Chapter 6: Liberal Reforming Legislation

Question 1

Who was Roy Jenkins?

Answer 1

Labour Home Secretary in Wilson’s govt. from 1965

Question 2

How was most of the 1960s liberal reforming legislation passed?

Answer 2

as private members bills

Question 3

Why were these private members bills successful?

Answer 3

Roy Jenkins was sympathetic and enabled enough parliamentary time to be available for the reforms to be passed

Question 4

What is a free vote?

Answer 4

individual MPs can vote according to their own conscience rather than following an official party line

Question 5

Why had the anti-hanging campaign received a particular boost in the 1950s?

Answer 5

case of Ruth Ellis

Question 6

Who was Ruth Ellis?

Answer 6

a young mother convicted of murdering her abusive boyfriend in 1955

Question 7

Who was Sydney Silverman?

Answer 7

Labour backbencher who campaigned tirelessly for the abolition of the death penalty

Question 8

When was the death penalty abolished in Britain?

Answer 8

1955 for a trial period of 5 years, in 1969 it was made permanent

Question 9

How did Jenkins further reform the justice system?

Answer 9

-refused to authorise the beating of prisoners in 1967
-brought in majority verdicts for English juries rather than unanimity

Question 10

What did divorce law require prior to the 1960s?

Answer 10

demanded evidence that one party had committed adultery meaning that for the majority of people divorce was almost impossible

Question 11

When was the Divorce Reform Act passed?

Answer 11

1969

Question 12

What were the terms of the Divorce Reform Act?

Answer 12

Couples could get divorced if:
-had lived apart for 2 years and both partners agreed to a divorce
-had lived apart for 5 years and one partner wanted the divorce

Question 13

What was the impact of the Divorce Reform Act?

Answer 13

huge increase in the number of divorces

Question 14

How did divorce rates change between 1950 and the mid 1970s?

Answer 14

in 1950 there were fewer than 2 divorces per 1000 marriages by the 1970s nearly 10 in every 1000 marriages ended in divorce

Question 15

How many illegal abortions were performed each year before 1967?

Answer 15

between 100,000 and 200,000

Question 16

How many woman were admitted to hospital with complications as a result of illegal abortions?

Answer 16

35,000

Question 17

How many women died after having a backstreet abortion between 1958 and 1960?

Answer 17

82

Question 18

When was the Abortion Law Reform Association set up?

Answer 18

1945

Question 19

What did the Abortion Law Reform Association argue?

Answer 19

legal obstacles to abortion ought to be removed to end the problem of backstreet abortions

Question 20

When was the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child set up?

Answer 20

1966

Question 21

Who was David Steel?

Answer 21

Liberal MP who led the abortion law reform campaign in Parliament

Question 22

What was the thalidomide disaster?

Answer 22

drug prescribed to women with morning sickness in the 1960s found to produce congenital deformities in children if taken during early pregnancy, children commonly born without long bones of arms/legs

Question 23

What was the effect of the thalidomide disaster?

Answer 23

opinion polls showed majority in favour of allowing abortion when an abnormality had been detected in the foetus

Question 24

When was the Abortion Act passed?

Answer 24

1967

Question 25

What were the terms of the Abortion Act?

Answer 25

permitted abortion within the first 28 weeks under medical supervision and with the written consent of 2 doctors

Question 26

How did the number of abortions increase between 1968 and 1975?

Answer 26

increased from 4 per 100 live births to 17.6 in 1975

Question 27

Who was Leo Abse?

Answer 27

Labour backbencher who campaigned for the decriminalisation of homosexual relations

Question 28

When was the Sexual Offences Act passed?

Answer 28

1967

Question 29

What were the terms of the Sexual Offences Act?

Answer 29

did not legalise homosexual acts but it decriminalised them when three conditions were met: -both partners had consented -both had to be over the age of 21 -it had to be private

Question 30

What was the impact of the Sexual Offences Act?

Answer 30

-liberated men who had previously been afraid to declare their sexuality -Act was strictly interpreted so did not mean the complete end of prosecution of homosexual practices

Question 31

What were LEAs?

Answer 31

Local Education Authorities responsible for schools

Question 32

What is a comprehensive school?

Answer 32

one which provides secondary education for all children in given areas, non selective with its pupils

Question 33

How many children were educated at a comprehensive school by 1964?

Answer 33

1 in 10

Question 34

Who was Tony Crossland?

Answer 34

Labour Minister for Education from 1965 who was a leading supporter of the comprehensive system

Question 35

What was Circular 10/65?

Answer 35

issued in 1965 to all LEAs requesting them to convert to comprehensive schools

Question 36

Why did many authorities respond despite it not being a statutory requirement?

Answer 36

in 1966, the govt. made money for new school building conditional on the drawing up of plans for comprehensives

Question 37

How many authorities had failed to convert by 1970?

Answer 37

only 8

Question 38

How many comprehensive schools were there in Britain by 1970?

Answer 38

1145 (catering to 1 in 3 of all state-educated secondary students)

Question 39

How successful was the comprehensive system?

Answer 39

-caused considerable disruption for students in the early days -many middle-class parents remained unconvinced some turned to direct grant schools and independent schools meaning the idea of a truly comprehensive system was flawed from the start

Question 40

Why was the Robbins Committee established?

Answer 40

due to fear Britain was slipping behind in science and technological education

Question 41

When was the Robbins Committee established?

Answer 41

1961

Question 42

What did the Robbins Report find?

Answer 42

Britain lagged behind France, Germany and the US in the provision of university places and too many students followed arts related courses to the exclusion of science and technological studies

Question 43

How did the Labour govt. respond to these findings?

Answer 43

by expanding higher eduction

Question 44

How did the Labour govt. expand higher education?

Answer 44

-polytechnics replaced colleges of technology to focus on applied education for work and science -nine colleges of advanced technology became full universities -new universities were founded e.g. UEA

Question 45

How many polytechnics and universities were there by 1968?

Answer 45

30 polytechnics and 56 universities

Question 46

What was the positive impact of the expansion of higher education?

Answer 46

-brought new courses e.g.town planning and architecture -opened up higher education for many who's families had never attended universities

Question 47

What was the negative impact of higher education?

Answer 47

middle class children still dominated old universities so it was hard to persuade anyone of the parity of opportunity

Question 48

What was the Open University?

Answer 48

offered high quality degree level learning in arts and sciences to people who had never got the opportunity to attend campus universities

Question 49

When was "University of the Air" proposed?

Answer 49

1963

Question 50

When was the Open University established?

Answer 50

September 1969 in Milton Keynes

Question 51

When did the first students begin their studies?

Answer 51

January 1971

Question 52

How did the Open University operate?

Answer 52

used radio and TV in innovative forms of distance learning and recruited largely part-time students with a different social profile to traditional students

Question 53

Who was the main demographic for the Open University?

Answer 53

the mature, women, the disadvantaged, those regarded as educational failures

Question 54

How many students attended the Open University by 1980?

Answer 54

70,000