The Sixties (1964 - 1970) Flashcards

1
Q

Describe the economy in 1964

A
  • Inherited budget deficit of £750 million
  • Balance of payments deficit of £373 million
  • 1964 Sterling Crisis
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2
Q

List the measures taken to resolve the 1964 Sterling Crisis

A
  • Bank rate raised to 7.5%
  • Surcharge on imports
  • Income tax rise
  • Loans from US and IMF
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3
Q

Describe the economy in 1965

A
  • 30% Capital Gains Tax and Corporation Tax
  • Unemployment 1.5%
  • Market recovers and pound strengthens
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4
Q

Describe the economy in 1966

A
  • Balance of Payments Surplus £127 million
  • Wages 11% higher than in 1964
  • Selective Employment Tax boosts manufacturing

Negatives:
- Seaman Strike damages exports
- 1966 Sterling Crisis

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5
Q

Describe the economy in 1967

A
  • Cuts to defence budget
  • Dockers strike
  • Trade deficit = £107 million
  • Run on the pound, cost = £500 million
  • Pound devalued, $2.80 to $2.40
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6
Q

Describe the economy in 1968

A
  • Jenkins replaces Callaghan as Chancellor
  • £932 million of cuts
  • Taxes rise on petrol, alcohol, tobacco and high earners
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7
Q

Describe the economy in 1969

A
  • £340 million tax rises
  • Balance of Payments surplus = £500 million
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8
Q

Describe the economy in 1970

A
  • Inflation at 12%
  • Balance of Payments surplus = £800 million
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9
Q

What were the causes of the 1964 Sterling Crisis?

A
  • Callaghan’s autumn budget kept election promises to increase pensions and abolish prescription charges
  • Gold reserves dwindling
  • Resisting devaluation
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10
Q

What were the causes of the 1966 Sterling Crisis?

A
  • Seamen’s strike (damaged exports, caused run on the pound and damaged the exchange rate)
  • Monthly trade deficit doubled
  • Cousins resigned in protest over governments income policy
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11
Q

How was the 1966 Sterling Crisis resolved?

A

July Package:
- Bank rate at 7%
- Cuts in government spending
- Higher purchase restrictions
- Complete freeze on wage and price increases

Short term success, long term failure

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12
Q

What was the DEA?

A

Department for Economic Affairs

The National Plan:
- Published September 1965
- Goal of 4% economic growth per annum
- Ignored by government

DEA collapses and Brown is moved to the Foreign Office

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13
Q

Describe the effects of the Seamen’s Strike

A
  • 1966
  • Damaged exports
  • Major cause of 1966 Sterling Crisis
  • By June, monthly trade deficit doubled and Cousins resigned over the governments income policy
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14
Q

Describe the effects of the Unofficial Dock Strikes

A
  • September 1967
  • Damaged exports at a critical time
  • October monthly trade deficit = £107 million
  • A cause of devaluation
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15
Q

Describe Mad Friday

A
  • 6th December 1968
  • Run on the pound (loss of $100 million)
  • Rumours (Wilson’s resignation, Queen’s abdication, further devaluation)
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16
Q

Describe the Trade Dispute Act

A
  • 1965
  • Closed a loophole in 1906 Act
  • Liked by the trade unions
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17
Q

Describe In Place of Strife

A
  • 1969
  • White paper by Barbara Castle
  • Divided cabinet and infuriated unions
  • TUC voted it down 8 million votes to 846,000
  • Bill humiliatingly withdrawn

3 penal provisions:
- 28 day conciliation pause
- Imposed settlements in inter-union disputes
- Enforcement of strike ballots

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18
Q

List some rivals of Wilson

A
  • Brown (lost leadership to Wilson, did not make foreign secretary in 1966)
  • Jenkins (Gaitskellite, tried to get cabinet to support devaluation)
  • Callaghan
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19
Q

What was the kitchen cabinet?

A
  • Wilson’s close friends and personal advisers forming an unofficial cabinet
  • Enemies and rivals in actual cabinet in order to maintain party unity
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20
Q

Describe the Donnelly-Wyatt Revolt

A
  • 1965
  • 2 right wing backbenchers (Wyatt & Donnelly)
  • Refused to support the renationalisation of the steel industry
  • These 2 votes were sufficient to block the nationalisation Bill
  • Forced Wilson to delay steel nationalisation until after 1966 election
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21
Q

What were Labour’s campaign points in the 1966 election?

