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History Alevel > Knowledge organiser 1: political 1951-64 > Flashcards

Knowledge organiser 1: political 1951-64 Flashcards

1
Q

Winston Churchill?

A

He was a British, orator, and author who was prime minister from 1951-55. He led the British people during World War 2 and led his country through the brink of defeat to victory.

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2
Q

Anthony Eden?

A

He was a British foreign secretary in 1935-38, 1940-45, and 1951-55, he was also prime minister from 1955 to 1957.

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3
Q

Harold Macmillan?

A

He was a British politician who was prime minister from January 1957 to October 1963. He sat in the house of commons from 1924-29 and 1931-64.

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4
Q

Alec Douglas Home?

A

was Prime minister from only 1963-64, but he oversaw the abolition of resale price maintenance and took a tough stance in dealing with the trade unions

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5
Q

Clement Attlee?

A

He served as Prime Minister between 1945 to 1951. As Prime Minister, he enlarged and improved social services and the public sector in post-war Britain.

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6
Q

Hugh Gaitskell?

A

A British leader of the labour party, was also the leader of the opposition from 1955 until 1963.

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7
Q

Nye Bevan

A

A Welsh labour party politician, noted for tenure as minister of health in Attlee’s government. He spearheaded the creation of the NHS.

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8
Q

Anthony Crosland

A

Was a labour party politician and author. A social democrat on the right wing of the labour party, with his influential book ‘the future of socialism’.

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9
Q

Harold Wilson

A

Was a labour party politician who was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1964-70 and 1974-76.

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10
Q

John Vassall

A

A British civil servant who spied for the Soviet Union, due to being under pressure from blackmail. He was sentenced to 15 years to jail.

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11
Q

Kim Philby

A

Was a British intelligence officer until 1951 and the most successful soviet double agent of the cold war period.

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12
Q

John Profumo

A

Was a British politician and philanthropist who was the central character in one if the UK’s most spectacular sex scandal of the 20th century, which led to the downfall of the British government and led to Profumo devoting his life to charity.

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13
Q

Christine Keeler

A

Was an English model who was one of the central figures in the Profumo affair, contributed to the collapse of the conservative government of Harold Macmillan.

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14
Q

Stephen Ward

A

Was an English osteopath and artist who was one of the central figures in the Profumo affair, a British political scandal which brought the resignation of John Profumo and contributed to the defeat of the conservative government.

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15
Q

Captain Ivanov

A

Also known as Eugene Ivanov, was a naval attaché at the soviet embassy in London during the early 1960s. His affair with Keeler resulted in another of her lovers, John Profumo.

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16
Q

Duchess of Argyll

A

married and divorced the Duke of Argyll in 1951 and 1963 due to her infidelity

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17
Q

Duncan Sandys

A

A British politician and minister in successive Conservative governments in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a son-in-law of Winston Churchill and played a key role in promoting European unity after World War II.

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18
Q

Charles de Gaulle

A

was a French military officer and statesman who led the Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 to restore democracy in France.

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19
Q

Ruth Ellis

A

Was a Welsh nightclub hostess and convicted murderer who became the last women to be executed in the United Kingdom following the fatal shooting of her lover, David Blakely.

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20
Q

Lord Nuffield

A

was an English motor manufacturer, philanthropist and prominent financier of the British fascist movement.

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21
Q

Dr. Beeching

A

was a physicist and engineer who for a short but very notable time was chairman of British Railways.

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22
Q

Ernest Marples

A

was a British Conservative politician who served as Postmaster General (1957–59) and Minister of Transport (1959–64).

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23
Q

Backbenchers

A

are MPs or members of the house of Lords that are neither government ministers nor opposition shadow spokespeople.

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23
Q

Front Bench

A

either a government minister or an opposition shadow spokesperson, they occupy the front benches.

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24
Q

Cabinet

A

A team of 20 or so most senior ministers in the government who are chosen by the Prime minister to lead specific policy areas such as health transport, foreign affairs, or defence.

