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British History > Topic 1: Politics (1951-64) > Flashcards

Topic 1: Politics (1951-64) Flashcards

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1
Q

9

Describe the premiership of Winston Churchill

A
  • 77 when he became PM for 2nd time, suffered stroke in 1953
  • Industrial Charter (1947) - accepted post-war consensus
  • Shifted to centre ground of British Politics
  • ‘This is the Road’ manifesto (1951)
  • Shifted party appeal to young
  • Won 1951 elec despite Lab claiming 48.8% of vote
  • Aimed to create govt of broad appeal (sim to war cabinet coalition) - offered cabinet post to Clement Davies, Liberal leader, though he refused
  • Pledge to build 300k houses a year reached in 1953
  • PLP wanted him out by 1954 (after 1953 stroke)
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2
Q

7

Describe the Industrial Charter (1947)

A
  • Statement of Conservative Industrial Policy
  • Accepted post-war consensus
  • welfare state e.g. NHS
  • mixed economy
  • commitment to full employment
  • Keynesian economics + Beveridge philosophy - though maintained belief in market ability to achieve econ growth
  • beat Lab at its own game
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3
Q

2

How did Churchill shift the party to appeal to the young?

A
  • young Conservative movement started in 1946 and quickly grew - acted more as social club rather than political party
  • young reformers e.g. Enoch Powell brought in
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4
Q

5

What were the pledges in This is the Road (1951)?

A
  • Conservative 1951 manifesto
  • denationalise iron and steel + road haulage industry
  • end rationing of foodstuffs like sugar - paid for my dividend from end of Korean War
  • end of 1940s Lab austerity
  • RAB main policy maker
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5
Q

6

Describe the 1955 election

A
  • popularity after RAB’s April 1955 budget inc £134m tax giveaways + sixpence income tax cut, expansion of social services (esp housing) and end of rationing
  • ran on campaign of ‘Conservative Freedom Works’
  • media savvy vs outdated Atlee (who wanted to expand nationalism and faced internal Bevan divisions)
  • outcome predictable - novelty of first elec on TV
  • Govt majority of 60, low turnout of 77.7%, 4% swing against Lab (esp in South of England)
  • first time in 90 years a govt had inc its majority - feat repeated 4 years later
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6
Q

4

Describe the premiership of Eden

A
  • Foreign Sec (1951-55), prospective PM since 30s
  • Cont paternalistic labour and welfare policies of Churchill
  • 1955 electoral success
  • Premiership marked by disastrous Suez Crisis (1956) - led to resignation in early Jan 1957
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7
Q

9

Describe the premiership of Harold Macmillan

A
  • Isolated from 1930s due to anti-appeasement stance
  • Published ‘Middle Way’ - advcoated broadly centrist political phil
  • Posterboy of Tory committment to welfare state (300k houses as Housing Minister)
  • nicknamed ‘SuperMac’ (Vicky’s cartoon)
  • ‘Never had it so good’ (1957) speech
  • skilled debater vs Gaistkell
  • Placed Butler at Home Sec - master of his cabinet
  • 1959 electoral success
  • End of tenure: spy scandals, Night of Long Knives
  • Resigned from prostate problems
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8
Q

7

Describe the 1959 election

A
  • ‘SuperMac’
  • ‘Life’s better under the Conservatives’
  • Econ achievements: avg industrial pay had risen by 20% (1951-59)
  • Macmillan and Eisenhower on TV together - emphasies great statesman (face of foreign affairs)
  • Period of reflation before elec
  • Macmillan promised to double standard of living within generation
  • Inc majority from 60 (1955) to 100
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9
Q

3

Describe Labour weaknesses in the 1959 election

A
  • Gaistkell populist move - raise spending but not income tax
  • Internal divisions: Bevan (SFS) and Wilson (SCX)
  • Sociological changes (e.g. closing of pits) eroded trad support base
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10
Q

4

Describe Douglas-Home’s premiership

A
  • Controversy - HoL member
  • FS under Macmillan and later Heath
  • Premiership doomed by Profoumo Affair aftermath
  • Lost Oct 1964 elec
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11
Q

9

Describe Housing policy under the Conservatives (1951-64)

