Key Vocabulary Flashcards
First-Past-The-Post
A voting system whereby the candidate with the most votes in each constituency wins a seat in Parliament.
Great Depression
Started in the USA with the Wall Street crash when the value of shares on the stock exchange collapsed, economic activity was reduced across the world which led to mass unemployment in the 1930s- In Britain unemployment affected 25% of the workforce
One Nation Conservative
Believes that all classes in society have obligations to one another and that there is a particular responsibility for those who are better off to ensure the well being of those who are worse off.
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Government minister responsible for economic and financial policy, the chancellor is often the most powerful person in the government after the Prime minister .
Appeasement
A policy of making concessions in order to avoid conflict, In the 1930s the British Government had aimed to prevent war with the Nazis by following this policy but failed.
Unilateral Nuclear Disarmament
The policy of removing the use and procession of nuclear weapons without waiting for any international consultation or agreement
Nationalisation
State ownership of key industries; the demand for state to control had been a central principle of the labour party from its beginning.
Bevenite
People who support Nye Bevin
CND
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, founded in 1958
Unilateralists
People who want Britain to give up Nuclear Weapons independently.
Productivity
efficiency i.e. getting more produced per worker, per shift, per hourly wage. In this way costs are reduced, profits are increased and workers are freed up for other uses.
Inflation
The increase in the price of goods and services which occurs when people have more money to spend than there are goods Some inflation can help an economy because it encourages manufacturers to expand businesses and employ more people, but too much can lead to an economy overheating as workers demand, higher wages.
Deflation
fall in the price of goods and services. Inflation controls that curb spending such as freezing wage rises, increasing taxation or making boring harder so the goods can not be bought on credit bring down prices. can lead to unemployment.
Stop- Go economics
the economics of stop go derived its name from the tensions between an expanding economy with low investment rates and consumer spending ‘go’ and the results of the economy overheating with wages and imports exceeding productivity and exports, necessitating a deliberate slowing down, or deflation of economy ‘Stop’
Balance of trade
the difference between the goods and country imports and exports. More imports than exports- trade deficit. More exports than imports- trade surplus.
Balance of payments
Includes invisible imports and exports i.e. services like shipping and banking. Balance of trade is part of balance of payments.
Run on the pound
A rapid fall in value of pound in international currency markets, especially in relation to US dollar.
Festival of Britain
Held a century after the great exhibition of 1851, intended to mark Britains recovery from the war and to look forward to the future celebrating new design, culture and industry.
Baby boom
in the years after the end of the Second World War there was a rise in the number of babies born, those born between 1946 and 1964 are usually seen as the baby boomers.
Infrastructure
the physical environment of a modern developed society including the network of communications such as roads, railways, airports and telecommunications, the industrial base, the public buildings, the schools and the housing stock.
Council houses
houses built by local authorities to house the working class, often replace slums; rents tended to be lower than in privately rented accommodation
Butlins
Chain of holiday camps founded by Billy Butlin in 1936, camps built at popular seaside resorts like Skegness, Clacton and Blackpool; guests stayed in chalets and entertainment and activities were provided.
Family Allowances
A weekly benefits paid for each child in a family; it was renamed child benefit in 1977
New commonwealth
Those countries which had recently gained independence, India, Pakistan and West Indies and so on, as compared to the old commonwealth countries such as Australia, NewZealand, Canada and South Africa; the term became a useful, indirect way of differentiating between nonwhite and white population
Repatriation
Returning someone to their place of origin
National service
This Conscripted young men for 2 years in military uniform, it was introduced in 1947 and lasted until 1960
Arguments for comprehensive system
-selection process such as 11 plus exams was psychologically dubious and unreliable
-greater share of public money went to top tier schools leaving lower tiers impoverished
-bright pupils performed as well academically in comprehensive as in grammar schools
Arguments against comprehensive system
-comprehensive schools had denied able students from disadvantaged backgrounds the chance to benefit from a specialist school education fitted to their needs
-since quality of schools dependent on area in which they were situated, there was no alternative in a deprived area to a poor comprehensive now that grammar schools were being abolished
-wealthy parents had choice of moving to a better area so that their children could go to a better comprehensive school. Poorer parents had no such choice. The result was not therefore greater educational fairness and opportunity but less. Selection by ability replaced by selection according to parental income.
The establishment
- Refers not to a specific social class but to those individuals or groups whose background and status or control of the media gave them the means to influence government policy and shape public opinion and attitudes. Conservative Party were seen to be run by the establishment.
Social mobility
- individuals and households moving between the perceived class system. This increased in the 1950s due to the economic boom.
Deference
polite submission and respect to those considered superior.
