Labour and Conservative Govts. 1964-79

Question 1

Reasons for Labour’s ‘64 election victory: Tory Weaknesses

Answer 1

• elitist leaders e.g Douglas Howe alienated the British public who viewed the party as increasingly out of touch, unprogressive and unwilling to modernise
• associated w and blamed for growing economic problems as they seemed unable to effectively deal with unemployment, inflation etc
  Thereby tory weaknesses helped to undermine the opposition as the party’s image was damaged

Question 2

Reasons for Labour’s ‘64 election victory: Labour Strengths

Answer 2

• progressive image countered everything the Tories weren’t, aligning labour with public opinion of the time

Therefore despite labour appearing as a stronger candidate for the election was more of a rejection of the tories.

Question 3

Reasons for Labour’s ‘64 election victory: External reasons

Answer 3

• the revival of the Liberal party = could contest Tory seats as the party doubled their votes helping labour to secure a victory
  The emergence of the liberals meant that tories had greater opposition so even if labour wasn’t highly voted for it could still steal tory seats.

Question 4

Evidence of econ strengths under Labour

Answer 4

• an era of full employment and rising real wages
• inflation mostly benign
• House & car ownership increased

Question 5

Evidence of econ weakness under Labour

Answer 5

• devaluing the pound = increased inflation

Question 6

What elements of the UK’s economy were out of Labour’s control?

Answer 6

• Br. was left with enormous post ww2 debts worth approx. 200% of the GDP making it highly reliant on the US for financial aid

Question 7

Define balance of payments

Answer 7

more spent on imports than exports = b.o.p is in deficit.
BOP is a key indicator of effectiveness of econ policy .

Question 8

Deflation - successes

Question 9

Deflation failures

Question 12

Failures of Labour 1974 - 79: Industrial relations

Answer 12

• diplomatically inept & ignorant of Br. public’s plight
• exacerbated tensions which erupted in WOD - public thought
• unable to reach a resolution
  However: merely a reaction to poor economic climate and the ‘straw that broke the camels back’

Question 13

Economy

Answer 13

• highlighted inefficiency of Govt.
• inflation rose to 20%
• economic slump & unemployment at 1.3 million in ‘76
• £3.9 bil IMF loan saw £2 mil slashed from public spending
  Ultimately the greatest failure - poor economic climate = soc & industrial tensions + political instability

Question 14

What was the Social Contract?

Answer 14

an agreement between the govt. & trade unions that pay restraint would be conditional on the introduction of social reforms for union members

Question 15

Political instability

Answer 15

• Lib-Lab pact in ‘74 - weak as reliant on other party to prop up govt. - had only won by a 3 seat majority - public alr lacked faith in govt.
• divisions between Left & Right (Benn & Foot) - these weren’t as polarising as the 50s