Changing Quality of Life Flashcards
What happened to wages for the poorest in society between 1921 and 1934?
Fell after the recession
How much were many families getting by on?
£5
Why did living standards improve between wars?
Prices fell faster than wages and real cost of living fell by more than a third between 1920 and 1938
How many children were women having on average?
2.19
How many people had died in the war?
702,000
§How many people were wounded in the war?
1.67 million
By 1921, how many men were receiving disability pensions?
1,187,45
Why was there a decline in alcohol consumption?
Forced ban in 1914
What was the Defence of the Realm act?
Continued peacetime restrictions on pub opening hours caused the amount spent on alcohol to fall throughout the interwar period.
What did rationing do?
Promote healthier diets - so did the 1914 Education Act
What was the infant mortality rate in 1922?
Half than in 1900
What killed far fewer people than pre-war?
Tuberculosis and Typhoid
What age did more people survive to?
65
What meant that life expectancy remained pretty stagnant?
Poor Geriatric care
What was infant mortality rate in wales?
5.17 deaths per 1000
What was the infant mortality rate in Kensington?
0.86 per 1000
What was hospital care described as?
Postcode Lottery
Which MP joined in the Jarrow March?
Ellen Wilkinson
What was the impact of the war in terms of infrastructure?
Blitz had decimated the home front - London, Liverpool, Coventry - evacuation
What programme encourages civilian involvement?
Dig for Victory
What was WWII?
Total War - it has an impact on everyone
Why did the impact of war continue?
Cities had to be rebuilt and food supplies had to be improved
What happened after the war?
Period of austerity - the government cuts back on spending in order to rebuild and reconstruct after the war
When did rationing continue until?
Well into the 1950s
What other cities were impacted by the bombing?
Birmingham, Plymouth, Bristol, Glasgow, Southampton, Portsmouth and Hull
How many houses were destroyed?
2/7 houses - 3.5 million
How many changes of addresses were there?
60 million
How many men were registered for service?
14.9/15.9 million aged 14-64
How many women were engaged in the war effort?
7.1 million
How many essential work orders did the government have to issue?
8.5 million
What were all men subject to?
Conscription
How many were killed in WWII?
287,859
How many were injured?
274,148
How many prisoners of war were there?
184,102
How many children were evacuated?
Over a million - increased concern for the wellbeing of slum children
Why was Britain starving?
Loss of ships to German U boats
What did almost every Briton have to do?
Adopt an austere lifestyle during and for six years after the war due to the financial sacrifices needed to wage total war.
How much of all consumer expenditure was controlled by rationing in 1946?
1/4
How much of all consumer expenditure was controlled by rationing in 1948?
30%
When did bread begin to be rationed?
1946 - 1948
How did rationing benefit the working class?
Enjoyed a healthier diet because the disparity in food consumption was levelled out between classes
What happened to average wages during the war?
Almost doubled
What lead to a levelling of fashions?
Clothes rationing - people made do and mend
What was established in 1940?
Council for the Encourage of music and Arts
What did the government fund?
Film industry - made morale boosting films - In Which we Serve
What was consumer expenditure on rationing cut back to in 1949?
12%
What did the government introduce?
Price controls to cap prices so people’s money goes further.
What grew in 1951-1979?
Consumerism and a consumer society
Why was there a growth in consumerism?
Increase in things to buy and people more motivated to conform to social norms
How much did real disposable income rise in the 1950s?
30%
How much did real disposable income rise in the 1960s?
22%
How much did real disposable income rise in the 1970s?
30%
What was unusual about this period?
Interest and rent declined as a share of national income
What did home ownership increase from and to?
29% in 1950 to 50% in 1970
How much did car ownership increase by?
16% in 1950 to 52% in 1970
What did MacMillan say in 1957?
Most of our people have never had it so good
What did growing disposable income allow?
Difference between wants and needs
What was the trend in gas sales between 1951 and 1970?
More than doubled
What happened to electricity sales?
Quadrupled
What happened to central heating?
Up from 5% in 1960 to 50% in 1977 and 84% in 1991
How much did money spent on advertising rise?
Threefold between 1947 and 1970
What contributed to a dramatic shit in male use of deodorant?
