Postwar Politics - Historiography Flashcards
1
Q
Thorpe (1945-51) (2)
A
- Tories recovered quickly by closing party ranks in the post-45 climate
- Agreed narrative of wartime sacrifice against socialist self-interest
2
Q
Addison (1945-51) (6)
A
- War engaged in state planning for centralisation of wartime production.
- Interwar period did not see radical experiments like in USA
- Main causes of poverty - family size increase, real wage static.
- “Labour broke in and took office”
- Tories adopted Labour agenda - Labour intelligentsia gave non-socialist reasoning for actions which were compatible with Toryism.
- Road to 45 concerning the nature of conensus.
3
Q
Zweiniger-Bargielowska (1945-51) (6)
A
- Labour’s defeat in 1951 due to government fatigue, redistribution (Tory 35 seat bias), and Liberal disintegration.
- Labour victory in 1945 - poor Tory campaign, People’s war, interwar memory
- Industrial Charter 1947 significant to Tories.
- Discontent with shortages - bread and potato rationing 46-48 deeply controversial. 1947 v. Bad - Dalton Annus Horrendous. Hit middle class hardest. British Housewives League symbolising discontent.
- Gallup Polls - 1947 show public swing to right. 1947 - food and basic petrol by-election. Right focus on liberties took nostrum of liberals.
- Tories more economic with campaigning - Conservative success in 1951 was based on recapturing middle-class waverers, attracting stranded Liberals, and generally making inroads in areas where conversions mattered most. 6 categories of seat - focus on marginals
4
Q
Cole (1945-51)
A
1) 1949 - Labour was essentially operating along Keynesian, and hence, Liberal, lines; it was not Socialism.
5
Q
Barnett (1945-51) (3)
A
- New Jerusalem missed every opportunity to modernise the economy. Looked like 1990s Russia - power over-stretched, queues for basic foodstuffs, planners galore, industrial obsolescence.
- Labour’s three issues: - Thinking it was a world power still - Underwriting the Sterling era instead of repudiating Britain’s Sterling balances. - Instead of modernising infrastructure, wasting time on NHS.
- Comparisons to Germany were devoid of the contextual exceptionalism of the German situation.
6
Q
Field (1945-51) (4)
A
- Expansion of the unions was not as important as the growth in union assertiveness and confidence - recovery from 1926 blunder.
- Labour pursued a form of tribal loyalty through ending regional unemployment, raising living standards and revolutionising social expectations.
- Savage and Miles - working class - homogenous communities in enclaves during interwar period WWII deepened a sense of class identity and reshape do class relations in important ways
7
Q
Middleton (1945-1951) (4)
A
- The intention/ pitch of nationalisation was on the premise of greater efficiency - this was arguably not achieved through coal, which did not return the projected gains nationalisation had predicted.
- Nationalisationw was, however, beneficial to workers - miners secured better wages, security and union rights. This did not however appeal to Middle England.
- Planning, if not dead, was particularly weak in 1951
- British postwar performance severely dented by Korea. Rearmament costly + imposed restrictions.
8
Q
Tiratsoo (1945-51) (3)
A
- Churchill was a great war leader but a terrible Party leader.
- This reflected in a distinct lack of domestic policy emerging from the Party, where Labour had an active intelligentsia which was gaining ground on the electorate.
- Revisionist argument - war not inevitable - Charmley - Churchill needed the war more than the war needed churchill
9
Q
Fielding (1945-51) (9)
A
- Labour’s accent lies in the people’s war against the Axis.
- People were radicalised, leading to the collapse of traditional class, leading to the upsurge of a new social order.
- Evacuation at the rediscovery of poverty in England, as town people met middle-class.
- ABCA- suggests instilled socialist values on soldiers. Highly overinflated.
- Tories went into “cold storage” during war. Members were either acquiescent or disengaged.
- Labour argued for the failing of private enterprise – tied with Tories. Tories countered with support for entrepreneurial spirit.
- Tories used personal appeal of Churchill to gain support. Failings – Gestapo speech, 220,000 houses pledge (not enough). Socialist thinkers like JB Priestley given platform not otherwise present.
- “The General Election of 1945 was no manifestation of a politically conscious electorate setting up machinery for a changed order of society. At its best, it was no more than a profound distrust of the old political setup… At its worst it was a cynical hope that change might, perhaps, be for the better …. A vast body of opinion still looks to Tory politics and Tory politicians for satisfactory government.”
- Something went wrong during 45-51 – not policy, but electorate misinterpretation. Labour felt ethical socialism was acceptable due to wartime experience. In 1945, most wanted return to prewar conditions. Let us face the future – practical reforms accepted, no wish to accept ethical change.
10
Q
Strike volatility 1940-44
A
- Strikes went from 922 to over 2000 between 1940 and 1944.
