pre course 1945-1951

Question 1

Election

Answer 1

• Churchill called election
• results were sensational for labour because:
  • The promise of social reforms on the Beveridge report
  • Labours experience in the wartime coalition
  • The overwhelming support of the military for labour
  • Poor conservative election campaign

Question 2

Labour Government

Answer 2

• Prime minister: Clement Atlee

- Foreign Secretary: Ernest Bevin

Question 3

Beveridge report

Answer 3

• Presented by William Beveridge ( senior civil servant) in 1942 to establish welfare for the people
• The report was welcomed by all parties at first and there was an agreement of social reconstruction (shaping society to provide protection and opportunity for all citizens)
• showed how much ground had been made in Britain by principle of collectivism (the people and state acting together with common sense of purpose)
• evidence of socialism (movement and creation of social equality)
  – Beveridge’s proposal implemented and a system all governments after 1951 accepted

Question 4

The five giants:

Answer 4

• WANT – to be ended by national insurance
• DISEASE – to be ended by comprehensive health care
• IGNORANCE – to be ended by an effective education system
• SQUALOR – to be ended by slum clearance and rehousing
• IDLENESS- to be ended by full employment

Question 5

Atlee’s solutions:

Answer 5

• 1944: Education act and family allowances – a weekly payment of 5 shillings for every child after the first. (introduced before labour but Atlee implemented)
• 1946: national insurance act – covered employment, sickness, maternity expenses, widowhood and retirement
• 1948: national assistance act and industrial injuries act
• 1948: The national health insurance act

Question 6

NHS

Answer 6

• Labours biggest achievement in the welfare state
• Bevan spent 2 years negotiating people who opposed the NHS
• Doctors formed strongest opposition but Bevan was charming and gave them money to win them over
• Churchill believed the NHS was the first step to turn Britain ‘into a national socialist economy’ < use of Nazi words so people will link NHS to the Nazis and not support the NHS. Not successful.

Question 7

Keynesian Economics

Answer 7

John Maynard Keynes – known for his economic theories (Keynesian economics)

(Government intervention in economy) - When the economy begins going up, they intervene to bring it up slightly back down. When it goes too far down, they will intervene to bring it back up.

“Watch human behaviour and counterbalance it”

• A basic approach followed by all governments after 1951
• When economy begins to go up, they raise taxes causing prices to increase therefore spending falls.
• Raising interest rates causing spending to fall
• When economy goes up, they reduce taxes causing prices to fall and spending to increase
• Reducing interest rates causing not many people to want to save money therefore spending goes up

Question 8

Opposite of Keynes – Laissez faire

Answer 8

^ “let the economy be and do not intervene

^ People who agree with this theory are Adam Smith and Freidan and Thatcher

Question 9

Nationalisation

Answer 9

• Nationalising – Government owns Industry
• Atlee brings in Clause 4: ‘Labour party strives for nationalisation’
• Atlee nationalizes Bank of England in 1946, Coal and cable and wireless in 1947 and inland transport, electricity and gas in 1948 and iron and steel in 1949.

Question 10

Problems following the war:

Answer 10

• A huge debt of £4198
• Exports of manufacturers had dropped by 60% in wartime
• A balance of payments deficit
• Defence costs – Britain had agreed with the US to increase spending on defence from £2.3 to £4.7 billion.
• Austerity policy – involving rationing continued, controls on wages, increased taxes and restrictions on imports

Question 11

Devaluation

Answer 11

USA and Canada lent Britain 6000 million allowing a basis for industrial recovery

Question 12

Foreign policy

Answer 12

• Britain became one of the big 5 members of the united nations security council
• Dedicated to Bevin – committed to anti-colonialism and decolonisation
• Indian dependence granted
• Britain became a nuclear power
• Britain choose to side with USA in the cold war and declined to formally be in Europe
• Britain was a founding member of NATO
• Britain entered the Korean war as part of a united nations force

Question 13

Indian independence significance

Answer 13

• Motivated by sense of morality and knowledge that Britain could no longer afford the costs of maintenance
• Hugely significant because it marked a point at which Britain began to dismantle its empire and set in train a process of decolonisation (the granting of independence by Britain to majority of its colonies) that all governments would follow.

Question 14

Labour Legacy

Answer 14

• The welfare state implemented of the Beveridge report
• A Keynesian approach to economy
• Nationalisation
• Pro-US and anti - soviet stance (foreign policy)
• colonial policies on the principle of independence for Britain’s former colonies