A
  • 300k homes a year pledge
  • Result of grassroots campaign
  • achieved in 1953
  • by 1964, 1.7m new houses built
  • 0.5m houses destroyed or made unhabitable by war
  • Scaled down building standards for council houses
  • Churchill enabled Macmillan to achieve sufficient funding from tight-fisted treasury
  • In 1945-54, 3/4 of new homes built by local authorities (1/4 in 1930s)
  • home ownership inc to 44% by 1964 (25% pre-war)
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12
Q

3

Describe Social Services policy under the Conservatives (1951-64)

A
  • expenditure on social services as a proportion of all spending increased from 39% (1951) to 43% (1955) - higher than any other govt at any time
  • from 1952, all primary school children given bottle of milk a day
  • Lab accussations Cons were out to destroy welfare state clearly unfounded

includes housing, NHS, education

s = shilling

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13
Q

4

Describe NHS policy under the Conservatives (1951-64)

A
  • Ian Macleod - vigrous minister for Health
  • Introduced 1s charge for perscriptions in 1952 (doubled to 2s in 1961)
  • Macleod set up Guillebaud Committee in 1953 to review finances of NHS
  • Shortage of proper hospital provision increasing apparent in 1950s
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14
Q

6

Describe Capital Punishment policy under the Conservatives (1951-64)

A
  • Ruth Ellis hanged in 1955
  • Lab MP Sydney Silverman PMB to abolish capital punsihment - HoL rejected proposal
  • Homicide Act 1957 - abolished death penalty with exceptions
    • killed police officers
    • killed using firearms
    • killed during burglary
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15
Q

2

Describe Education policy under the Conservatives (1951-64)

A
  • Both Lab and Con govts committed to state edu
  • Spending on edu doubled in real terms from 1947-58
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16
Q

6

Describe Labour party divisions (1951-64)

A
  • Bevan resignation in 1951 (pre-elec) triggered factionalism
  • Bevanites were left-wing,, anti-American; supported nationlisation, defence cuts
  • 57 Bevanites voted against Conservatives’ rearmament programme in 1952 (Lab had agreed to abstain)
  • 57 MPs abstained in 1955 H-Bomb debate
  • Bevan had whip removed in 1955 (though given back a month later due to popularity)
  • Divisions over unilateralism
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17
Q

4

Describe Labour divisions over CND

A
  • CND had growing influence within party by late 50s
  • Foot and Cousins (former trade union leader) supported movement
  • Transport Network voted in favour of unilateral disarmament at Oct 1960 Party Conference in Scarborough
  • During this debate, Gaitskell condemned the CND

CND = Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

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18
Q

7

Describe Labour leadership under Gaitskell (1955-63)

A
  • Succeeded outdated Atlee (had been leader since 30s)
  • Chancellor under Atlee
  • unyielding on principle - had little time for utopianism of left - expected electorate to follow his rationality
  • lacked charismatic flair of Con leaders or Bevan
  • reconcilliated with Bevan and unified party by 1959
  • 1959 elec: struggled on TV vs quick-witted Macmillan
  • died in 1963
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19
Q

3

Describe the Labour nationalisation policy (1951-63)

A
  • right-wing ‘revisionists’ of Jenkins/Crossland faced up to outdated socialism
  • Crossland published ‘The Future of Socialism’ (1956)
  • Gaistkell proposed to amend Clause IV but failed
20
Q

5

Describe ‘The Future of Socialism’ (1956)

A
  • Written by Crossland
  • aimed to rethink socialist thinking
  • suggested nationalisation =/= equality
  • ‘reformed capitalism’ - nationlisation one form of industrial ownership, not most efficient
  • heavily influenced Gaistkell and Balckpool 1959 conference
21
Q

3

Describe Labour nuclear deterrent comprise under gaitskell (1951-63)

A
  • Gaistkell adopted compromise on issue:
    • unilateralism rejected
    • party undecided on issues of nuclear testing
22
Q

3

Describe Labour’s European policy under Gaistkell

A
  • Gaistkell scpetical of EEC trade benefits
  • More concerned with maintainining American trade relations
  • 1962 Brighton conference - rejected EEC and spoek passionately about national sovereignty
23
Q

3

Dscribe Labour party image (1951-63)

A
  • in age of rising affluence, Lab appeared identified to decliing manual wc
  • Conservatives appeared modern and liberal - Lab appeared only committed to further nationalisation
  • dissiluioned voters of all classes
24
Q

3

Describe Lab election campaigns (1951-59)

