The Sixties (1964 - 1970) Flashcards
Describe the economy in 1964
- Inherited budget deficit of £750 million
- Balance of payments deficit of £373 million
- 1964 Sterling Crisis
List the measures taken to resolve the 1964 Sterling Crisis
- Bank rate raised to 7.5%
- Surcharge on imports
- Income tax rise
- Loans from US and IMF
Describe the economy in 1965
- 30% Capital Gains Tax and Corporation Tax
- Unemployment 1.5%
- Market recovers and pound strengthens
Describe the economy in 1966
- 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
Describe the economy in 1967
- Cuts to defence budget
- Dockers strike
- Trade deficit = £107 million
- Run on the pound, cost = £500 million
- Pound devalued, $2.80 to $2.40
Describe the economy in 1968
- Jenkins replaces Callaghan as Chancellor
- £932 million of cuts
- Taxes rise on petrol, alcohol, tobacco and high earners
Describe the economy in 1969
- £340 million tax rises
- Balance of Payments surplus = £500 million
Describe the economy in 1970
- Inflation at 12%
- Balance of Payments surplus = £800 million
What were the causes of the 1964 Sterling Crisis?
- Callaghan’s autumn budget kept election promises to increase pensions and abolish prescription charges
- Gold reserves dwindling
- Resisting devaluation
What were the causes of the 1966 Sterling Crisis?
- 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
How was the 1966 Sterling Crisis resolved?
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
What was the DEA?
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
Describe the effects of the Seamen’s Strike
- 1966
- Damaged exports
- Major cause of 1966 Sterling Crisis
- By June, monthly trade deficit doubled and Cousins resigned over the governments income policy
Describe the effects of the Unofficial Dock Strikes
- September 1967
- Damaged exports at a critical time
- October monthly trade deficit = £107 million
- A cause of devaluation
Describe Mad Friday
- 6th December 1968
- Run on the pound (loss of $100 million)
- Rumours (Wilson’s resignation, Queen’s abdication, further devaluation)
Describe the Trade Dispute Act
- 1965
- Closed a loophole in 1906 Act
- Liked by the trade unions
Describe In Place of Strife
- 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
List some rivals of Wilson
- Brown (lost leadership to Wilson, did not make foreign secretary in 1966)
- Jenkins (Gaitskellite, tried to get cabinet to support devaluation)
- Callaghan
What was the kitchen cabinet?
- Wilson’s close friends and personal advisers forming an unofficial cabinet
- Enemies and rivals in actual cabinet in order to maintain party unity
Describe the Donnelly-Wyatt Revolt
- 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
What were Labour’s campaign points in the 1966 election?
- They were better at handling the economy
- They would join EEC
- Conservatives were divided over oil sanctions in Rhodesia
What was the effect of the second 1966 election results?
Gave Labour a big enough majority to secure a full parliamentary term without third party support
Describe Wilson’s attempted reform of the House of Lords
- 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
Describe Wilson’s attempted reform of local government
- 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
Describe the relationship of Wilson with nuclear power
- 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
Describe the relationship of Wilson and the nationalist movement
- Emergence of Scottish and Welsh nationalism
- Support for Scottish Nationalists and Plaid Cymru
Describe discrimination against Catholics in Northern Ireland
- Discrimination in jobs and housing
- Political gerrymandering
- RUC failed to protect catholics
What role did the Eire play in unrest in Northern Ireland?
- 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
Evaluate cultural change in the sixties
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)
Evaluate attitudes to heterosexual sex in the sixties
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
Evaluate attitudes to capital punishment in the sixties
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