(Changing political landscape) The Labour government, 1945-51 Flashcards

1
Q

What was labour’s surprise victory in 1945 spurred on by?

A

The spirit of collectivism that had been fostered in British society by the war.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What are the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide?

A
Leadership
Attlee
Conservative slogan
Policies
Public mood
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

One of the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide was due to leadership.
How did Attlee portray himself?

A

A ‘man of the people’

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

One of the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide was due to leadership.
What did Attlee prove?

A

He managed the home front in WW2, showing himself and the labour party to be capable leaders.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

One of the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide was due to campaigns.
Why did labour break off the wartime coalition after the war?

A

To force an election

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

One of the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide was due to campaigns.
What forced an election after the war?

A

Labour broke up the coalition government.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

One of the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide was due to campaigns.
What was labour’s slogan?
What is effective?

A

‘Let us face the future’.

Yes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

One of the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide was due to campaigns.
What did labour’s campaign poster look like?

A

Pictures of women & soldiers accompanied by the text ‘Labour for him’ or ‘Labour for her’.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

One of the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide was due to campaigns.
What did Attlee spend a lot of time doing?

A

Touring the country.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

One of the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide was due to campaigns.
What was wrong with Churchill’s campaign?

A

It was lacklustre as he was so confident in his victory after winning the war.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

One of the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide was due to the conservative slogan.
What was the conservative slogan?

A

‘Let’s finish the job’

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

One of the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide was due to the conservative slogan.
What did Churchill do that was ill-received by the public?

A

Made a distasteful and poorly judged ‘Gestapo’ speech.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

One of the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide was due to the conservative slogan.
In some respects, what were the conservatives demonstrating?

A

A complacency similar to that of Baldwin’s conservative government in 1929.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

One of the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide was due to policies.
What had labour promised to do?
How did this compare to conservative?

A

Implement the policies of the Beveridge Report

Churchill rejected it & didn’t have a clear strategy for post-war recovery.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

One of the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide was due to policies.
How did labour’s manifesto look compared to conservative’s?

A

More detailed and ambitious

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

One of the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide was due to policies.
What did labour’s manifesto show a commitment to?

A

Beveridge, Keynesianism and ultimately Democratic Socialism.

17
Q

One of the 5 reasons labour won by a landslide was due to public mood.
What was the public mood of the time?

A

People wanted a change after the harsh war years and associated Tories with the high unemployment of the 20s and 30s and the failure of appeasement.

18
Q

Transformative agenda - what did labour do to many key industries such as coal, shipbuilding & railways?

A

Nationalise them

19
Q

Transformative agenda - what did the nature of the amount of reforms in social and healthcare reforms create?

A

A welfare state.

20
Q

Transformative agenda - what key policies were adopted?

5

A
Mixed economy
Universal healthcare
Welfare state
Full employment
Cooperation with TUs
21
Q

Transformative agenda - labour adopted a number of key policies. What did they become?

A

The foundations of post-war consensus

22
Q

Transformative agenda - why was the 1947 Industrial Charter important?

A

Reflects how conservative associated with many economic and social policies introduced by Attlee’s labour government.
It accepted many things like commitment to full employment and protection of workers and the welfare state.

23
Q

Labour’s loss - what year was the following election and the one labour subsequently lost in?

A

1951

24
Q

Labour’s loss - how were the principles of governance that labour supported received?

A

They were more popular than labour itself.

25
Q

Labour’s loss - what was the reality of labour’s government, despite wholesale changes in welfare and governance?
Give evidence of this.

A

Living standards didn’t rise because they had to follow a process of economic austerity.

By the end of WW2, Britain was “6 weeks away from famine”.

26
Q

Labour’s loss - what was negotiated?

Why was this a bad decision?

A

A £2.2 billion loan from the USA

It was on top of the billions that Britain was in deficit in as a need of paying back support for the war effort.

27
Q

Labour’s loss - what was the context in which declining living standards and the economic deficit took place in?

What did this mean?

A

Rebuilding and moving back to a civilian peace-time economy.

There was therefore no choice but to continue some wartime measures like rationing. This was morale sapping and led to a dissatisfaction with labour.

28
Q

Labour’s loss - what didn’t have the intended effect?

A

Austerity

29
Q

Labour’s loss - why didn’t austerity have the intended effect?

A

A particularly harsh winter in 1947 slowed economic production and forced Britain to devalue the pound in 1949 in light of money owed to the USA.
Therefore, the economic outlook got even worse.

30
Q

Labour’s loss - what is austerity?

A

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

31
Q

Labour’s loss - why didn’t living standards raise between 1945-51?

(3)

A

Not enough sensible investment in peacetime economy - spending on soldiers abroad had to continue.
Resulted in underinvestment in manufacturing so Britain couldn’t build a competitive industry.

People diverted from consumerism due to rationing until 1951. Furniture remained rationed - built with as little wood as possible, linking to how manufacturing was under strain by austerity.

Pressure on manufacturing and drive for cheap homes led the govt to build prefabricated houses to give people homes quickly.

32
Q

Labour’s loss - lots of food remained rationed until 1951. What did the Daily Mail call this?

A

“The most unpopular policy in the history of the British isles”

33
Q

Labour’s loss - name 2 countries that were experiencing manufacturing booms in this time while Britain was struggling to build a competitive industry.

A

Germany & Japan

34
Q

Labour’s loss - what did prefabricated houses consist of?

What were they replaced by?

A

Wooden walls and flat roofs.

After 1951, the concept of “blocks of flats” appeared, The Lansbury Park estate being the first.