Key Topic 4

Question 1

Why did Labour win the 1945 general election?

Answer 1

Labour won 393 seats to Conservatives 213

• This was because Conservative Party was associated with the Great Depression of 1930s
• in 1945, there was a powerful feeling of the need for reform- the conservatives couldn’t offer this
• Atlee and other Labour leaders became key war-time figures
• ‘Gestapo speech’- where Churchill made a comment that his Labour colleagues were no longer to be trusted
• Labour promised to build more houses than the conservatives

Question 2

What were the Five Evil Giants mentioned in the Beveridge Report?

Answer 2

-Suggested that British people should be protected from the Five Giants: Squalor, Ignorance, Want, Idleness and Disease

Question 3

How was the ‘Want’ Giant supposed to be tackled?

Answer 3

1945 Family Allowances Act
- 5 shillings per week given to mother after birth of first child
1946 National Insurance Act
-Provided many benefits such as unemployment, maternity, sickness and widowers.
1948 National Assistance Act
Covered homeless, disabled and mentally ill

Question 4

How was the ‘Ignorance’ Giant supposed to be tackled?

Answer 4

1944 Education Act

• education divided into primary, secondary and futher,
• Secondary education divided in grammar, technical and modern
• school leaving age 14

Question 5

How was the ‘Squalor’ Giant supposed to be tackled?

Answer 5

1945 Housing Production Executive Act
-One million houses to be built between 1945-51
1946 New Towns Act
-17 towns in England and 5 towns in Scotland to be enlarged

Question 6

How was the ‘Disease’ Giant supposed to be tackled?

Answer 6

1946 National Health Insurance Act (enforced in 1948)

-free medical advice, treatment and care to everyone

Question 7

When was the Beveridge report released?

Answer 7

1st December 1942

Question 8

Reactions to the Beveridge report?

Answer 8

• Within two weeks, 19 out of 20 people had heard of it and 9 out of 10 people wanted it enforced
• Most newspapers except Daily Telegraph welcomed the report

Question 9

When was the National Health Service Act passed and what did it include?

Answer 9

1946
-People could receive all the free advice, care and treatment they needed
-This included drug prescriptions, dental and optical care
-

Question 10

Why did the BMA oppose the NHS?

Answer 10

-Because they didn’t want to become just simple government workers-they wanted their own freedom
-They also feared they would lose money
in Jan 1948, nearly 41000 doctors voted in opposition whilst only 4000 voted for the NHS

Question 11

How did Bevan respond to the doctors?

Answer 11

• He allowed doctors to work in private healthcare as well as public healthcare
• ‘stuffing their mouths with gold’

Question 12

Impact of NHS on people in 1948-1951?

Answer 12

• By Sep 1948, 93 percent of the British population had signed up for the NHS
• During the first year of NHS, it cost £248 million to run which is £140 million more than predicted
• £2 million was set aside to pay for free spectacles which was used within weeks
• BY 1951- it was costing £500 million to run the NHS
• in 1951, the gov. introduced a charge for some dental treatment and prescriptions- this caused Aneurin Bevan to resign