was terribly morale sapping and led to a compounded dissatisfaction with Labour.

Question 67

What added to the economic problems in 1947?

What happened as a result?

Answer 67

a particularly harsh winter in 1947 which slowed economic production/growth.

Therefore forced Britain to devalue the pound in 1949 in light of the money it owed the USA.

Question 68

What is Austerity?

Answer 68

when the government is receiving more in tax than it is spending.

Question 69

Why did living standers not raise in the years 1945-51?

Answer 69

Britain kept having to make sacrifices.

For example, the Labour government had to maintain Austerity because it made commitments to the building of a Welfare State while at the same time facing the fact that Britain was pretty much bankrupted by the war.

The Uk owes billions in loans to the USA.

Question 70

What was there not enough investment in?

This did this led to?

Answer 70

There was not enough sensible investment in a peacetime economy because spending on soldiers abroad (in places like Korea) needed to continue.

Therefore, there was an underinvestment in manufacturing and Britain could not build up a competitive industry, relative to manufacturing booms that were taking place in countries like Germany and Japan.

Question 71

What did the pressure in manufacturing lead to?

Answer 71

This pressure on manufacturing and design and the drive for simple and cheap homes led the government to build prefabricated housing which included wooden walls and flat roofs. This gave people homes quickly.

Question 72

What challenges did the Conservative Governments

(1951 - 1964) face?

Answer 72

=The growth of the affluent society.

=Continued investment in welfare / housing, but Stop-Go economics created silos of wealth in Britain and built up inflation as a problem for the future.

=Balance of Payments got so bad that it was worse than what Labour was expecting when Wilson took over as PM in 1964. (£800,000,000).

=The National Incomes Commission was set-up as a way to regulate wage demands, but it was unsuccessful and Trade Union Rest got worse during this period.

Question 73

What challenges did the

Labour Government )1964 - 1970) face?

Answer 73

=Balance of payment deficits caused by problems linked to Stop-Go economics meant the pound had to be devalued by 14% in 1967.

=Attempts to solve Industrial problems failed (“In Place of Strife” was rejected in 1969).

=Government saw more success in a social transformation of the country and passed laws which represented a substantial policy of liberalisation.

Question 74

What challenges did the Conservative Governments

(1970 - 1974) face?

Answer 74

=The Conservative Government led by Edward Heath saw the first attempt to abandon the Post-War Consensus.

=Massive economic problems and continued industrial unrest saw a U-turn.

Question 75

What challenges did the

Labour Government )1974 - 1979) face?

Answer 75

=Economic problems could not be ignored and could not be defeated. The Trade Unions by this time felt undefeatable in their demands which deepened economic and social divisions.

=Retrenchment after 1976 marked, effectively, the end of the post-war consensus.

Question 76

What did all governments maintain a commitment to?

When was this until?

What was the Commitment helped by?

Answer 76

All governments maintained a commitment to full employment until Labour accepted in 1976 that market forces would play a much greater role in determining levels of employment.

This commitment was helped with better education (cross reference with the impact of the 1944 Butler Act and Labour’s higher education reforms) and the diversifying of the economy made possible by changes in technology and tourism.

Question 77

What was their a shift to in politics

Answer 77

By the 1970s, there was a generational shift: New Right thinking began to challenge the extent of welfare provision. That said, general support of the NHS continued, even as it became a victim of its own success.

Question 78

Give an example of a shift of generational attitudes?

Answer 78

For example, Harold Macmillan was in total lock-step with the idea that there should be no return to the poverty of the pre-war years and that the wealthy had an obligation to provide for the poor. In the 1950s and 1960s, very few members of the Conservative government called for reducing welfare spending.