A
  • They were better at handling the economy
  • They would join EEC
  • Conservatives were divided over oil sanctions in Rhodesia
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22
Q

What was the effect of the second 1966 election results?

A

Gave Labour a big enough majority to secure a full parliamentary term without third party support

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23
Q

Describe Wilson’s attempted reform of the House of Lords

A
  • Attempted restructure in 1968
  • Hereditary peerage would be replaced by a 2 tier system of appointments
  • All peers entitled to vote would be appointed by the PM
  • Opposed by both right and left
  • 1969, bill withdrawn
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24
Q

Describe Wilson’s attempted reform of local government

A
  • Reedcliffe-Maud Report 1969, suggested country should be divided into 8 provinces with 3 metropolitan authorities
  • Met with much resistance and nothing came of it
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25
Q

Describe the relationship of Wilson with nuclear power

A
  • Ignored election pledge of unilateral disarmament
  • Continued with Polaris project and went ahead with 4 of 5 projected submarines
  • Promised there would be no solo British nuclear war against the Soviet Union
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26
Q

Describe the relationship of Wilson and the nationalist movement

A
  • Emergence of Scottish and Welsh nationalism
  • Support for Scottish Nationalists and Plaid Cymru
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27
Q

Describe discrimination against Catholics in Northern Ireland

A
  • Discrimination in jobs and housing
  • Political gerrymandering
  • RUC failed to protect catholics
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28
Q

What role did the Eire play in unrest in Northern Ireland?

A
  • Articles 2 and 3 of Constitution of Republic of Ireland
  • Stated that the Republic had claim to Ulster
  • Offered a legal justification for a united Ireland
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29
Q

Evaluate cultural change in the sixties

A

Permissive:
- 1968 Theatre Act (ended theatre censorship)
- Expansion of mass media
- Arts and music became more radical
- Screen violence and sex
- Lady Chatterley’s lover unbanned
- Arts council given £3 million funding

Limited:
- Mary Whitehouse helped create National Viewers and Listeners Association in 1965 (100,000 members but little impact)

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30
Q

Evaluate attitudes to heterosexual sex in the sixties

A

Permissive:
- Pill became available on the NHS in 1969
- Legalisation of abortion in 1967
- Sex became prevelant in the media
- % of people who believed premarital sex was wrong decreased from 66% in 1963 to 10% in 1970

Limited:
- Pill only prescribed to married women
- Michael Schofield 1970 interview, only 17% of 25 year old men had had sex with more than one person in the last year
- 1970, only 9% single women on the pill
- 1969, of 500 schools, only 10% gave direct information on contraception

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31
Q

Evaluate attitudes to capital punishment in the sixties

A

Permissive:
- Abolished in 1967

Limited:
- Calls for stricter laws against ‘malicious damage’
- Across 60’s, 61% to 82% of population in favour of tougher sentencing

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32
Q

Evaluate youth culture and drugs in the sixties

A

Permissive:
- Rise of LSD
- Alternative social groups emerging (skinheads & hippies)

Limited:
- 1967, 2,500 prosecutions for possession of marijuana
- Dangerous Drug Act 1967
- Concentrated liberal attitudes but widespread conservative attitudes in rural areas

33
Q

Evaluate attitudes to homosexual sex in the sixties

A

Permissive:
- Sexual Offences Act 1967, legalised homosexuality
- Supported by almost all party members
- Jenkins ensured there was enough parliamentary time for the Bill to become law

Limited:
- Age of consent was 21 (vs 16 for heterosexual sex)
- Goer questioned the public on their attitudes to homosexuality (tolerance = 12%, pity = 22%, revulsion = 28%)

34
Q

Describe the expansion if television in the sixties

A
  • 1961, 75% of population have a TV
  • 1971, 91% of population have a TV
  • Hugh Greene became Director-General of BBC in 1960 and brought it into a new era
  • ITV launched 1955
  • BBC 2 launched April 1964
  • July 1967, BBC 2 became first channel to broadcast regular colour programmes
35
Q

