Effects of 'total war' & austerity, 1939-51 (4a) Flashcards
What were jobs like?
What were they in?
New jobs because of the government control of Industry. Jobs were in munitions factories and good wages could be demanded because of the power of Unions during the War.
Did any workers go on strike?
What did the government do in response?
The Coal Miners Strike of 1944)
the government had no solution but to meet their demands due to the immediate necessity of fighting and winning the war.
What was Pay like?
Therefore, average pay for the British worker increased during the war.
What effect did rationing have?
Rationing had an immediate effect on diet and actually helped improve the standard of living for most - particularly in poorer areas of the country - due to the fact that the government would supplement the little food there was available with vitamins and minerals.
What impact did rationing have?
The impact of rationing was perhaps best seen by the fact that there was less child death and the longer-term impact of this was possibly the post-war baby boom.
How many births was there after WW2?
In Britain the period after WW2 saw the birth of 1million per year compared to 700,000 - 800,000 during the 1930s.
What effect did the war have on housing?
The immediate effect of the war was devastating on city centres, as people lost their homes and their livelihoods.
What were the long term effects of housing after WW2?
The longer, post-war effect was that the bombing of places like Coventry, Portsmouth and London gave Architects the opportunity to develop more modern town plans.
They followed the Tudor-Walters Report which emphasised space efficiency and the importance of electrified homes that would withstand over time.
What was the Tudor-Walters Report?
Much of this report had been what the “home fit for heroes” initiative after WW1 had hoped to achieve - it took WW2 for it to be realised.
What is Austerity?
Austerity is when the government is receiving more in tax than it is spending
Why did living standards not raise during the years 1945-51?
The Labour government had to maintain Austerity because it made commitments to the building of a Welfare State while at the same time Britain was pretty much bankrupted by the war. T
he UK had $4 billion of debt to America, now the lend lease agreement was over - it needed to start being paid back. .
Where was there not enough investment?
There was not enough sensible investment in a peacetime economy because spending on soldiers abroad (in places like Korea) needed to continue.
What did not enough investment lead to?
Therefore, there was an underinvestment in manufacturing and Britain could not build up a competitive industry, relative to manufacturing booms that were taking place in countries like Germany and Japan.
What did rationing divert people from?
People were diverted from consumerism because of continued rationing.
When did rationing end?
What did the Daily mail refer to it as?
Many foods remained rationed until 1951, when Attlee’s Labour introduced bread rationing between 1946-48 the Daily Mail referred to this as the “most unpopular policy in the history of the British isles”.