- Short - less than a week, in four generally tempestuous industries (coal, ship-building, metals, engineering)
11
Q
Gender structure of 45 voting
A
- 65% of working-class men but only 52% of the female counterparts had voted for Attlee.
- Legacy of longer term political organisations?
12
Q
Class structure ‘45 voting
A
- Middle class sympathies had swung to Labour, but not dramatically so.
- It mainly attracted the lower of the middle class.
- Only about 10% of top business people and 15% of higher professionals were Labour supporters
13
Q
How many Conservatives were in war work as of 1944?
A
313
14
Q
How many controls and statutory laws under Attlee?
A
25,000 controls , 13,551 new statutory rules
15
Q
List some policies in Dalton’s budget?
A
- Dalton’s first budget - surtax on incomes +£2500 PA, and on incomes over £20,000, the rate went up to 10s 6d in the pound from 9s 6d
- Labour effectively put a ceiling on post-tax income at £6000
16
Q
What motions existed in the party?
A
Foot, Crossman had agitated for a capital levy
17
Q
What are the limitations of the 1951 budget?
A
Property inequality remained unaccounted for in Labour’s 1951 budget
18
Q
What did favourable economic conditions allow in Tory administration
A
“the British people earning, eating, producing, buying, building, growing and saving moe than they ever did under the socialists”
19
Q
What organisation arose to respond to Labour?
A
The United Front Against Socialism
20
Q
What was included in the New Tamworth Manifesto?
A
“an assurance that, in the interests of efficiency, full employment and social security, modern Conservatism would maintain strong central guidance over the operation of the economy”
21
Q
Owen
A
- Kavanagh claimed that decolonisation was core issues of the postwar consensus.
- Darwin - post 1945 foreign policy was unplanned and inconsistent. At same time as dispensing power to India, Paki, Burma and Ceylon, was also imposing new generation in Malaya and intensified penetration into tropical Africa. war saw ruthless state planning for efficiency + from 1940 onwards, egalitarianism and community feeling - brought by the ration book - Addison - more powerful than the propaganda of the left
22
Q
Ellison
A
- 1940s settlement was ‘Keynes-plus-modified-capitalism-plus-welfare-state’
23
Q
What was the Let Us Face the Future plan?
A
Let us face the future - commitment to 20% of total economy under public ownership. 1949 ‘Labour believes in Britain’ alongside 1950 ‘Labour and the New Society’ - credit public ownership programme to the success of Labour
24
Q
Jones - why does consensus exist?
A
- Consensus born more so to emphasise the differences from Heath to Thatcher. Butler – humanised capitalism.
- 3 groups on Beveridge:
- Authoritarian - believed in adopting Beveridge
- Tory - complacent
- Liberal - believed led to Road to Serfdom (Hayek) - market should take it from here - Hogg - poverty is a basic of human condition.
- Socialists want poverty and misery to be the lot for the majority
- Education Bill 1944 - consensus par excellence - though Labour was divided over comprehensives and private education: - Moderates behind Gaitskell believed grammar schools and the 11+, though not great equality wise, should remain Left-wing Technocrats wanted abolition of grammar schools
25
Toye
* Planning was not understood universally in the party – division between the thermostatters and the gosplanners
* Stafford Cripps, in the early days of his Chancellorship, continued to promote some aspects of the Gosplanners’ agenda. It concludes that the Attlee government's transition from socialist planning to demand management was a slower and more closely disputed process than has generally been recognised.
26
What's the difference between Gosplanners and Thermostatters?
Gosplanners - hardline socialist (based on soviets) Thermostatters - moderates
27
Tomlinson
* 1950s - Labour enter divide over the nature of corporatism - and its place in party. 1950 - 'in this problem of the relation between Government and private industry we have what is almost a vacuum in Socialist though' shifts in attitude to private corporation...were related to a failure on the part of the party to reconcile some much broader and contradictory ways of thinking about the nature of the firm and of modern capitalist
* First, Labour's desire to raise investment in the private sector was in tension with its hostility to the distributional consequences of large profit
* Second, Labour's adherence to 'big is beautiful' for reasons of economic efficiency was at odds with the perception that big corporations were too powerful.
* Third issue, how to respond to the perceived divorce of ownership and control. inally, in its search for greater efficiency, Labour was torn between the benefits of competition and regulation.
28
Who fought who in cabinet?
Well, lots of people, but chiefly Morrison (right) vs Bevan (left)
29
Bevan's view on the government in later years
Socialist objectives could not be achieved with slim majority
30
Opinion polls 1950
* 12% ahead - Tories
31
Callaghan
* *We used to think that you could spend your way out of a recession and increase employment by cutting taxes and boosting government spending. I tell you in all candour that that option no longer exists, and in so far as it ever did exist, it only worked on each occasion since the war by injecting a bigger dose of inflation into the economy, followed by a higher level of unemployment as the next step*
32
Addison
War saw ruthless state planning for efficiency + from 1940 onwards, egalitarianism and community feeling - brought by the ration book - Addison - more powerful than the propaganda of the left
33
Facts about 1950s Britain
* GDP per capita rose by 40% between 1950 and 1966 Unemployment rarely above 2%
34
What is affluence and what was its impact?