A
  • 1955 - Atlee appeared weak and outdated first televised elec
  • 1959 - rising figures like former radio producer Tony Benn made party appear more professional on TV
  • 1959 - Gaistkell made fatal populist pledge
25
Q

4

Describe the factors behind Conservative defeat in 1964

A
  • Political factors - EEC, Liberal revival, Night of Long Knives, spies and scandals
  • Social factors - housing, racial tensions/immigration, educational inequality
  • Economic factors (inc industrial relations)
  • Lab resurgence - party unification, policies, pop appeal of Wilson
26
Q

3

Describe how the EEC rejection led to Conservative defeat in 1964

A
  • Key to join EEC from 1961 to repair special relationship and prosper
  • Con divisions over CAP blamed
  • EEC continued to thrive and exports outstripped British exports

add more context from other notes

27
Q

4

Describe how the liberal revival led to Conservative defeat in 1964

A
  • Some tory voters turned to Liberals
  • Seen as suitable alternative
  • 1962 by-election: liberals took the blue seat of Orprington where the Conservatives experienced a 26% slump
  • led to Night of Long Knives
28
Q

3

Describe the Knight of the Long Knives 1962

A
  • Macmillan sacked ⅓ of his cabinet in July 1962 in an aim to rebuild his image
  • inc Chancellor Selwyn Lloyd (CX)
  • Brought in younger figures like Maudling (CX) and Keith Joseph (Housing)
29
Q

4

Describe how the Knight of the Long Knives led to Conservative defeat in 1964

A
  • Criticism for ruthlessness towards loyal colleagues
  • Move seemed to evoke panic rather than control
  • Macmillan’s popularity continued to stoop into decline
  • Later admitted he had made a ‘great mistake’ - resigned in Oct 1963
30
Q

8

Describe the Profoumo Affair 1963

A
  • Minister of War, John Profumo, involved with Keeler who was also sleeping with the Soviet Military Attache Ivanov
  • Major security risk
  • Profumo had previously given assurances to PM and HoC
  • Public inquiry - occupied front pages for weeks -> decline in deference
  • Osteopath Stephen Ward blamed - overdosed 3 days after conviction
  • Profumo eventually admitted he had lied and resigned in June 1963
  • Carribean immigrant involved - contributed to rising racial tensions
  • Final blow to Conservative govt - Macmillan resigned in Oct 1963
31
Q

3

Describe the Vassal Affair 1962

A
  • John Vassal, a British civil servant
  • was discovered to have been blackmailed, on the basis of homosexuality
  • to pass information onto the Soviets (1962)
32
Q

5

Describe the Philby Affair

A
  • Kim Philby - high-ranking official in MI6
  • Revealed to be Soviet Double Spy and part of Cambridge Five
  • Exonorated in 1955 - Macmillan had told the HoC there was no evidence Kim Philby was a spy
  • March 1963 - Philby fled to Moscow to join Burgess and Maclean (other spies)
  • Showed incompetence in high places

Cambridge Five - intelligence ring that passed British state secrets onto Soviets

33
Q

5

Describe how spies and scandals led to Conservative defeat in 1964

A
  • Vassal Affair 1962
  • Philby Affair 1963
  • Profoumo Affair 1963
  • Gallup poll put Lab 20 points ahead (after Profoumo)
  • Macmillan resigned in Oct 1963 after mounting criticism
34
Q

3

Describe how housing issues led to Conservative defeat in 1964

A
  • Proprotion of private housing rose due to relaxed liscencing rules - in 1954, 30% of houses were for private sale, over 50% by end of decade
  • Helped better-off white mc - however benefitted Cons electorally in 1955 and 1959
  • 1957 Rent Act denounced by Labour as ‘landlord’s charter’
35
Q

3

Describe how racial tensions led to Conservative defeat in 1964

A
  • More imms in first 18 months of the 60s than the 5yrs prior
  • 1962 Commonwealth Immigration Act - sparked debate
  • Lab denounced bill as racist
36
Q

7

Describe how educational inequality led to Conservative defeat in 1964

A
  • By 1960, 2/3 state-educated 12 year olds attended a secondary modern
  • Those who attended secondary moderns encouraged to leave school at 14/15
  • Regional variation - fewer than 10% of children in Gateshead and Sunderland attended their local grammar schools, compared to well over 40% in Westmoreland
  • Grammar school students often went to university
  • Those in rural areas unserved by triparite system - unlikely to attend grammar schools
  • Grammar schools had 3x as resources as secondary moderns
  • Lab 1964 manifesto called for comprehensive education

