Society (+ Domestic Policies) Flashcards
How many women with children under 13 were in work by 2000?
73%
First black minister
Paul Boetang, appointed in 2002
How many women entered parliament after 1997?
Over 100 - they were dubbed the ‘Blair babes’
How much was spent on school?
5.6% of GDP
New Deal Programme
Targeted 17-25 year olds , encouraging them to get jobs
Unemployment
Declined from 39% to 8% throughout Blair’s premiership
What did Britain have in terms of population?
A rapidly ageing one
National Minimum Wage
1999 - starting at £3
Working Tax Credits
introduced to provide an automatic top up to the low incomes of working families - partly inspired by Bill Clinton’s welfare policies
How much did Working Tax Credits put into the pockets of low income workers over eight years? What was a problem that arose in 2003?
£75bn - claimants unsure whether their claims had been processed or not. The british were not as familiar with filing for returns than the american with only 30% doing it
How many people were over 65 by 2006?
10 million - 1/6
Social impact of population shift?
- welfare services are funded by working tax payers however the ageing population meant that the ones who benefitted the most didn’t contribute
- inflation and cost of medical tech meant national insurance payments were high
- increased taxation for working tax payers
Largest ethnic minority
Indians - 984 000 people
How many Muslims were recorded in England?
1.6 million
Arguments for and against immigration?
- for : played a vital role in the economy by taking low paying but essential jobs
- against : they filled vacancies however this was only a stop gap measure since immigrants began demanding better wages and conditions once settled
Who was Trevor Philips and what did he notice? What did he say in 2005?
Chairman of the EHRC - he acknowledged that the legislation followed by governments that targeted multi culturalism didn’t improve integration of immigrants and that this was the cause of many tensions. In 2005 he said that multiculturalism could be used as a way to ‘sleepwalk around segregation’ and he expressed concerns about solely Islamic schools.
Religious Hatred Act
2006 - intended to protect people from being attacked for their religious beliefs
What pushed the Religious Hatred Act to be introduced?
2005 London bombings and the reactions to a cartoons published in a Danish newspaper the same year that insulted the prophet Muhammed.
2006 Muslim Marches
300 Muslims protested against the 2005 publication
What was surprising about the perpetrators of the 2005 bombings?
They had been brought up in the UK
Environmentalists’ Case
- emission of greenhouse gasses was raising the earth’s temp
- ice caps melting = sea levels rising
- the west had to put sustainability above economic growth
- governments individually and nations collectively had to impose binding restraints on industrial output
- conclusions were based on the UN’s IPCC which drew their findings from scientific researchers
Anti-Environmentalists’ Case
- based on selective measurements
- CO2 is an effect of warming not a cause
- humans play only a minor role
- world sea levels have risen less than one inch
- the sun is the main determiner of world temp
- environmentalism is a front for left wing anti capitalists
- the IPCC is not a neutral scientific body but rather a pressure group
British National Party
Anti-immigration party
The God of Delusion
2006 by Richard Dawkins - highlighted the growth in secularism and religious scepticism
