Macmillan 1957-63 Flashcards
How did Macmillan strengthen the party
After the Suez crisis he helped them recover with remarkable speed. He restored party unity.
What majority did Macmillan win in the 1959 election?
100
How did the budget impact the economy?
- Boosted the economy
- Income and purchase tax were reduced
Why was Macmillan popular?
- Restored unity
- Used TV to boost appeal
- Appointed impressive younger talents to the Cabinet
- Committed to the consensus
- Oversaw building of 300,000 homes a year as housing minister under Churchill
- Was an MP in the North East during depression which had an enormous impact on him; he never wanted to see Britain fall back into ‘impoverishment and demoralisation’.
How did Attlee describe Macmillan?
As a ‘real LW radical in his social, human and economic thinking’.
What did the 1957 Life Peers Act do?
Appointed rather than inherited peers; women entered the Lords for the first time.
What did the 1957 Homicide Act do?
Began abolition of the death penalty. It was a response to controversial hangings like Ruth Ellis - the last woman to be hanged in Britain.
What were his desires?
- Keep labours progress
- Respected cross party consensus
- Keep unemployment low
- Take the tories left
- Restore party morale after Suez (new charismatic leader)
What did the 1957 Rent Act do?
Allowed landlords to charge higher rent to improve property. Labour criticised this and 250,000 homes moved to buy.
What was employment like under him?
Full employment - he commented that Britain had ‘never had it so good’.
What was his foreign policy like?
He improved British-US relations and supervised foreign policy himself in meetings with Kennedy, Eisenhower and Krushchev.
By 1963 what had happened that negatively impact the government’s success?
The economy stagnated. Chancellor’s failed to stimulate growth and balance of payments without causing inflation.
What did his government fail to address?
Industrial decline and used stop-go policies instead.
What was Britain isolated from and why?
The EEC - the 1962 Nassua agreement with the USA upset de Gaulle so excluded them from the EEC
(Britain applied to join the EEC in 1961, making Macmillan the first PM to apply to join the EEC. But unfortunately, Britain’s application was rejected by the French president Charles de Gaulle, who believed that Britain’s membership would diminish France’s own role within the EEC. This was seen as a huge failure on the part of Macmillan)
What was the wind of change speech?
1960 (The speech related mainly to the separation of Britain from its South African colonies (decolonisation), but it also referred to discontent with the system of apartheid, and held positive results for the British government. It’s where he got the name ‘SuperMac’)
What was the night of the long knives?
1962 (a major Cabinet reshuffle that took place on 13 July 1962. Prime Minister Macmillan dismissed seven members of his Cabinet, one-third of the total, including his Chancellor the the Exchequer)
What was the Profumo affair?
1963 (John Profumo, British Secretary of State for War, began an affair with a prostitute Christine Keeler, 19, one of her other clients was a Russian Spy and it was fear that information was being passed. This led to the resignation of Macmillan as people believe he couldn’t control his cabinet, let alone the country.
Society under Macmillan
- ‘Never had it so good’
- Permissive society - reduction of censorship, the general change of attitude
- Mary Whitehouse believed it exposed children to more sex and violence.
- ‘The Age of Affluence’: Time of economic growth: increase in the average wages/high housing rates/high standards of living
- Women - higher status, more free time due to household appliances. 1/10 were now professional workers
- Young people - ‘Youth subculture’ emergence of mods and rockers and they had more free time
- Race/Immigration - Needed to fill post-war Labour shortage, this caused friction (lower wage than white people). Notting hill race riots caused by the housing shortages crisis.
When did Macmillan resign?
October 1963.