Term dev. by Galbraith to describe US, adopted by Crosland, entered debate around 1960 - stood at precipice of debate on social democracy vs democratic socialism
35
Toye
consensus was a single rhetorical con- struct, but rather that there were a series of competing constructs. On the one hand, the trope of consensus was deployed as a rhetorical tactic, to suggest that one’s opponents did not belong to a wide and established national community of common sense. On the other – well before Thatcher became Tory leader – consensus was portrayed negatively, as a means used by the political establishment to shut out alternative view- points, at the cost of voter apathy.
36
Macmillan vs Keynes
Keynes would have the state do everything, Macmillan far favoured a quasi-partnership with business. "his quasi-partnership between the State and private enterprise lay at the heart of Macmillan’s ‘middle way’ between laissez faire and Socialism, with the State playing an enabling, supportive, and ‘hands-off role except where ‘the failure of private enterprise to meet the new demands of a developing society makes it essential for public authorities to step in’" However, agreed on reorienting the financial capital, and on freeing the government from the deflationary mindset.
37
**Kevin Jefferys - British Politics and Social Policy During the Second World War - *Limited - agrees to consensus!***
What is the thrust of The Road to 1945?
There exists significant continuity between wartime policy and postwar policy
38
**Kevin Jefferys - British Politics and Social Policy During the Second World War - *Limited - agrees to consensus!***
What is the (pretty outdated) view of Jeffrys about the state of party opposition during this period?
The war had produced a middle ground, with a definable 'consensus'. This can be seen in policy continuity from war to peace.
39
**Kevin Jefferys - British Politics and Social Policy During the Second World War - *Limited - agrees to consensus!***
What could be said about attitudes to postwar policy, how can we tell?
Conservatives were allergic to postwar policy - shown through the appointment of Arthur Greewood - Labour - to the post. Only with the Beveridge report did a Ministry of Reconstruction come to the centre stage in Nov 1943.
40
**Kevin Jefferys - British Politics and Social Policy During the Second World War - *Limited - agrees to consensus!***
On the board of reconstruction, what did Lord Woolton (minister) call the process?
'a mixture of conservatism and socialism'
41
**Kevin Jefferys - British Politics and Social Policy During the Second World War - *Limited - agrees to consensus!***
Where can we see lower-level agitation for serious conservative reform?
From Butler, who was convinced that the war had made necessary the creation of an enhanced role for the state while defending the place of individual liberty.
42
**Kevin Jefferys - British Politics and Social Policy During the Second World War - *Limited - agrees to consensus!***
Although Beveridge was not novel, how did he manage to make a sizeable difference on policy?
The successful synthesis and transmission of plans to rationalise the disjointed insurance schemes which existed before the war.
The Beveridge plan proved impossible to ignore, especially as Bracken as Minister of Information had taken it upon himself to encourage the enormous publicity given to its authror
43
**Kevin Jefferys - British Politics and Social Policy During the Second World War - *Limited - agrees to consensus!***
How did Churchill approach the Beveridge bill?
Churchll still hoped to avoid at least delay reform in 1943. Attlee later recorded his view that 'Winston planned to come in as the first post-war Prime Minister and he thought it would be a nice thing to have the Beveridge report to put through as an act of his government.
44
**Kevin Jefferys - British Politics and Social Policy During the Second World War - *Limited - agrees to consensus!***
What is Jefferys position on the existence of a coalition government during this time?
* Coalition, and the experience of war, made policies which were not tenable in 1939 tenable by 1945.
* Policy reform was still limited during the period - those resistant to reform still remained influential components of the system
* There existed a balance of coalition forces which prompted compromises which swung in the Conservatives' favour
45
**Kevin Jefferys - British Politics and Social Policy During the Second World War - *Limited - agrees to consensus!***
Where does Jeffrys acknowledge the failiings of consensus?
* Labour endorsed coalition proposals largely for tactical purposes:
* first 2yrs had shown the futility of pressing policies openly
* belief in Tory victory postwar led many to believe that groundwork had to be done during the war
* The rallying call for Labour was still the demand for a welfare state - with the policy stances of pre-war remaining largely unaltered.
46
**Kevin Jefferys - British Politics and Social Policy During the Second World War - *Limited - agrees to consensus!***
Why did the Tories not prepare more for the 1945 election?
* The Tories thought election postwar was inevitable, as such, did not contemplate anything more than a superficial change of course on welfare issues.
47
**Jose Harris - Enterprise and Welfare States: A Comparative Perspective**
How, to Harris, has the history of enterprise and the welfare state occurred?
