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
What was the 1927 quota act?
20% of films had to be British
Examples of WW2 film?
In which we serve 1942
Millions like us 1943
Gentle Sex 1943
The way ahead 1944
How many teenagers went to the cinema once a week in 1946?
69%
How many films did the BBFC ban between 1928 and 1939?
140
Examples of more lenient films?
Clockwork Orange 1971
Straw Dogs 1971
Get Carter 1971
What film contained nudity and sex and was the highest grossing film in 1974?
Confessions of a Window Cleaner
What did films influence?
Teenage culture
What happened to the number of households with a receiver between 1922 and 1939?
Increased from 1% to 71%.
How many households had a receiver in 1951?
90%
When was the BBC founded?
1927
When did BBC lose its monopoly on broadcasting?
1973
What were the two Radio services?
National Programme and Regional Programme
Where did the Regional Programme broadcast from?
Midlands, London, North, Scottish, West, Northern Ireland and Welsh.
What happened at the start of WWII?
National and Regional combined to form the Home Service. Done to prevent enemy aircraft using different broadcasts to aid navigation.
What were Sunday broadcasts?
Religious
What did listeners do to avoid Sunday broadcasts?
Use pirate radios
Examples of pirate radios?
Radio Luxemburg and Radio Normandy
When was pirate radio banned?
1967 Marine Broadcasting Offences Act
When was the first pop station established?
1967
What did the 1973 Independent Broadcasting Authority Act do?
BBC had to compete with a range of UK based commercial stations
How many listeners did Tony Blackburn’s Breakfast Show get?
20 million
What was launched in 1946?
Third Programme - became Radio 3 in 1967
What did Radio 3 cater to?
Highbrow culture - less than 2% of the radio audience - higher class, higher educated
What did the Home Service become?
Radio 4
What did the radio become a symbol of?
Unity in the country
What boosted morale during the war?
Workers Playtime
What was the focus of daytime programming?
Women - reinforcing the idea that women should be in the home
What replaced the Forces Programme in 1945?
Light Programme - introduced a mis of comedies and soaps
Examples of Light Programme?
Archers
Mrs Dale’s Diary
How many listeners did the Light Programme receive?
2/3 of 11 million listeners
Example of programme targetted at women?
Women’s Hour
Housewives Choice
When did the monarchs speech start being televised?
1957
Where did most popular music come from between 1919 and 1959?
America
What was the popular music in WWI?
Ragtime and Jazz
What was popular music in 1930?
Swing and Bop
What was popular music in 1940?
Country and Western, Rhythm and blues
What was popular music in 1950s?
Rock n Roll
What became popular amongst the working class?
Dance Halls - provided a degree of luxury
When did music become more influenced by British Artists?
1960-1979
Example of this?
BEATLES - shift back to home grown genres
What was popular in the early 1970s?
Glam Rock
What was popular in Mid 1970s?
David Bowie with the rise New York inspired Disco
When was the rise of punk?
Late 1970s
What music was marketed towards teenagers to enhance consumerism?
Beatles and Rock n Roll
How much money did the Beatles make from merch?
£100 million and had made over £300 million from sales worldwide
What did dance halls allow?
Girls could wear less conservative clothes
Example of a prominent female punk singer?
Poly Styrene (1976) and Siouxsie Sioux (1976).
What did punk have an influence on?
Fashion - rejection of the consumer society
Who was Cliff Richard?
Originally discovered as a ‘heart-throb performer’ to replicate the popularity of Elvis Presley. In the 1950s released exuberant music such as ‘Move It’.
What Richard song shows the shift away from Rock n Roll?
Summer Holiday
Who was popular in 1970s?
Slade, Marc Bolan, Gary Glitter, David Bowie, The Sex Pistols, X-Ray Spex, The Banshees and the slits
How many households had a TV in 1970?
Almost every household
What allowed the expansion of channels?
1955 end of BBC’s monopoly
What TV show put homelessness on the map?
Cathy Come Home
What did the Wednesday Play do?
With its powerful abortion scene, raised awareness for that topic too- arguably contributing to the passing of the 1967 Abortion Act.
Example of Political Satire?
That Was the Week That Was - challenged social superiority
What allowed teens to have their own culture?
Consumerism - able to create their own identity
Where would Youths hang out?
Coffee Bars
How many arrests for marijuana in 1960?
235
How many arrests for marijuana in 1973?
