BRITISH POLITICAL HISTORY 1945-90:
BRITAIN 1945-90: CONSENSUS AND CONFLICT
Labour 1945-51
The Beveridge plan (1942)
• Plan to abolish the five evils: Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness
Why the Labour victory in 1945 was so comprehensive
• Influence of Beveridge Report: promised social secuirity
• Skills and experience of Labour politicians: ministers in wartime coalition
• A desire for a ‘New Britain’: They felt Churchill would be unable to carry his wartime popularity into peace time
• Failure of ‘pre-war Conservative and coalition governments to tackle poverty: Lloyd George failed to provide the people with ‘a land fit for heroes’
Key figures in Labour govt
• Clement Attlee: Prime Minister
• Aneurin Bevan : Minister of Health
• Ernest Bevin : Minister of Labour
• Stafford Cripps: Chancellor of the Exchequer
Economic difficulties
• Debts after WW2 of £3,500 million
• Balance payments deficit of £875 million
• £4.7 billion still being spent on defense
Austerity
• Introduced with the aim of increasing exports, putting money into industry, so reduced deficit
• Stafford Cripps, Chancellor at the time
• Rationing introduced: meat, bacon, butter tea and sugar
• Building materials and electricity rationed. Factories forced to closed: 2million without work
• Chronic shortage of consumer goods for the home market
Nationalisation
• Because: industry inefficient
• Included: National Coal Board, Bank of England (some controls in 1946), Transport, Gas and Electricity
• Taken over in ad-hoc fashion
• Controversial: taken away from professionals e.g. in iron and steel who knew best how to get most profit
Welfare policies
• NHS act 1946: Free health care for all
• National Insurance Act 1946: Provide money for unemployment, widowing
• The Industrial Injuries Act 1946: Compensation for Accidents at work
• Family Allowances Act: Weekly payment of 5 shillings for every child after the first
Education
• The Education Act 1944: Compulsory free education, 11 plus tests
NHS: positive and negative views, Bevan’s resignation
✓ Free health care for every single person
✓ Health no longer the preserve of the rich
• Very expensive- more than £400 million in first year
• Doctors objected: would interfere with their pay, and doctor-patient relationship
• Government couldn’t cope with the costs: had to start charging for some prescriptions e.g. false teeth, spectacles (half the price)
• Bevan resigned: felt this demoralized point of NHS
1950/51 elections
• 1950 election: Labour vote increased: majority cut to 5, so another election was called
• 1951 election: Had more votes but lost the election, Conservatives votes more concentrated
• Labour was seen as tired and worn out, Bevan resignation was damaging
Successes and failures of Labour
✓ NHS
✓ Housing programme: by 1950 created 1 million homes
✓ Inflation kept under control with planned economy
✓ Full employment, imports increased
✓ Foreign policy: key role in NATO and established India’s independence
• Economy: people running it were set in their ways, wouldn’t listen to advice
• Paying for prescriptions: against point of the NHS
• Only 20% of industry was nationalized
• Britain reliant on America, shaky foundations
• Nationalisation of steel industry: private owners would have gained more profit
The Conservative governments of 1951-64
Churchill 1951-5
• 77 years old when came to power: more of a figurehead that someone to take action
• America went ahead to get atomic bomb, without consulting Churchill: undermined him and Britain
• Wanted to restore the ‘traditional values’ within the British people: brought about the Elizabethan era
• People became very consumerist: ‘today not tomorrow’ i.e. living without fear of consequences
• 300,000 council homes built
• Ended rationing
Eden and Suez
• 55 election: increased majority
• Eden was ‘a man in a hurry’ waiting for Churchill to retire
• Suez crisis showed Britain had lost power to the US and USSR on the world stage
• Britain withdrew from Suez because of pressure from the USSR, Pressure at home and the refusal of US to help- this lead to Eden’s resignation
MacMillan, NoLK, Profumo, Douglas-Home
• MacMillan sacked his Chancellor, this news was leaked and he sacked several more people in his attempt to reshuffle party and bring in more competent people
• Seen as brutal: sacking people from life jobs
• Profumo affair: Profumo (Secretary of State for War) had an affair with London showgirl Christine Keeler
• Rumours: Keeler and someone working for Soviet embassy. This was seen as putting Britain at risk
• Lead to the resignation of MacMillan on the grounds of ‘ill health’
• Alec Douglas-Home became PM when MacMillan retired
Economic policies – Butskellism, Stop-go
• Stop- go policies were introduced to regulate inflation and deflation e.g. prices rise, so do taxes and interest rates, when prices dropped so would taxes and interest rates
• Butskellism: Butler (conservatives) and Gaitskell (Labour) suggesting a common ground between matters such as finance and welfare state i.e. political consensus
Housing, health, education
• House building boomed: 327,000 in 1953
• Continued developing and extending welfare state e.g. Mental Health Act
Rising living standards - ‘never had it so good’??
• 51-63: Wages rose by 72% and prices rose by 45%
• Major uplift in the international economy
• End of austerity
• Taxes reduced
Why did the situation appear less rosy by the mid 1960s?
• They didn’t seize the opportunity to enter into a period of industrial growth, like US and Germany: through a great opportunity away
• No structural financial strategy
• Industry outdated, management poor
• Humiliation when French rejected the British application to join the EEC in 1961
• 1964: £748 million balance of payments deficit
What accounts for the Labour election victory of 1964?