* Immediate postwar: Battle of alturistic administration against vested private interests
* 1960s-Marxist-structuralist thought: symbiosis of welfare and private enterprise. Social policy was not a brake but a tool of industrial capitalism
* 1980s: Administrators as blocking effective enterprise - **Correlli Barnett - The Audit of War** - welfare state as one of the major links in the chain of Britain's post-Second World War national decline.
48
**Jose Harris - Enterprise and Welfare States: A Comparative Perspective**
Who turned to Correlli Barnett as a reputable source for the economy?
* None other than Mr Nigel Lawson
49
**Jose Harris - Enterprise and Welfare States: A Comparative Perspective**
What themes does Barnett draw upon in his study?
* Decline of empire, decline of world power status, slippage from being the 'workshop of the world' to 14th, low domestic investment, weak entrepreneurship and low TFP.
* Britain *threw away the historic moment of reconsturction and recovery at the end of WWII = investing in the welfare state when it should have invested in industry and modernisation*
50
**Jose Harris - Enterprise and Welfare States: A Comparative Perspective**
Who are the primary enemies in Barnett's analysis?
* humanitarian Christians:
* William Beveridge
* Hugh Dalton,
* Harold Laski
* William Temple
51
**Jose Harris - Enterprise and Welfare States: A Comparative Perspective**
Why is Barnett's study limited?
* Ignores the implementation of social states across Europe
* Lack of evidence - fails to draw on the obvious source of European Community evidence and OECD evidence
* Evidence suggests that in 1950, Britain spent less on social security as a percent of GDP than West Germany.
* France and Germany had a fully fledged contributory social insurance system - whereas Britain retained means testing etc. on its provisions.
52
**Jose Harris - Enterprise and Welfare States: A Comparative Perspective**
What are the faws in Barnett's analysis of Beveridge?
* Beveridge was not Christian
* Not a pacifist
* Was an advocate of the 'Prussian' model of government - which Barnett admired
* Beveridge's estimates of welfare benefits were based on facts that deliberately kept provisions to a basic spartan minimum - both to encourage private saving and to maintain the traditional poor law principle of a substantial incentive gap between wages and benefits. - principle of 'less eligibility'
53
**Geoffrey Fry - A Reconsideration of the British General Election of 1935 and the Electoral Revolution of 1945**
When the Conservatives won the election of 1935, what was the level of unemployment?
16.4%
Electoral victory of 53.3%
54
**Geoffrey Fry - A Reconsideration of the British General Election of 1935 and the Electoral Revolution of 1945**
What was the Conservative approach to 1930s economics?
Highly interventionist - introducing several checks to free market economy,
Still tried to attain a balanced budget - according to Gladstonian precepts
55
**Geoffrey Fry - A Reconsideration of the British General Election of 1935 and the Electoral Revolution of 1945**
When can we see the first Keynesian budget?
1941 - however impact on employment was yet to be proven.
## Footnote
*"Jarrow, rather than Coventry, should still be the symbol for a whole decade points to a propaganda victory the Left won not in the thirties but in the forties"*
56
**Geoffrey Fry - A Reconsideration of the British General Election of 1935 and the Electoral Revolution of 1945**
How did the other New Deals fail?
Roosevelt's New Deal - 15mil unemployed in 1933, 11 million by 1937
Swedish New Deal also mythical. 30% unemployment in 1933 to 11% in 1938 (owed to increased exports)
57
**Geoffrey Fry - A Reconsideration of the British General Election of 1935 and the Electoral Revolution of 1945**
How did the image of Russia help the Left?
Rusisa was praised after turning on the Nazis - Red Army Day in 1943
Worked favourably for Labour - Russia was *the* socialist country
58
**Geoffrey Fry - A Reconsideration of the British General Election of 1935 and the Electoral Revolution of 1945**
Notable Labour members in the coalition cabinet?
Ernest Bevin, Herbert Morrison, Attlee
59
**Geoffrey Fry - A Reconsideration of the British General Election of 1935 and the Electoral Revolution of 1945**
Notable Labour members in the coalition cabinet?
Liberals and Conservatives were more fiscally aware of the implications of their policies - Churchill 'the state has no resources of its own. It can only spend what it takes from hte people in taxes or borrowing'
In this sense, it is not unsurprising the electorate fluttered to "a largely cost-free New Jerusalem"
60
**Henry Pelling - The Election of 1945 Reconsidered**
What was the intent of *Let Us Face the Future?*
. It was designed to draw in the uncommitted voter: each proposed measure of nationalization was justified in terms of practical arguments for efficiency
61
**Let Us Face the Future**
What can said about the 1945 manifesto?