Describe the expansion of radio in the sixties

A
  • Development of portable radios, car radios, long life batteries and headphones
  • Rise of pop music station Radio Luxemborg
  • Pirate stations started with Radio Caroline in 1964 but were shut down by Marine Broadcasting Act 1967
  • BBC Radio One started playing pop music and utilising former pirate DJ’s
36
Q

Describe the expansion of print media in the sixties

A
  • The Sun, launched 1964, aimed at the working class
  • Media became more relaxed and permissive
37
Q

Describe the expansion of holiday’s in the sixties

A
  • 1961, 34 million holidays, 4 million abroad
  • 1971, 41 million holidays, 7 million abroad
  • British Airways founded 1964
  • Package holidays rose from 4% of total holidays in 1966 to 8.4% in 1971
  • Holidays abroad still reserved mostly for the middle class
38
Q

Describe sport in the sixties

A
  • 1966, England won the World Cup in football
  • Rise in popularity of football
  • Rise in football based violence
  • Traditional, low payed footballers were replaced with high flying stars with agents and highly publicised sex lives
  • Restrictions on footballers pay were removed
39
Q

Describe scientific development in the sixties

A
  • Labour government made scientific development a key aim
  • 1969, Concorde’s first flight (made by an Anglo-French partnership)
  • Post Office Tower, the tallest building in Britain, opened 1965
40
Q

Describe reduction in theatre censorship in the sixties

A
  • 1968 Theatre Act abolished Lord Chamberlain’s right to censor stage plays
  • Rise of nudity and swearing on stage
41
Q

Describe reduction in film censorship in the sixties

A
  • British Board of Film Censorship became more relaxed
  • Rise of satirical programs and films mocking the royal family and politicians
42
Q

Describe reduction in art censorship in the sixties

A
  • Rise of pop art and David Hockney
  • Architecture modernised with post-Bauhaus office blocks
43
Q

Describe reduction in literary censorship in the sixties

A
  • Acquittal of Penguin Books in 1960 for obscenity in publishing Lady Chatterley’s Lover
44
Q

Describe the role of female equality and politics in the sixties

A

Wilson was much more progressive with regards to women’s issues:
- Several women in the cabinet (Castle, Hart, Williams and Herbison)
- 1970 Equal Pay Act
- 1975 Sex Discrimination Act

Organised women’s movement dwindled in the 50’s:
- 1945 = 24 female MP’s
- 1974 = 27 female MP’s

45
Q

Describe the role of female marriage and babies in the sixties

A
  • NHS Family Planning Act of 1967 (allowed local authorities to provide contraceptives and contraceptive advice)
  • Number of illegitimate births rose from 5.8% in 1960 to 8.2% in 1970
  • Number of divorces rose
46
Q

Describe the role of female equality, education and jobs in the sixties

A
  • Second wave feminism spreading from the US
  • 1970, women were only 28% of students in higher education
  • 1970, only 5% of women ever reached managerial positions
  • Most jobs for women were clerical and low pay
  • Working mothers portrayed as unnatural and selfish
47
Q

Describe the feminist movement in the sixties

A
  • Publication of the Female Eunuch in 1970
  • Women’s Lib groups sprang up around the UK
  • Women’s National Coordination Committee established 1969

National Women’s Liberation Conference, 1970 Five demands:
- Equal pay
- Free contraception
- Abortion on request
- Equal education and employment opportunities
- Free 24 hour childcare

Progress made:
- 1970 Matrimonial Property Act (work of the wife should be taken into account in divorce settlement)
- 1970 Equal Pay Act

48
Q

Describe the sixties sexual revolution

A
  • Pill available on NHS from 1969
  • Antibiotics reduced danger of STD’s
  • Sex prevalent in media
  • Large majorities in favour of abortion reform
  • Decriminalisation of homosexuality
  • 1966, 66% believed pre-marital sex to be wrong, 1970’s only 10% considered it wrong
49
Q

Describe attitudes towards criminal punishment in the sixties

A
  • Death penalty abolished 1967
  • Decline in law and order seen in riots and organised fighting between Mods and Rockers e.g 1964 summer, Clacton
50
Q