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25
Q

Constituency

A

the specific geographical area that is represented by each MP in the House of Commons.

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26
Q

General election

A

when the voters of the country cast their votes to elect members of parliament to the house of commons

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27
Q

Chancellor of Exchequers

A

the government’s chief finance minister and one of the most senior members of the cabinet. They set levels of taxation and public spending and announce the changes to these each year in an annual budget statement.

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28
Q

Foreign Secretary

A

has overall responsibility for all foreign, commonwealth and development office business.

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29
Q

Home secretary

A

a senior minister of the crown in the government of the United Kingdom and the head of the home office, they handle anything to do with Britain’s at home affairs.

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30
Q

Chief Whip

A

responsible for administering the whipping system ensures that members of the party attend and vote in parliament as the party leadership desires.

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31
Q

White paper

A

a policy document produced by the government that sets out their proposals for future legislation. They are often published as command papers and may include a draft version of the bill that is being planned.

32
Q

Beveridge’s Report

A

William Beveridge was a social economist, who made the report to tackle the five giants (idleness, ignorance, disease, squalor, and want), as well as to provide free health services, which influences Attlee’s government.

33
Q

Welfare state

A

a form of government in which the state protects and promotes the economic and social wellbeing of its citizens and is based upon the principle of equal opportunity.

34
Q

National Insurance Act, 1946

A

Provided compulsory insurance against industrial injuries act. This provided compulsory insurance against industrial injury for all employees.

35
Q

National Health Service, 1948

A

provided an establishment of a comprehensive health service for England and Wales. The act allowed the services for mental and physical health to be free of charge and brought together a range of medical services in one location.

36
Q

Butler Education Act, 1944

A

aimed to remove inequalities which remained in the school system, putting more ‘free places’ in grammar schools, allowing poorer families to put their children through school.

37
Q

Railway man strike 1954

A

A strike that happened in December, which showed in the weakness of Churchill, and his inability to stop the unions from asking for more from the government.

38
Q

“Setting the people free”

A

set the people of Britain free from the war confined that were still put in place, like food rationing, national identity cards, and high-income tax.

39
Q

“Smack of firm government”

A

originated by Donald McLachlan in the Sunday Telegraph, to criticize the premiership of Anthony Eden.

40
Q

Benzedrine

A

a stimulant drug that can be used for various purposes. Was used by Eden.

41
Q

“Little local difficulty”

A

Said by Harold Macmillan at the airport after the resigning of Thorneycroft

42
Q

Rents Act, 1957

A

the act decontrolled the more valuable houses and reintroduced a system of gradual decontrol in a revised form and transforms the method of fixing the maximum rent payable.

43
Q

Beeching report

A

recommended taking an axe to about a third of the train networks (5,000 miles of track and hundreds of branch line, 2,363 stations, and tens of thousands of jobs), to improve bus services that could replace the gone branch lines.

44
Q

Night of the Long Knives

A

Macmillan’s major reshuffle of his major cabinet, dismissing seven members of his cabinet in total, including his best friend Selwyn Lloyd.

45
Q

Supermac

A

a nickname gave to Macmillan, due to a carton published of him in a superhero position, showing what people thought of him as.

46
Q

Supermacbeth

A

a nickname given to Macmillan after the night of the long knives, which showed the slow downfall of his government.

47
Q

Vassal case

A

the finding out of the soviet spy in the British government

48
Q

Philby affair

A

The unmasking of Kim Philby (head of the Soviet section of MI6) as a KGB mole and had fled behind the iron curtain

49
Q

Burgess and Maclean enquiry

A

feeding back thousands of pages of top-secret document from the government back to Moscow, by Burgess and Maclean.

50
Q

Profumo affair

A

an affair between the war secretary and Christine Keeler (who was involved with a Russian spy).

51
Q

Dupe

A

feeling that Macmillan was a fool and easily believed what people were saying.