- Short
- inclusion of negatives - reminder of the economic malaise which afflicted the Tory admins of 1920s-40s
- Appeased fears of socialism ' programme the investment and development policies of private as well as public industry'
- Populist- 'no more dole queues'
- Jobs for All, Industry in the Service of the Nation, Houses and the Building Programme, Education and Recreation, Health of the Nation and its children, Social insurance against the rainy day
- "Labour led the fight against the mean and shabby treatment which was the lot of millions while Conservative Governments were in power over long years"
62
what industris were to be nationalised?
- Fuel and power industries: lower charges, prevent waste, research and dev, benefit for other industries
- Public ownership of inland transport - ownership for unification to benefit industry (rail, road, air, canal)
- Public ownership of iron and steel - remove inefficiencies by lowering price
- Public supervision of cartels - reduce anit-competitive action
- Better org of civil service - removal of red tape
63
Tory manifesto
1. - Set up World Organisation/ close with U.S.
2. - Movement of people through Europe
3. - Security for defence programmes
4. - Four Years' Plan - sketchy, but praising of edu gains.
5. - Work - high and stable levels of employment (less populist)
6. - 200,000 new homes
7. - Removal of controls
8. - Central Authority to control coal.
64
Where did Labour make gains during the 1945 election?
The party made progress in Birmingham, the West Midlands, the North East and Liverpool.
65
What did Kenneth O Morgan argue about the election?
"the crucial watershed in the history of the British Labour movement"
66
What does Fieldings' analysis of MO show about the political status of the people?
Fielding et al put lots of weight on evidence from Mass Observation to show that politics was rarely an every-day conversation topic, and conclude that the majority of the population were not politically minded
67
What schemes did Bevin introduce during the war?
Bevan’s policies for centralised planning:
* Barlow scheme for redistribution of industry,
* 1942 Uthwatt scheme for land use and town planning
* 1943 Catering Wages Act
68
What fears of Churchill surfaced during this time?
During the war there also emerged fears about Churchill being ‘unbalanced’, a ‘warmonger’
69
What does Thorpe show about the nature of propaganda aimed at housewives?
The narrative of austerity and controls as conveyed in Conservative propaganda mattered primarily, even only, in certain marginal constituencies and should not be generalised to give an impression that all women (or ‘housewives’) voted Conservative because of this.
70
What happened to the female vote between 1945-51?
the Conservative’s share of the female vote decreased considerably in relation to the male vote from 1945 to 1951 - though varies constituency to constituency
71
What does McKibbin note about the nature of Tory victory via FPTP?
McKibbin notes that if the 1950 election had been fought on the old boundaries, “Labour would have had a majority of about sixty”
72
How much did the vote swing towards the conservatives in 1950?
As Thorpe notes, the average swing against Labour overall was a mere 0.9% and it was the notably “above average swing” in key marginal seats in Lancashire, the Home Counties and East Anglia - where the Conservatives were also the primary benificiaries of Liberal collapse - which won them the election.
73
In the General Election of 1951, what percent of the total vote and with how many seats did the Labour party and Conservative party gain?
Labour: 295 seats, 48.8%
Conservatives: 321 seats, 48.0%
74
Why is Thorpe's argument RE: militant housewives inaccurate?
as Thorpe notes, the thesis that this led to a total collapse in Labour’s female support - i.e. “militant housewives”[1] - cannot be empirically verified seeing that it was Labour support among men that collapsed more from 1945 to 1951, from 55% to 47% as opposed to 46.5% to 43.% for women
## Footnote
[1] A.Thorpe, A History of the Labour Party, (1997), 120.
75
What did the Gallup poll of 1947 find regarding quality of life?
62% preferred life before the war
76
What were the key tenets of Churchill's political message in 1944/45?
"food, home and work"
77
What occurred during the war as a result of Labour activism?
Push of policies - 'halfway towards socialism'
property rights were overridden, wage differentiation narrowed, and income tax was raised to levels so high that it sparked protest from Churchill
78
What needs to be noted about rationing and austerity?
Rationing is a reality, austerity a construct - a piece of political language to justify controls and restraints
79
What is significant about 'the people'?
Language of the people is being used to focus in on the experience of the workers in the discourse of the nation
80
How did class barriers change as a result of war?
Field suggests that they were not reinforced - there was of course more physical interaction between the classes, and was further mediated through the treatment of interclass relationship through media (radio, print, film)
81
What is important to note about the wildcat strikes of the war?
Not immediately obvious that a political agenda was being put forward - after all, Bevin was in control, and the TU and labour leadership was clearly against such action.
82
What is notable about the 1935 election?
60% of the voters did not believe controls could control unemployment
83
What does Lawrence suggest about the 1951 election with regards to economy?
Traditional questions of ‘Leadership’ and hostility to ‘ideology’ were arguably more important than concrete economic issues in 1951 (partly because the Labour party leadership was more firmly in the hands of social democrats than ever after the 1951 resignations).
84
What did Harold Laski observe about the success of Labour in the towns experiencing significant unemployment during the 1930s?
