Britain 1964-70 Flashcards
What does Swinging mean?
greater freedom to engage in sexual and cultural activities
What was Roy Jenkins Job?
Harold Wilson Home Sec
What type of MP was Roy Jenkins?
Causalist MP
What does Roy Jenkins ideals undermine?
The church
ie he said “make their own mistakes, and to decide, in an adult way”
What did Roy Jenkins not want people to do?
Didn’t want people to have to follow rules in an unthinking way.
What were the motives of a lot of the acts that Jenkins passed?
They produced practical benefits
- Ie less blackmailing
Fewer deaths from backstreet abortions
What was pressure from the people like on passing the liberal acts like the Abortion act 1967?
Not much pressure from people to pass the acts, more top down to liberalise issues (some see it as more freeing, positive impact)
- Some resistance ie from people like Mary Whitehouse
Why were the liberal acts of the 60’s sometimes seen as bad?
- ‘permissive’ (Marwick), Leading to divorce, drug culture as society allows for people to do whatever they won’t
- Greater freedoms lead to greater problems (divorce-> leads to harm to children, drug culture-> leads to drug addiction)
Davies believes Causalist MPs undermined boundaries
- Greater freedoms lead to greater problems (divorce-> leads to harm to children, drug culture-> leads to drug addiction)
What social liberalisation happened in 1960?
Lady Chatterley’s Lover trial allowed publication of this ‘pornographic’ novel
What anti social liberalisation happened in 1964?
Mary Whitehouse launches her Clean-Up TV campaign
What social liberalisation happened in 1965?
Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act is passed. This initially suspends hanging for five years, before it is abolished in 1969
What social liberalisation happened in 1967?
Sexual Offences Act legalises homosexual acts between men over the age of 21, in private, in England and Wales (not in Scotland until 1980, and in Northern Ireland until 1982)
Legalisation homosexuality acts between men in private over 21 (Scotland 1980, NI 1982)
Abortion Act legalises abortion during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy through the NHS.
Family Planning Act allows local health authorities to provide birth control devices. The contraceptive pill has been on sale since 1961
What social liberalisation happened in 1968?
NHS can supply contraceptive devices like cap, pill already on sale (since 1961) but only to married women
What social liberalisation happened in 1969?
Divorce Reform Act allows divorce to be granted after two years of separation if both parties want it, and after five years if one party wants it, on the grounds of ‘irreconcilable differences
What were the social movements of the sixties that had change/liberalisation?
- Women (divorce, contraception, abortion, attitudes to sex)
- Sexuality (homosexuality, censorship)
- Crime (death penalty, suicide)
- Media, including backlash against permissiveness in media
- Fashion
- Culture (music, film, theatre)
-Education - Race/immigration
What were Key events, legislation, statistics on Women (divorce, contraception, abortion, attitudes to sex) in the 60s?
1967: Abortion Act legalises abortion during first 28 weeks of pregnancy through NHS. Previously dangerous back street abortions took place which caused 40 deaths and 100,000 injuries in 1966.
1967: Family Planning Act allows local health authority to provide birth control devices. The contraceptive pill was first prescribed by British doctors in 1961 but only to married women. By 1964 480,000 women were taking the pill.
1969: Divorce Reform Act allows a divorce after 2 years of separation if both people want it and after five years if one person does.
How is significant was the change in the 60s regarding Women (divorce, contraception, abortion, attitudes to sex)?
Most people continued to have conservative attitudes towards divorce.
The main change in attitudes towards sex before marriage were that young people were more tolerant than previous generations.
What were Key events, legislation, statistics on Sexuality (homosexuality, censorship) in the 60s?
1957 - Wolfenden Committee Report recommends the liberalisation of laws that made homosexuality illegal
1967 - Sexual Offences Act legalises homosexual acts between men over the age of 21, in private, in England and Wales (not in Scotland until 1980, and in Northern Ireland until 1982)
Laws like the 1967 Abortion Act and 1967 Sexual Offences Act were passed in a more practical sense rather than based on moral ethics (ie looking at deaths due to backstreet abortions as a constant issue needing to be fixed, than a moral issue-> 40 deaths, 100,000 injuries in 1966)
60’s= seen as a time of ‘sexual revolution’
By 1964, around 480,000 women were taking the pill
Surveys like Schofield’s ‘The Sexual Behaviour of Young People’ found only 17% of girls and 33% of boys had had sex by the age of 19
More sexualisation on TV- ie more suggestive clothing and behaviour but no sex on tv ie Pussy Galore, Bond Girl
How is significant was the change in the 60s regarding Sexuality (homosexuality, censorship)?