11,000
Examples of subcultures?
Mods, rockers, beatniks, hippies, skinheads, glam rockers and punks
When did the mods and rockers have a scrap in Brighton?
1964
What were Skinheads?
A subculture which originated among working class youths in London, England, in the 1960s and soon spread to other parts of the UK
How would Skinheads be recognised?
Shaved heads and clothing such as steel toe work boots, braces, straight-leg jeans, and button-down shirts.
What were punks?
Another subculture, their fashion consisted of offensive t-shirts, leather jackets, hairstyles such as brightly coloured hair and spiked mohawks, tattoos, jewellery and body modification
Who were the first all female bands to write and perform their own music?
The Slits
Which TV show has strong female characters?
Corrie - Elsie Tanner (1960) weekly audience of 20 million
What did Butterflies 1978 show?
A housewife at home and bored and unfulfilled by her domestic role
Who was the first female TV news readers?
Barbara Mandell in 1955
Who was the first permanent female newsreaders?
Angela Rippon 1975
What films presented women in an objectifying light?
Confessions of a Window cleaner and Carry On
Which TV show had hen pecked husbands?
Likely Lads - watched by 27 million
Example of a Gay film?
The Naked Civil Servant
When did Tom Robinson release Glad to be Gay?
1976 - reached 18th in the single charts
What featured an abortion?
Up to Junction 1968
Example of a traditional films
King Visits the Army 1916
What did the 1964 Television Act do?
Required ITV to show 2 plays and 2 current affairs programmes per week.
Examples of parody of snobbery?
Margot in the Good Life 1975
Likely Lads 1973
Another example of political satire?
Beyond The Fringe 1960
How were the Police presented?
Positive Light - The Sweeney - tough but fair - despite Times report on police brutality in 1969
What celebrated police?
Dixon of Dock Green 1955
When was the Holidays Pay Act passed?
1938
What did the Holidays Pay Act do?
People were able to have leisure time if they were in the working and middle class - prior to this, it was mainly the upper class who could have leisure time.
Three consecutive paid days off.
First time the working class had time off
What act was in place before this act?
1871 Bank Holidays Act - gave working people 6 bank holidays
What created a national community of interest in sports?
Radio and the national press
Why was football accessible to working class people?
It was cheap to pay
What did television do for football?
More people to access football and injected a lot of media and advertising revenue into sport, increasing the incentive for professional players to assert their worth.
What meant it was easier to organise teams?
Factories and unions - self contained teams
What meant that the national league was possible?
Mass transport
When was the football association founded?
1888
What was created between 1920 and 1922?
Three national divisions
What did clubs become?
An important factor for loyalty and pride
What meant men could take part and watch sport?
Half days on Saturdays
What was club affiliation in 1910?
12,000
What was club affiliation in 1948?
17,973
What was club affiliation in 1967?
30,962
What was average attendance in 1914?
23,000
What was average attendance in 1938?
31,000
What was the ticket price in 1968 and 1981?
25p
£1
When did Match of The Day start?
1964
When did Sportsview start?
1954
When did Grand Stand start?
1958
When did World of Sport on iTV start?
1965
When was peak ticket sales?
1948-49 - 41.2 million
What was attendance in 1969-70?
29.6 million
What was attendance in 1979-80?
24.6 million
What enhanced viewers enjoyment?
Rise of colour television, multiple camera angles and slow motion replays in 1960s
How many people watched the 1966 World Cup?
32 million
Why did hooliganism increase?
Increased numbers of fans who could afford to go to matches
What happened when things got so bad?
Some clubs built metal cage fences to keep fans off the pitch
What did British Rail do?
Cancelled Soccer Specials which provided fans with cheap travel to away games
What happened in 1977?
Millwall disaster - hooliganism - gained bad reputation
How much ad money was poured into football in 1966?
£1 million
How much ad money was poured into football in 1976?
£16 million
What were wages capped at for professional footballers?
1919-1939 - £8 per week
1961 - £20 per week
What led to wage caps being scrapped?
Threat of a strike by the Professional Footballers’ Association formed in 1961
How much was Kevin Keegan paid in 1978?
£250,000
What did the pay do?
Reduce the idea of amateurism
What % of the audience was men in 1960s?
60-70%
What did male participation increase from and to?
1961: 9%
1979: 30%
What did women participation increase from and to?
6% to 17%
What did sport reinforce?
