Exam question on the weaknesses of Labour government as an important factor in conservative domination?

Question 1

Quote from Macmillan speech in Africa 1858?

Answer 1

‘wind of change’

Question 2

Allen arguments against wind of change?

Answer 2

Suez canal not forgotten, only occurred 2 years earlier.
Imperialist Britain

Question 3

Macmillan’s cabinet?

Answer 3

• 35 out of 85 were related to Macmillan by marriage
• 2/7 cabinet members didn’t go to private school

Question 4

Who said ‘thirteen years wasted’?

Answer 4

Harold Wilson

Question 5

World trade decrease between 1951 and 1964?

Answer 5

25% to 15%

Question 6

World trade increase between 1951 and 1964 for Germany?

Answer 6

7% to 20%

Question 7

Churchill’s appeals during 1951 election?

Answer 7

• Industrialisation of the coal and steel industries
• Promised ‘more red meat’ opposing rations
• Launched programme to build 300,000 homes per year. Labour only building 200,000 per year.

Question 8

What did people associate Labour party with?

Answer 8

• Economic strain of the Korean War (Ended 1953)
• Austistery, high taxation and tariffs (Butler suggested higher interest and not taxes)

Question 9

Churchill’s interaction with the post-war consensus?

Answer 9

All ministers who did not agree with the post-war consensus were dismissed.

Question 10

Bevan’s strategic capabilities?

Answer 10

• Homicide Act 1957
• Education Act 1944
• ‘give-away’ budget (£134 million in tax cuts)

‘greatest social revolution in our history’ post war consensus

Question 11

Results of 1955 elections?

Answer 11

Conservative: 49.7%
Labour: 46.4%

Question 12

Lord Halisham view of Eden as PM?

Answer 12

‘a prime minister who represented contemporary manhood, rather than the pre-First World War generation’

Question 13

Percentage of votes in 1951 elections?

Answer 13

Conservatives: 48.0%
Labour: 48.8%

Question 14

How many homes did Conservatives build?

Answer 14

1.7 million
354,000

44% of people owned property in 1964

Question 15

Economic problems under the conservatives?

Answer 15

‘stop-go’ policies
Consequently, unemployment reached 800,000 by 1963

Question 16

Mac The Knife

Answer 16

Night of The Long Knives
- Resuffle in cabinet due to age of his ministers (in comparison to the Labour Party)
- 1/3rd ministers removed.
Orpington = Liberals overturned conservative domination with 14,000 against 7,000.
West Middleobrough = Previous Conservative safe seat

Question 17

Lloyd historian view of Night of Long Knives?

Answer 17

• ‘Macmillan did not possess either claim to authority after ministerial changes’

Question 18

Social failures under conservatives?

Answer 18

Adelman: ‘coup de grace to the Conservative Party’ (scandals)
Yet it was a year later that Conservative government was removed.
- Macmillan’s lack of control evident in Profumo as he lied in House of Commons

Question 19

‘In Place of Fear’ by Nye Bevan 1952

Answer 19

• ‘central principles of socialism is the substitution of public for private ownership’

Question 20

Bevan’s views on EEC?

Answer 20

‘Are we now expected to go back almost a century’

Question 21

Role of Unions - opinions in left party?

Answer 21

Bevanites - unions have a large role in party policy
Moderates - parliamentary party not unions

Question 22

Effects of Nuclear debates in Labour party?

Answer 22

• Divisions materialised at 1955 (Gaitskell defeated Bevan for leadership)
• Gaitskell argued that left had weakened the party with its unilateralist views.