While laws changed, people’s attitudes did not necessarily adapt
Polls from the later 1960s showed that people did not adjust to or accept the more relaxed laws
The law was not the result of pressure from constituents but their own beliefs
Young people became more tolerant to sex before marriage, but statistically it wasn’t actually acted upon by the majority of teenagers- less so a popular revolution
People consistently revealed they didn’t welcome homosexuality throughout the population
What were Key events, legislation, statistics on Media, including backlash against permissiveness in media in the 60s?
- 1954 - Television Act passed, gives ITV a license to broadcast for 10 years
- 1955 - 14 independent companies allowed to begin broadcasting television funded by advertising, breaking the BBC’s monopoly.
- 1960 - Committee of Inquiry on Broadcasting set up to assess the impact of television and to make recommendations for the future.
- 1962 - Pilkington Report from aforementioned committee delivered - generally supported more regulation of television
- Foreign (especially American) programs eroded British culture and made people more violent
- Advertising would commercialise British culture and make British people material
- Emphasised the need for quality drama on television - resulted in the production of plays such as Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home (social realist)
- Many findings ignored by government
- 1964 - Television Act increases the power of the Independent Television Authority
- ITV required to screen 2 plays and 2 current affairs program per week
- 1964 - BBC 2 established
- By 1969, 95% of households owned a television. In 1950, it was just 4%.
- 1954 Television Act: ITV was given a license to broadcast for 10 years.
- In July 1960, the government set up a Committee of Inquiry on Broadcasting to assess the impact of television.
- 1964 Television Act: ITV had to screen 2 extra plays and current affairs programmes per week. BBC 2 was created.
- The BBC banned screenings of The War Game (1965) until 1980.
- In January 1964, Mary Whitehouse started the Clean-Up TV campaign, and she renamed it to the NVLA in 1965. It was essentially created to pressure the BBC into becoming more “Christian”.
1962: Colour supplements were introduced to newspapers to promote increased circulation.
How is significant was the change in the 60s regarding Media, including backlash against permissiveness in media?
With the introduction of ITV and almost everyone having access to a TV by the end of the decade, regulation (despite most social aspects becoming more liberal) became stricter, particularly against shows that were deemed as “bad influences” on the population. ITV gameshows were criticised for being too American, though there was nothing obscene or wrong with the actual content.
Legacy media (i.e. newspapers) slowly became replaced with television bulletins - 5 national newspapers stopped printing shortly after 1960. Papers still had an impact though - Private Eye (though a satire publication) exposed the Profumo affair, which led Labour MPs to force the statement in the house, which was then proven to be a lie, etc.
What were Key events, legislation, statistics on Crime (death penalty, suicide) in the 60s?
1961 - Suicide Act means that those who fail to kill themselves will no longer be prosecuted.
1965 - Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act is passed. This initially suspends hanging for five years, before it is abolished in 1969. Only 18% of people supported abolition in 1966.
How is significant was the change in the 60s regarding Crime (death penalty, suicide)?
Evidently, there was not widespread support for the abolition of the death penalty, with Peter Hitchens labelling it as “a victory for the elite over the people”. It was a very significant change, with Peter Allen and Gwynne Jones being the last people to be hanged in Britain in August 1964. Dominic Sandbrook doesn’t believe the Swinging Sixties led to a change in attitudes regarding a permissive society amongst ordinary people.
What were Key events, legislation, statistics on Fashion in the 60s?
New fashions such as Op Art and ‘the Look’ inspired by designers such as
Mary Quant, with boutiques in London and made available around the country in high streets (mass produced) meant that it became harder to distinguish a woman’s class based on her fashion. Barbara Hulanicki’s ‘Biba’ sold cheap clothes by mail. The most famous model of the Era, Twiggy, said that Mary Quant’s clothes were for ‘rich girls’ and Biba was for ‘anyone’.
Fashion was always advertised, and with colour newspapers and new photographers was exciting.
But newspapers aren’t truly what caused the boom, instead the air of affluence, consumerism , confidence of youth and changing role of women. People were divided on the miniskirt.