"the failure of labour... to improve its position in the towns was striking"
The town in which *Love on the Dole* was set - Salford - voted conservative in the 1935 election.
85
**John Ramsden - A Party for Earners or for Owners?**
Evidence the fact that the conservatives were not "unanimously hostile to intervention in the economy"
* Rationalisation of the steel industry took place under the auspices of the Bank of England rather than Government, but government intervention was still high
* the 'Morrisonian public corporation' owed a great deal to pre-war examples which had been refoemd by the conservatives - i.e. BBC; alongside the Central Electricity Generating Board 1926, London Passenger Transport Board 1933, BOAC 1939.
86
**John Ramsden - A Party for Earners or for Owners?**
What continued right upto 1939? Describe the Tory agenda for this.
Domestic polciy planning. Tory ambition:
* More advanced social policy
* Commitments to education, mainly in technical field (foreshadowing the Butler Act)
* Family allowance plans - including dependents of insured persons
87
**John Ramsden - A Party for Earners or for Owners?**
Why did the Conservatives declare as financially impossible to achieve in 1939?
Impossible to increase spending on pensions given the inflated level of funding diverted to defence.
## Footnote
*"In effect they had recognised the desriability of various policy advances that are associated with Beveridge or with the Butler Act, but had aso asserted the primacy of national security in 1939; this was not far from Churchilll's 'Victory First' response to the Beveridge report itself, nor indeed the Party's later view of NHS costs in the context of the Korean war of 1951"*
88
**John Ramsden - A Party for Earners or for Owners?**
What prewar experience matches closely the postwar experience in conservative policy?
The Housing Act of 1923 - investing large sums of money in private house-building. In the 1930s, this saw the conservatives preside over the greatest sustained housing boom historically, only surpassed by Macmillan's boom of the 1950s.
89
**John Ramsden - A Party for Earners or for Owners?**
Concerning the Wheatley Housing Bill, what did Chamberlain assert as the motivations behind his actions?
"I am quite certain that the man who owns his own home is generally a good citizen too"
90
**John Ramsden - A Party for Earners or for Owners?**
How did local politicians show in 1926 commitment to the principle of property owning democracy?
"It is a good thing for the people to buy their own houses. They turn Tory directly. We shall go on making Tories and you will be wiped out."
91
**John Ramsden - A Party for Earners or for Owners?**
What are the origins of the term "property owning democracy"?
Rooted in the interwar years experience - from a Spectator article from 1924.
92
**John Ramsden - A Party for Earners or for Owners?**
Why did the war bring about the eclipse and spectacular recovery of the Party organisation?
* The party had already adapted to changing expectations - made the damage of the war more dramatic.
* Party was dependent on a long list of subscribers and large numbers of voluntary fund-raisers to sustain the Central Office and constituency operations. The six-year cessation of operations proved damaging to the cause
* Local constituency associations were mostly out of business by 1943
* Policy machinery vanished
* Completely different to the maintenance of the conservative machinery during WWI.
93
J**ohn Ramsden - A Party for Earners or for Owners?**
Why was recovery of the party organisation spectacular after 1945?
Any recovery post-1945 would have looked spectacular given how far the party had sunk.
* Following 1945-6 shock, reorganisation on lines of Maxwell-fyfe principles, membership accumulated in millions. Membership at 3 million by 1951.
* Leaders of newly revived structures had members with no experience prior to 1939.
94
**John Ramsden - A Party for Earners or for Owners?**
what did the Tories support by 1951?
* NHS
* Full employment
* Guarded reference to industrial policy - pragmatism
95
**John Ramsden - A Party for Earners or for Owners?**
What had overcome Churchill's resistance to policy-making in opposition?
Vociferous demands of the Party rank and file and the result was the Industrial Charter
96
**John Ramsden - A Party for Earners or for Owners?**
How did Butler treat the Tamworth manifesto?
Declared the Tamsworth Manifesto was a historic moment, th likes of Peel's breaking of new ground.
97
**John Ramsden - A Party for Earners or for Owners?**
What was the twofold success of the the *Industrial Charter*?
* As a charter, it could be made into a public relations event to fix the credibility problem with the electorate.
* As a major policy statement, it was permitted room to grow through consultations and resultantly commanded more authority than the 1945 manifesto.
98
**John Ramsden - A Party for Earners or for Owners?**
What was a bigger long-term problem for the Labour than the Conservatives?
The conservative acceptance of nationalisation measures, and the tendency of Labour to defend their measures on the low grounds of pragmatism rather than the high grounds of ideology created bigger problems for Labour than the conservatives.
99
What did the conservatives benefit from in the 1951 pledges?
In not making dangerous commitments other than to Energy and transport bodies set up by Labour, the Conservatives held to the pragmatic line of the Thirties, and left open room to critique the situation in 1955 and 1959 GEs.
