MacMillan Flashcards
Who was MacMillan under Churchill’s and Eden’s government?
Minister of Housing
Foreign secretary/chancellor
Give 2 successful economic policies
Average hours decreased to 43.7 a week
Tax cuts in 1957, 59, 62, and 63
Give 2 economic failures of policy
Unemployment high of 878,000 in 1963
5,798,000 days lost to strikes in 1962
Give a social policy success
The homocide act in 1957 which limited the death penalty and banned prisoner beatings
Give 2 failures in regards to the cabinet
1957 Treasury Team Resignations - 3 members resign over commitment to full employment
1962 - Night of the Long Knives - he sacked a third of his cabinet due to economic difficulties
Describe 2 scandals during MacMillan’s time in office
Vassal Scandal 1962 - during the Cuban Missile Crisis a British spy was blackmailed by the KGB over his homosexuality
Profumo affair 1963 - War minister has an affair with a model who also slept with a Russian spy
Give 2 foreign policy successes
Repaired reputation of Suez Crisis
Supported the US in the Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
Give a failure of foreign policy
Failed to join the EEC
What was the conservative majority after the 1959 election?
101
Give 2 economic reasons why the conservatives won the 1959 election?
The pledge of £350 million in tax cuts
The time of prosperity - 40% of manual workers considered themselves middle class
Give 2 other reasons why the conservatives won the 1959 election
MacMillan appeared confidently in the media and the newspapers with the slogan “life is better with the conservatives”
Labour appeared unrealistic proposing both tax cuts and increased welfare spending
What is the EEC?
Formed in 1957 by a collection named the ‘inner six’ (Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium)
Why did some in Britain not want to join the EEC?
The left was suspicious of the capitalist principles and worried that it would undermine British workers with cheap labour
The right wanted to prioritise the Commonwealth