Describe attitudes to divorce in the sixties

A
  • Divorce rate rising
  • 30-40% of the population in favour of making divorce easier
  • Yearly average of divorces went from 38,000 to 57,000
51
Q

Describe the rise of the drugs in the sixties

A
  • Songs about drugs
  • 1968 LEMAR (legalise marijuana) rally in Hyde Park
  • 1967, 2,500 drug possession prosecutions
  • Rise of LSD
  • Cocaine and heroin addiction became 10x more prevalent in the first half of the 60’s
52
Q

Describe opposition to drugs in the sixties

A
  • Dangerous Drugs Act 1967 (made it illegal to possess drugs such as cannabis and cocaine)
  • 1970, maximum sentence for supplying drugs increased to 14 years
  • 1967, 88% of public believed dealing soft drugs should be illegal
  • 1967, 77% believed taking soft drugs should be illegal
  • Late 60’s, drug taking considered to be the most serious social problem in modern Britain
53
Q

Describe the development of subcultures in the sixties

A
  • Mods, Rockers, Skinheads and Hippies
  • Increase in free time for young people
  • Rioting between Mods and Rockers
54
Q

Describe the main incident of rioting between Mods and Rockers during the sixties

A
  • Summer 1964, Clacton
  • 1,000 Mods fighting Rockers and police
55
Q

Describe anti-vietnam protests in the sixties

A
  • 1965, tech-ins at Oxford Uni
  • Vietnam Solidarity Campaign founded 1966

1968:
- Pro-Vietnam War speaker covered in red paint
- Two Conservative MPs physically attacked
- Labour Secretary of State for Education and Science shouted down in Manchester
- Labour Defence Secretary almost had his car overturned by Cambridge students
- March 1968, 2 incidences of protests turning violent in London
- October 1968, 30,000 people took part in anti-vietnam demonstration

56
Q

Give an overview of race relations in the sixties

A

Ethnic minority population, 1951-1961, 60,000 to 336,000

Survey, North London, 1965:
- Object to working with a black or Asian person = 20%
- Refuse to live next door to a black person = 50%
- Disapprove of mixed race marriages = 90%

57
Q

Explain what happened to Kenyan Asians during the sixties

A
  • Kenyan independence, December 1963
  • British government agree to offer British passports to Kenyan Asians
  • December 1967-February 1968 = 7,000 entered Britain
  • Met with a lot of racism
  • Sandys and Powell called for immigration restrictions
58
Q

Describe the 1965 Race Relations Act

A

Made it illegal to discriminate on the grounds of race in public places

Two new bodies set-up:
- Race Relations Board (to handle complaints arising from the Act)
- National Committee for Commonwealth Immigrants (to promote contact between races)

Limitations:
- Did not include discrimination in housing and employment
- Discrimination was made a ‘civil misdemenour’ rather than a criminal offence

59
Q

Describe the Commonwealth Immigrant Bill

A
  • Feb 1968
  • Only passport holders with ‘substantial connections’ with Britain (via their father or grandfather’s birth) were admitted to Britain
60
Q

Describe some examples of racial discrimination in the sixties

A
  • 1964-1965, British version of the KKK made a brief but violent reappearance
  • 1966, a colour bar still in operation among workers at Paddington and St Pancras station
  • Conservative campaign, ‘If you want a n***** for a neighbor, vote labour’
  • 1965, Racial Preservation Society set up (concerned with maintaining racial purity)
  • Emergence of Powellism, based on Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech
  • 1960, Yorkshire Campaign to Stop Immigration formed
61
Q

What were the reasons for Britain’s 1967 EEC application?

A
  • Placate Brown and the pro-marketeers
  • Please President Johnson, who spoke in favour of a united Europe in NATO
  • Secure British economy and technological developments
  • Ensure Britain could continue to play an international role
  • Gain an influence of EEC policies
  • Work with De Gaulle to weaken supranationalism
  • Wanted to outflank Heath and other Conservatives who advocated for EEC entry
62
Q

Why did Britain’s 1967 EEC application fail?