100
What did the Conservatives critique in the 1955 and 1959 GEs
Coal, for instance, had been nationalised only because of the industry's weakness, but that continuing large losses reported annually by the National Coal Boardproved that the experiment should not be extended to other more profitable industries
*"Is this the way to run our steel/Which we sell the world over?"*
101
What does Ramsden put forward as a counter-reading of the history of 1924-64?
The period of development between 1924 and 1964 was defined by incremental change, and that it was only in 1965 that the Conservatives began to act really radically with the ideas of implementing a wealth tax to enable a reduction in income tax.
102
**Janet Johnson - Did Organisation Really Matter?**
What is the key element of the argument proposed by Johnson?
Conservative organisation is not as effective as suggested. Not the 'jet-propelled engine' perceived by Labour. Party recovery was certainly pushed for, but results were variable:
* Recruitment of agents was done haphazardly (source: Jean Lucas memoirs)
* Shown in the shortcoming of certified agents in Norwood, Banbury and Gravesend - membership below the average 33% of the vote in the last GE
* Funds were strapped - evidence suggests constituencies could not meet demands (Jean Lucas) - esp. following Maxwell-Fyfe reforms - "weekly jumble sales"
* Grassroots remained an asset to the conservatives.
103
**Janet Johnson - Did Organisation Really Matter?**
Demonstrate the weakness inherent in Banbury and Norwood
* BANBURY: Although returning Conservative MPs with comfortable majorities, the population was massively scattered, which made provision difficult - could not match the active conferences, brains trusts, and discussion groups held elsewhere.
* NORWOOD: Brig Smyth - canvassers and street leader scheme had broke down.
104
**Richard Toye |** From Consensus to the Common Ground - The Rhetoric of the Postwar settlement and its collapse
What is the key thesis outlined in Toye's essay?
* Consensus carried its own contemporaneous meaning, which deviated from historiographical parlence
* To a great degree the use of consensus has been moulded by the notion of a Liberal Consensus in America
* It was far more the case that consensus was deployed as a rhetorical tactic which was used to critique convergence, not praise it
* Generally the use of consensus focused on the key technical content of policy.
105
**Richard Toye |** From Consensus to the Common Ground - The Rhetoric of the Postwar settlement and its collapse
What did Ben Pimlott conclude about consensus in 1988?
* "Consensus" was largely a post-hoc invention that had only become important in Vritish politicla life since Thatcher took office in 1979.
106
**Richard Toye |** From Consensus to the Common Ground - The Rhetoric of the Postwar settlement and its collapse
How did Addison revise the use of consensus in his revised edition of The Road to 1945?
* Consensus is simply too convenient a shorthand to be dispensed with entirely and Addison's use of the more restricted term 'whitehall consensus' is undoubtedly more helpful.
107
**Richard Toye |** From Consensus to the Common Ground - The Rhetoric of the Postwar settlement and its collapse
What was a cack-handed attempt to gain liberal support by Churchill?
* Fall back on the 'some form of Gestapo' line
108
**Richard Toye |** From Consensus to the Common Ground - The Rhetoric of the Postwar settlement and its collapse
What did the Industrial Charter of 1947 represent, according to Toye?
* "the acceptance of a watered-down form of planned economy" which was presumably aimeda t winning Liberal votes, but would not much appeal to genuine believers in planning.
109
**Richard Toye |** From Consensus to the Common Ground - The Rhetoric of the Postwar settlement and its collapse
What is important to remember about Butskellism?
* Satirical invention by the Economist in 1954
* Intent was to use as form of abuse, not evidence of consensus
* Gaitskell - "attempts to identify me with Mr. Butler on every possible occasion... It is hard to believe that this is not a deliberate attempt to "smear" me in the eyes of Labour people"
110
**H. Irving** | The Birth of a Politician: Harold Wilson and the Bonfires of Controls, 1948-49
What was Wilson's position on controls?
Controls wasted manpower and 'featherbedded' inefficient firms by removing competition and establishing quotas based upon pre-war production figures.
111
**H. Irving** | The Birth of a Politician: Harold Wilson and the Bonfires of Controls, 1948-49
What has the work of Zweiniger-Bargielowska concluded?
Controls became a social and political liability that were easily exploited by a resurgent conservative party
112
**H. Irving** | The Birth of a Politician: Harold Wilson and the Bonfires of Controls, 1948-49
How did the conservatives critique controls?
1945 - condemned the "permanent system of bureaucratic controls", claiming it was "abhorrent to the British idea of freedom"
1946 - consumer oriented perspective - threat of bread rationing and housewives
1947 - Tactical Committee collates examples of 'ridiculous controls' that could be used as 'platform ammunition'
1949 - Manifesto - main purpose to "free the productive energies of the nation from the trammels of overbearing state control"
113
**H. IRVING**
How did the Archbishop of York get behind the conservative message?
