Conservative Governments 1951-64

Question 1

What is meant by consensus politics?

Answer 1

Fundamentally little difference between the policies of the 2 main parties, differences of detail and emphasis -> stemmed from WW2 -> meant no dramatic change in policy + Keynesianism approach continued i.e. full employment and mixed economy -> ‘Butskelism’ = Butler and Gaitskell shows how close policies were

Question 2

Outline Churchill’s time as PM

Answer 2

Age =77, no longer dynamic leader left much of his heavy work to acknowledged successor Eden -> retired April 1955

Question 3

Why did Conservatives win in 55?

Answer 3

1. Country’s growing prosperity and rising living standards
2. Labour Party seriously split over defence policy
   - Bevan and supporters criticised gov’s rearmament programme -> on the verge of expulsion from party

Question 4

Outline Eden’s time as PM

Answer 4

Disappointment - reputation as international statesman -> not in full control of Cabinet + disastrous handling of Suez Crisis in 1956 -> resignation Jan 1957

Question 5

Why was Macmillan suited to be PM in a time of consensus?

Answer 5

During 1930’s -> MP for Stockton-on-Tees -> horrified by poverty and demoralisation that he witnessed in constituency + acquired a well-deserved reputation as a progressive , forward-looking and radical Cons. ‘The middle way’ 1938 -> radical, non-socialist solution to depression

• man of centre left
• As Housing minister, Macmillan built more houses per year than previous Lab gov

Question 6

Why did Cons. win in 59?

Answer 6

1. Macmillan restored party morale after Suez debacle
2. Natural leader -> commanding respect of cabinet and establishing a rapport with public through tv appearances
3. Economy was booming
   => easy victory under ‘Super-Mac’s’ leadership

Question 7

Foreign policy during Macmillan’s minsitry

Answer 7

GB no longer a great power. Most of Empire gained independence and GB gained no compensatory influence in Europe. When they missed an opportunity to join the Common Market (1957) refused entry 1963 -> Macmillan’s foreign policy had largely failed

Question 8

What happened to the economy after the 50’s?

Answer 8

1960’s economy stagnating -> Jan 1963 almost 900k people were out of work + Sir Douglas-Home PM for a year

Question 9

In what ways did living standards improve?

Answer 9

1. Movement from austerity
   - Reduced as many of Labour’s controls as possible
   - Rationing and restrictions ended
   - income tax reduced
   - limits on hire-purchase sales + even right to strike removed
2. 1951-63 wages rose on average by 72% whiles prices by only 45% => consumer goods
   - cars 3->7 mill
   - lisenced TV sets 340k -> almost 13 mill
3. 1961 working week reduced from 48 hours to 42
4. Increase in house building
   - new ministry of housing
   - Lab’s best year 1947 284,230 houses
   - National housing crusade -> allow private contractros to build more houses _ abolished tax on land development
   - 327k in 1953 + 354k in 1954

Question 10

Important extensions of the Welfare State

Answer 10

1. The Mental Health Act (1959) -> mental illness regarded no differently from physical + intro of a 2s prescription charge
2. 1962 gov. announced 90 new hospitals would be built over next 10 years

Question 11

Help for agriculture

Answer 11

Grants and subsidies to encourage farmers to use new fertilisers, machinery, techniques and animal feed

• 1960-1 alone over 100 mill given to farmers by state
• Farming became increasingly mechanised and highly efficient + prod. continued to rise

Question 12

Expansion of education

Answer 12

1. 6k new school built + 11 new uni’s
2. Existing uni’s encouraged to expand
3. Introduced Colleges of Advanced Tech
4. 1963 -> Robbins Report on higher education recommended doubling of uni places over next 10 years
5. Cons. supported grammar schools _ prevented county councils from intro comprehensive systems but by 1963 recognised advantages of comprehensive

Question 13

Other achievements

Answer 13

1. Opening of first motorway 1959

2. Ministry of Science 1962

Question 14

Outline the scandal of John Vassal

Answer 14

October 1962, clerk at the Admiralty found guilty of spying for Russians -> blackmailed because he was a homosexual suspected that 2 gov. ministers attempted a cover-up

Question 15

Minister of War scandal

Answer 15

John Profumo -> June 1963, emerged that he was having an affair with a call-girl Christine Keeler who was associating with a Russian naval attaché -> Profumo lied to H of C denying affair -> truth came out Profumo forced to resign. Wilson attacked Macmillan for not treating matter seriously at the outset

Question 16

Why was there resentment about how Lord Home was chosen?

Answer 16

1. Not one of the three main candidates for succession of Macmillan. Depended on the preference of retiring leader Macmillan.
2. Resigned his peerage and became PM after ‘consultations’ but the way he was chosen compared unfavourably with Wilson’s straightforward election as Labour leader.
3. Enoch Powell and Iain Macleod refused to serve in Home’s party. -> not the man to unify the party
4. Labour attacked Home’s aristocratic background + lack of experience in Commons and remoteness from ordinary people => unsuitable for leadership of the country

Question 17

Why did Wilson become a better choice?

Answer 17

1. Able to unify Labour party after Gaitskell’s leadership
2. Revitalised the party, presented an attractive programme of improved welfare services, mdoernisation and planning of economy
3. Stressed the need for gov. to sponsor scientific and technological development as well as managerial rev. so GB could catch up with USA + Jap

Question 18

Why do some historians see the Conservative gov. of these years as ‘the thirteen wasted years’?

Answer 18

Full of missed opportunities, stop-go policies hindered economic development, failure to enter EEC at the outset in 1957, 1962-3 concentrated too much on GB’s special relationship with USA