52
Q

Boothby Factor

A

Made by Lord Boothby, he believed that you should not punish psychological disorders- rather try to cure them. He also advocated of decriminalising homosexual acts between men.

53
Q

The establishment

A

The dominant social group, the elite who control an organisation or institution. Usually a self-selecting , and a small close social class that can exercise all socio-political control.

54
Q

Old school tie network

A

A metaphor used to describe the social and business networks that exist among former students of the same expensive private school

55
Q

Nepotism

A

Practice of giving relatives or friends unfair advantages in a workplace or field

56
Q

Satire

A

The use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticise people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of. Contemporary politics and other topical issues

57
Q

Beyond the Fringe

A

A British comedy stage revue. It debuted at the 1960, and found huge success being regarded as the seminal to the “satire boom”, the rise of satirical comedy in 1960’s Britain

58
Q

That was the week that was

A

A satirical television comedy programme that aired on BBC television in the 1962 and 63.

59
Q

Private eye

A

A British fortnightly satirical and current affairs new magazine, founded in 1961. It founded its fame going after MacMillan after the Profumo Affair

60
Q

Meritocracy

A

A social system in which people get status or rewards because of what they achieve, rather than because of wealth or status

61
Q

White Heat of a technological revolution

A

Harold Wilson’s speech promising to the people of Britain that scientific progress was key to economic and. Social advancement.

62
Q

Bevanites

A

A movement on the left wing of Labour Party in the late 1950, led by Nye Bevan, and were opposed by the Gaitskellites within the same party

63
Q

Expansionists

A

A person or organisation that advocates or a follower of a policy of territorial or economic expansion

64
Q

Gaitskellites

A

A movement led by Hugh Gaitskell, which represented the political right of the Labour Party and were opposed by the Bevanites

65
Q

Consolidation

A

Uniting the Labour Party into one whole party again

66
Q

“Desiccated calculating machine”

A

Founded by Nye Bevan, taking a jab at Gaitskell for not being fit to lead the Labour Party - in his own opinion

67
Q

“Cloth cap image”

A

Image of the Labour Party that made them appear both unattractive and out of date, appearing to still be identified with the working class and. Industrial trade union

68
Q

“Unilateral nuclear disarmament”

A

The act of reducing or eliminating the total number of nuclear weapons within a country, without seeking concessions from other countries, with the end goal of a nuclear-free world

69
Q

“An emotional spasm”

A

A quote from Nye Bevan’s famous speech’s where he denounces unilateral disarmament, and believe doing it would damage Britain, making them weaker

70
Q

Revisionism

A

Reformulating socialist principles, and bring the Labour Party policies up to date with the changing British society and economy

71
Q

“Future of socialism”

A

A 1956 book by Anthony Crosland. It was the most influential books in post-war British Labour Party thinking, and was the seminal work for the ‘revisionist’ school of Labour politics

72
Q

Clause 4

A

Called for common ownership of industries- and was almost taken out in 1959 by Gaitskell, who thought they had no need to keep it

73
Q

Blackpool conference 1959

A

The conference that Gaitskell proposed the abolishment of Labour’s cause 4 - that caused a mass out-lash from both conservatives and Bevanites

74
Q

Scarborough conference 1960

A

A party conference in October 1960, it called for unilateral nuclear disarmament were carried despite Gaitskell’s speech declaring that he and his allies would “fight and fight and fight”

75
Q

“Fight, fight and fight again to save the party we love”

A

Part of Gaitkell’s speech declaring that they have agreed to not go with the unilateral nuclear disarmament.

76
Q

Gaitskell- Bevan Axis

A

During the year 1955-59 Gaitskell made compromises to his policies, making this the most peaceful of Labours years in opposition.

77
Q

Electioneering

A

A politician or political campaigner taking part actively and energetically in a campaign to be elected to public office.

History Alevel (8 decks)

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