• Conservative government tainted by Profumo affair
• Weakened by stop-go policies, huge BoP deficit
• Alec Douglas Home considered a ‘toff’ compared to straight talking Yorkshire man Harold Wilson
Labour and Conservative governments, 1964-79
1964 election
• Harold Wilson won with a tiny overall majority of 4
• Introduced no huge change in policy, claimed he would harness the ‘white heat of technology’
Wilson 1964-70: devaluation, unions, “In Place of Strife”, BoP,
social policy
• Labour inherited a BoP deficit of £800 million
• November 1967: pound devalued from $2.80 to $2.40. Humiliated Wilson, led to resignation of Callaghan
• In Place of Strife 1969: Proposed a series of legal restrictions on the right of workers to strike: unions felt betrayed
• Many social policies: Abortions Act 1967, Sexual Offences Act 1967, Death Penalty Abolished 1969
Heath 1970-4: Ind Rels Act, EEC, BoP, OPEC, inflation, 3-Day week, wages policy
• Industrial Relation Act 1970: Restricted Rights of workers to strike, a I.R court was created: unions had to put themselves on a government register to retain their legal rights
• Balance of Payments Deficit close to £1 billion which was a new record
• EEC: Heath’s greatest achievement: Britain’s accepted entry to EEC 1972
• Inflation rising, unemployment at over 850,000
• OPEC: Oil producing and exporting countries, introduced huge price rise in 1973: crippled W. economies
• Campaign By Arthur Scargill to prevent movement of coal stocks. This led to 3 day week: lack of coal industries couldn’t function
Why did Labour win March 74 election?
• Harold Wilson put forward the Labour party manifesto ‘ Labour’s way out of the Crisis’
• He planned to get people of Britain back into work: which is what they wanted during this economic mess
• People felt that Heath couldn’t control the miners, due to the miners strike, people felt Labour would be much more adapted to listening to their views
• They wanted to attack inflation
• The Tory party were deeply divided over what to tell the electorate
Wilson/Callaghan 1974-9: unions, IMF, inflation, Winter of Discontent, BoP, wages policy
• IMF: International Monetary Fund- scheme intended to stop countries going bankrupt (central fund- paid in, could take out)
• Winter of Discontent: Described the crisis that contributed to the defeat of the Labour government in the 79 elections: strikes and rising prices
• Ended 3 day week and gave miners full wage claim. Success for unions
• In 1976 BoP estimated at £500 million
NHS, Education
• Housing: Economic problems which meant fewer houses built, but principle of council housing remained
• Health: Prescription charges abolished in 1965, but reintroduced in 1968 because of cost. Principle of NHS maintained
• Education: 1970- most grammar schools abolished. Change from previous policy, but more in line with original Labour ideas
Conservatives 1979-90
What was Thatcherism?
The distinctive ideology and political style and programme of policies of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative party
Why did the Conservatives win in 1979?
The timing: The Winter of Discontent obliterated Labour’s chances and opened the door for Thatcher
Changes in voting habit: Trade unions could not be relied on to vote Labour: they had been let down in the past
New voters: Likely to cast and anti-government vote
Conservatives won 339 seats compared to Labour’s 269. Labours worst electoral performance
Monetarism and its devastating effects esp. 1979-83
Monetarism:
• Tight control on money supply
• High interest rates
• Hoped to reduce inflation
• Minimum lending interest 17%
Detrimental effects:
• Worst depression for 50 years
• Hundreds of firms went bankrupt, people prevented from borrowing
• Autumn 1981 unemployment was 2.8 million and a year later was 3.3 million-mainly in manufacturing industry
Falklands 1982
• Between Argentina and Britain
• Argentineans surrendered on 14th June 1982
• 258 British deaths
Election 1983
• Falklands factor, people were feeling very patriotic
• Thatcher was the face of the success of the Falklands War, and people were at this point proud to be British, so voted for her
Miners Strike 1984-5
• British miners by the 1970’s were running at a loss, they had started importing coal from abroad
• Miners felt with a proper investment programme, it still had a profitable future- and lessen the social consequences
• Arthur Scargill announced a national strike against pit closures when the National Coal board announced the intended closure of 20 coal mines
• Was a failure for the miners, who had to concede defeat
• Success for governments anti-union campaign, buoyed up other employers to begin resisting union demands
Privatisation
• Aimed to make industry more competitive and widen number of shareholders
• Some believed it was too drastic and that they were ‘selling off the family silver’
• As a consequence it reduced the extent to which the government needed to provide in the future for public corporations, which also cut borrowing requirements
• The number of shareholders increased from 7% to 21% of the adult population
• 60 corporations went private
NHS, education, housing, Europe, taxation, economy
• Health: Increased prescription charge, lack of hospitals, but principles of NHS were maintained
• Education: 6000 new schools and 11 new universities built. Conservatives maintained support for grammar schools, despite Labour pressure for more Comprehensives. Again, despite criticisms, Labour ideas maintained
• Housing: Many new council houses built- over 300,000 a year in mid 50’s. Continuation and expansion of Labour policies
Poll tax
• Introduced in 1990
• Replaced local rates, every person would pay the base rate
• Thatcher seemed it fair, as people would appreciate services such as the NHS more, people wouldn’t put up with inefficient services
• Millions of people however, refused to make payments
Dissent within Tory Party and fall of Thatcher
• Riots over poll tax, policies too extreme
• By 1990 it was clear her policies had not delivered an ‘economic miracle’
• Divided party over how involved in Europe Britain should be, especially over the ERM
• Thatcher became too dictatorial, cabinet turned against her- resignation of Geoffrey Howe
• Thatcher steps down
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