Old Spice advertisement after 1957
How many women used deodorant before 1957
32%
How many women and men regularly used scented toiletries by 1969?
Over half
What designers pioneered the Look?
Mary Quant
How were looks made accessible?
Mass production and sales of similar designs in high streets across the country
What company sold cheap clothes from London and by mail order?
Barbara Hulanicki’s fashion company Biba
Who was the most famous model in the 1960s?
Twiggy
What helped fashion take off?
Launch of Colour sections in newspapers after Feb 1962
Where was the first supermarket opened?
St Albans in 1947
Where was Sainsbury’s opened in 1950
Croyden
What gave a boost to food sales?
End of food rationing between 1951 and 1954
What allowed supermarkets to flourish?
Rolling back Retail Price Maintenance - 1956 on groceries - more generally in 1964
How many supermarkets were the in 1959?
286
How many supermarkets were there in 1961?
572
How many supermarkets were there in 1971?
3,500
Where was the first out-of-town supermarket opened?
Nottingham in 1964
What did the competition lead to?
Closure of 60,000 of local specialist grocers between 1960 and 1990
What did car ownership lead to?
Larger supermarkets on the outskirts of towns and cities
What was founded in 1957?
Consumer Association - launched Which?
What Ministry aimed to protect consumers?
Ministry for Consumer Affairs - existed from 1972 to 1983
How did poor people borrow money?
Moneylenders - not well-regulated - interest rates could be extortionate - debt collectors
When was the Consumer Credit Act passed?
1974 following the 1971 Crowther Report
What did the Crowther Report call for?
Repeal and Replacement of all earlier legislation on moneylending
What did the Act do?
Clarified the rights and responsibilities of lenders and borrowers
When were credit cards first used in Britain?
1966
When was the Access Card launched?
1972
What was unemployment like between 1921 and 1940?
Never fell below 1 million - rose to almost 3 million in 1932 and 1933
How many people had been jobless for a year in 1929?
5%
What did this rise to in 1932?
16.4% - 400,000 people
How much of the long term unemployment was located in the north, south wales and Scotland?
85%
What % of all shipbuilders were unemployed?
62%
How many car manufacturers were unemployed?
20%
What stopped the regional variation in means test?
Unemployment Assistance Board 1937
How many households in the south-east had a car?
20%
How many households in the north had a car?
12%
How many electricity consumers were there in 1920?
730,000
How many electricity consumers were there in 1938?
9 million
How many houses had electricity in 1932?
32%
How many houses had electricity in 1938?
66%
How many houses had electricity in 1961?
96%
What encouraged the expansion of electricity?
1926 Electrical Supply Act
When did the grid cover most parts of the country?
1934
How much electricity did houses in the south-east consume?
861 kWh in 1938
How much electricity did houses in the north consume?
386 kWh - mostly on lighting not labour saving appliances
What did WWI lead to?
The collapse in the British film industry due to the uncertainty over funding, disruption to production and the use of studios for propaganda
What also played a part in the decline of cinema attendance?
Television
How many cinemas were forced to close?
Half of them
How many times did the average person got to the cinema between 1939 and 1951?
28 times
What became more lenient?
The BBFC - 1968 Theatres Act
What did the British prefer during WWI?
American films with higher production values. Women liked the glamour of American heroes and heroines.
How many cinema admissions were there in 1946?
1,635 million
How many cinema admissions were there in 1954?
1,276 million
How many cinema admissions were there in 1964?
343 million
How many cinema admissions were there in 1984?
53 million
What happened to British film production in the 1970s
Collapsed with the re-emergence of American dominance
How many British films were made in 1968?
49
How many British Films were made in 1980?
31
What led to the drop in British film production?
Cuts in American funding of British films and Conservative government cuts to National Film Finance Corporation, one of the major British sources of investment
What led to the boom in the cinema during WWII?
Demand for escapism - also the limitations on other entertainment forms
Who was the typical cinema goer?
Young, urban, working class, female over the age of 19
What was the concern of upper class people?
There would be an impact on impressionable audiences
What was the BBFC concerned about?
Americanisation
How many films were British in 1925?
5%
What film was seen by 20 million people in the first 6 weeks?
The Battle of the Somme 1916
What film was released in 1917?
Hearts of the world- the story of a village