Gender divide - women were not allowed to join golf clubs or governing bodies
What was the exception to this rule?
Cycling - women were able to forge new association between sport and womanliness. It became increasing common for women to keep fit as a a healthy body became seen as being the ideal mother and housewife.
What happened in 1978?
High Court successfully overturned a ban on a girl from playing for Muskham United Under 11s.
What stopped holidays?
THE WAR
What did the war do?
Sped up the development of transport - trains, planes, cars
When was Butlins established?
1936 - emerged from wartime infrastructure
What also emerged?
Package holidays - more for the middle class/upper class
What became popular in the 1960s?
Caravan holidays
What did Britain become?
The 17th country to make paid holidays a right rather than a privilege
How many workers enjoyed paid holiday?
7.75 million
How many people left their home for a single night a year in 1938?
Less than half
How many workers received paid holiday in 1935?
1.5 out of 18.5 million workers
Where were most holidays?
Seaside - period was too short
How many people went to Blackpool each year?
7 million
Where did better off families go on holiday?
Tynemouth rather than Whitley
When were the Ramblers established?
1935
When was the YHA established?
1929
Where was the first Butlins?
Skegness
How many holiday camps were established?
200
How many visitors did holiday camps get?
30,000 per week
What did the government do during the war?
Put in measures to prevent travel for pleasure in order to free up roads and railway for military and supply purposes
What were used to dissuade people from going on holiday?
Posters and railway companies not allowed to put on additional trains
What did the government promote in 1941-42?
Holidays at Home
What was Wakes Week?
Most factory workers in Lancashire went to Blackpool
What was Trip Week?
Workers from Swindon went to Weston-Super-Mare continued throughout the war
How many people had been on a caravan holiday by the end of the 70s?
Almost half
What places were opened up?
Cornwall, Devon and Carmarthenshire - restricted to the wealthy
How many people went on holiday in 1951?
25 million in the UK
2 million went abroad
How many people went on holiday in 1971?
34 million
7 million
Rise of package holidays
How many private cars were registered in 1904?
9,000
How many private cars were registered in 1919?
100,000
How many cars were registered in 1939?
2 million
How many cars in 1960?
5,650,000
How many cars in 1970?
11,802,000
When was the Austin Seven launched?
1922
What did the average car price feel from and to?
£259 in 1924 to £130 in 1938
How many jobs relied on the motor industry in 1939?
1.4 million
When were driving tests introduced?
1934
When were 20 mph speed limits abolished?
1930
When were 30 mph speed limits introduced?
1934
When did country roads get speed limits?
1965
Why did car ownership increase after the war?
The end of petrol rationing and more efficient production techniques and greater average income.
What happened to bike sales?
1929: 6 million
1935: 10 million
Few people would drive to work
What was important to the working class before WWII?
Buses
What happened to the number of passenger miles on a bus?
Increased from 3.5 million in 1920 to 19 million in 1938.
How did cars impact consumer habits?
Load greater quantities of groceries
When was the first multistorey car park built?
1939 in Blackpool
Where was the first Asda?
Nottinghamshire - 1964
What % of women had a private driving license in 1933?
12%
What % of women had a private driving license in 1975?
29% compared with 69% of men
When did flying become a viable travel option?
1918
When was Imperial Airways formed?
1924 - subsidised by government - image of power and modernity
When was BA set up?
1935 - rescued with state financial assistance and merged with Imperial Airways in 1939 to form the British Overseas Airways Corporation
When was civil aviation nationalised?
1946
When did scheduled internal flights begin?
1930s
When did Britons start going to Spain and Greece?
1960s
How many railway companies became state controlled?
120
What act was passed in 1921?
Railway Act
What did the 1921 Railway Act do?
Forced all rail companies to merge into four: Great Western Railway; London, Midland and Scottish Railway; London and North Eastern Railway and Southern Railway
What was Metro-Land?
A series of suburbs north of London linked to the city centre by the Metropolitan Railway - Watford, Northwood.
When was British rail formed?
1948 - big four struggling to compete with road transport
When was the first Beeching Report?
1963
When was the second Beeching Report?
1965
What did Beeching recommend?
Closure of over half of all stations and almost a third of all track miles (around 5000 miles) to make British rail profitable
When did track closure begin?
1963
Example of a closed line?
Harpenden to Hemel
When was the New Towns Act?
1946
What did the New Towns Act do?
Built Stevenage and Hemel