Inability to adapt in a way a reflection of conservative party by 1964

37
Q

4

Describe how problems in higher education led to Conservative defeat in 1964

A
  • Higher edu still focussed on traditional arts degrees of Oxbridge rather than more useful sciences
  • Not enough uni places in early 1960s for baby boomers
  • Contrastingly, Wilson spoke of the need to ‘harness the white heat of the technological revolution’
  • Student journalism, theatre or politics were still regarded as the most effective routes to a career on the Fleet Street, the BBC or the Commons.
38
Q

6

Describe how economic factors led to Conservative defeat in 1964

A
  • Cycle of Stop-Go economics faultered
  • Selwyn-Lloyd’s deflationary policies - unemployment at 800k by 1962
  • Maulding’s policies amounted to criminal negligence - £750m deficit by 1964
  • Con claim to be party of economic credibility had been shattered
  • Contrastingly, Wilson’s ‘Signpost for Sixties’ showed transformative vision of economy, with greater role for economic planning through DEA
  • Wilson’s policies proved popular next to Conservatives’ ‘13 wasted years’
39
Q

5

Describe the end of Labour party divisions (1958-64)

A
  • Bevan had lost in 1955 leadership elec and died in 1960
  • ‘Unity candidate’ Wilson had lost 1960 leadership challenge
  • Gaitskell had overwhelming PLP support by 1961, defeating Anthony Greenwood in leadership challenge by taking 3/4 votes
  • Triumph at 1961 Blackpool Conference - support for NATO supported by 3:1
  • Contrasted 1960 conference were UDI was formally supported
  • Divisions soothed by 1963

this is a factor behind conservative defeat

40
Q

1

Describe the switchover from Gaistkell to Labour

A

Gaitskell died of illness in Jan 1963 and Wilson took over the following month after a successful leadership election

41
Q

7

Describe how Wilson’s policies led to Conservative defeat in 1964

A
  • Influenced by Balogh (one of his chief economic advisors)
  • Greater economic planning through creation of DEA
  • Supported education and skills development to achieve scientific revolution - rather than merely subsidising scientists
  • Would integrate NICKY/NEDDY into economic planning machinery
  • ‘Signpost for the Sixties’
  • distanced himself from UDI - supported Western nuclear deterrent
  • Left door open on common market policy
42
Q

3

What did the ‘Signpost for the Sixties’ 1961 state?

A
  • Wilson instrumental in writing document
  • constructed link between economic planning, technological development and growth
  • bridged gap between right and left of party
43
Q

5

Describe how Wilson’s leader image led to Conservative defeat in 1964

A
  • Brought Tony Benn, a former BBC Radio producer, into his inner circle to shape PR
  • Wilson’s Feb 1963 party broadcast attracted highest tv audience ever
  • Boosted by satirisation of Conservative politicians in TW3
  • Wilson’s quick-wit, economic literacy and skillfulness
  • in stark contrast to the aristocratic Douglas-Home who was largely ignorant of domestic affairs
44
Q

6

Describe the results of the 1964 election

A
  • By Summer of 1964, Con were 1% higher than Lab - Lab had been 20% ahead year prior
  • 3.5% swing to Lab
  • Lab won 317 seats - unworkable majority of 4
  • Con won 304 seats
  • Lab vote remained the same as 1959
  • Con vote went down 1.75m - this suggested that the conservatives lost the election rather than labour winning it
45
Q

4

Describe the 1964 election campaign

A
  • Douglas-Home was determined to put off the election (within legal limits) for as long as he could
  • Douglas-Home’s tv ineptitude led to focus on touring the country and addresses public meetings
  • Wilson’s was skilled on tv, where he would criticise feudal PM
  • WIlson campaign on modernisation - emanated through ‘New Britain’ manifesto
46
Q

4

What did the ‘New Britain’ manifesto include ? (Lab, 1964)

A
  • economic planning for growth
  • state support for science and technology
  • comprehensive schools
  • expansion of higher education
47
Q

3

Describe the Life Peerage Act 1958

A
  • Allowed PM to nominate life peers to sit in HoL
  • Previously membership had been restricted to hereditary peers
  • Allowed for more professionels + women

British History (36 decks)

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