A
  • May 1967, de Gaulle declared British membership would upset the EEC
  • De Gaulle concerned over British commitment to US
  • Other states favoured British entry but did not want to upset France (remembering the empty chair crisis)
  • Devaluation gave de Gaulle another reason to deny entry
  • EEC had more to lose than gain by admitting EFTA states
63
Q

What were the consequences of Britain’s 1967 EEC application fail?

A
  • Wilson humiliated
  • Anger from the left and the right
  • Britain’s economy continued to struggle
64
Q

What problems in Rhodesia arose in the sixties?

A
  • Unilateral Declaration of Rhodesian Independence in November 1965
  • White supremacist minority government
  • Wilson felt morally committed to peacefully restoring a democratic black government
65
Q

Describe the approach taken to resolve problems in Rhodesia

A
  • Wilson believed economic sanctions would cripple Rhodesia
  • Instead it took years
66
Q

Why did economic sanctions fail to cripple Rhodesia?

A
  • South Africa kept traiding with Rhodesia
  • Evasion of sanctions through Mozambique, West Germany and Switzerland
67
Q

Explain the consequences for Britain of the failure of economic sanctions on Rhodesia

A
  • Internationally humiliating
  • Critics blamed Wilson for publicly declaring there would be no use of military force and for not handing responsibility over to the UN
68
Q

Describe British decline in imperialism even before the official withdrawal East of Suez

A
  • Deliberate reduction in over seas commitments
  • 1940’s = withdrawal from India, Burma and Palestine
  • 1950’s = troop reductions in Suez, second wave of decolonisation started with Sudan
  • Still 57,000 troops and 14,000 naval personnel deployed East of Suez
69
Q

Describe devaluation

A
  • 18th Nov 1967
  • $2.80 -> $2.40
70
Q

Describe the effects of devaluation

A
  • Standby credit of $1,400 million with the IMF
  • Callaghan resigns
  • ‘The pound in your pocket has not been devalued’, Wilson (irresponsible and untrue)
  • Government loosing by-elections by swings of up to 18%
  • Previous economic sacrifice to avoid devaluation was pointless
71
Q

Describe the ‘two years of hard slog’, Jenkins

A
  • £932 million taken out of the economy by the gov
  • Postponed raising of school leaving age
  • Abandoned target of 500,000 new houses
  • Taxes increased to £1,240 million
  • Moved the balance of payments into surplus of £800 million by 1970 but was unpopular
72
Q

Describe Northern Ireland in 1968

A
  • Violence in Bogside, Derry and Falls Road, Belfast
  • Civil rights marches were attacked by loyalists and RUC failed to defend
  • Ten people killed, including a 9 year old boy who was asleep at the time
73
Q

Describe Northern Ireland in 1969

A
  • Apprentice Boys annual march was attacked by nationalists in Bogside
  • RUC tried to storm Bogside
  • 2 days of rioting
74
Q

Describe Callaghan’s response to Northern Ireland (Home secretary)

A
  • Visited NI twice in quick succession
  • Sent British troops to abolish the B-Specials and disarm the RUC
  • Downing Street Declaration led to a new non-party commission for housing and initiatives to combat unemployment
  • Calm returned
75
Q

Describe the PEP report

A
  • Political and Economic Planning report, investigating racial discrimination
  • ‘discrimination against coloured members of the population operates in many fields not covered by the existing legislation’
76
Q

Describe the 1968 Race Relations Act

A

Outlawed discrimination in housing, employment and provisions of goods and services

77
Q

Describe the announcement of withdrawal East of Suez

A
  • Jan 1968
  • All British military forces would be withdrawn from East of Suez by 1971
78
Q

Describe the withdrawal East of Suez

A
  • Dec 1967, British forces withdraw from Aden
  • June 1970, British HQ Far Eastern Command closed
  • Dec 1971, British forces in Persian Gulf withdrawn (apart from one garrison in Oman)
  • 1972, agreed that UK would cease to have forces in SEATO
79
Q

Why did Britain withdraw east of Suez?

A
  • The cost
  • Decolonisation and trade shifts meant some areas were no longer strategically necessary
  • Allies such as Australia and New Zealand took over defence east of Suez
  • No longer cold war threat of leaving power vacuum for the soviets