Cyril Garbett - claimed that the "fog fo petty and irritating restrictions" presented a potential threat to the moral underpinnings of British society. Conservative MP John Boyd-Carpenter seized upon this immediately to point out the socially disastrous impact of planning.
114
**H Irving**
How did the left of Labour respond to the bonfire of controls?
MP Maurice Webb - runned the risk of becoming a 'funeral pyre of social justice".
1950 - Keeping Left - Pamphlet - epidemic of decontrol condemned
115
H Irving
Why were many controls removed?
Because rising prices and a lack of disposable income had led to a slackening of domestic demand. This was true of clothing.
By 1949, over 70% of respondents to the government's social survey believed themselves more constrained by cash than by coupons.
116
What defined the historiography on the history of the Labour party?
Henry Pelling's classic 1961 entry.
117
When was the concept of a state health service established?
1932, accepted in 1934 by the Socialist Medical Association.
118
What did the 1934 *For Socialism and Peace* commit the Labour party to in 1934?
Nationalisation of the land, banking, coal, iron, steel, transport, power and water, as well as establishing a national investment board.
119
What did Hugh Dalton's Practical Socialism for Britain, 1935, conclude?
A revival of the core elements of Fabianism was required, which attacked the position taken by the militant Left. Emphasis on using a national planning agency, an approach that appealed beyond labour.
120
Who were major elements of the 1945 government?
* Clement Attlee - Prime Minister
* Ernest Bevin - Foreign Sec (right of Bevan)
* Aneurin Bevan - Minister of Heatlh
* Herbert Morrison - Deputy PM, Lord President, drafted *Let Us Face the Future.* Temporarily foreign sec.
* Stafford Cripps - 1945-7 President of the Board of Trade, 1947-51 - Chancellor, presiding over Marshall and Convertibility Crisis
* Hugh Dalton - chancellor 1945-7
121
What were the major 'nationalised' industries in 1945-51?
* Coal, following the Bank and Wireless
122
How much did the state control by 1950?
20% of national economy - 2 million workers
123
Why was the nationalisation of coal seen as a failure?
Price fall and production rise not as dramatic as anticipated:
## Footnote
- 1.09 tonnes in 1947 to 1.24 in 1951.
124
What is the picture in the mining industry for workers?
* Bureaucratic expansion looked upon poorly
* Leadership discontented with outcomes
* Contrastingly, Zweiniger Bargielowska argues that better pay, more security and unionism entrenchment was accomplished. Leaders in mining community who were let down, and relatively speaking in terms of influence on policy, these were far more important than rank-and-file miners.
125
What was the prognosis of Hayek's the Road to Serfdom?
* Socialism on par with national socialism - would have disastrous consequences.
* More specifically on planning central direction of economic activity is incompatible; with liberty and that attempts to plan the allocation of resources centrally must either be given up or must lead inexorably down the road of serfdom.
126
What derailed the post-war economic recovery undertaken by Labour?
* The Korean War
* Rearmament was and enormous risk, and the arguments economically seem to have been overborne by what can only be called and emotional desire to impress the Americans on the part of Gaitskell and the majority of the cabine
127
Who wrote *The People's War?*
Angus Calder
128
What are Fielding's arguments about the state of the historiography regarding the Labour government?
* Dominant view - Labour's ascent lies in the 'people's war' against the axis - classes and sexes against. New national purpose - persuaded people of a new need for social reconciliation
* Could not return to the division and waste of the 1930s - labour natural beneficiary of this
* Marxist and feminist retaliation: more overtly political -- fight against fascism with soviets. Women and men working for national good worked well without the capitalist plutocrat.
* By the end of the war, people were radicalised, leading to the collapse of traditional class, leading to the upsurge of a new social order
129
What were pillars of major debate in the 1945-51 period of 'consensus'?
* Education, welfare reform, town planning and industrial policy - major debate
130
Briefly outline labour's fortunes in the 1930s
* Nadir in 1931, however strong recovery - 1.9 million members in 1931 - 2.6 million by 1938.
* Activity levels impressive
* Limited by lack of finance
* Indifference was big in this period - for instance in Ebbw Vale indifference result of "prosperity that the New steel works of Richard Thomas was bringing"
* 1935 - votes in municipal elections @ 50% (pg. 13)
131
132
What, arguably, was the situation with Labour propaganda
“propaganda extending, without a break, from November 1935 to July 1945"
133
By how much did consumption fall between 1938 and 1950?
Even though total consumer spending was back up to prewar levels in 1948, consumption of furniture and other durables, clothing and private motoring fell by 25-75% during the war and only reached 1938 levels in 1950
134
What did the Spectator declare in 1945?
spectator: “sacrifice was no longer necessary or fashionable’ in Dec 1945.
135
When did the split on nationalisation occur?
Nationalisation was desirable by labour since 1943 - Tories responded by stating the Uthwatt Report was unacceptable
(Uthwatt - the public use of land)
