AQA A-Level History: The Making of Modern Britain

Beveridge Report- 5 Giants

Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness

When was Beveridge Report

1942

Want

Family Allowances Act 1945
National Insurance Act 1946
National Assistance Act 1948

Disease

National Health Service Act 1946

Ignorance

Education Act 1944

Squalor

New Towns Act 1946

Idleness

Full Employment

Clement Attlee

Prime Minister 1945-1951
Leader of the Labour Party 1935-1955
Presided over decolonisation of India, Pakistan and Burma
Introduced the Welfare State

Nye Bevan

Minister of Health under Attlee
Responsible for NHS
Resigned in 1951 over rearmament program

Hugh Gaitskell

Labour leader 1955-1963
Minister of Fuel and Power 1947
Chancellor 1950

Harold Wilson

Prime Minister 1964-1970, 1974-1976
Steered Britain clear of Vietnam war

Winston Churchill

Prime Minister of Great Britain during WWII, then again in 1951-1955
Created the 'Special Relationship' with the US
Resigned due to ill health in second term

Anthony Eden

Prime Minister 1955-1957
Secretary of State for War in 1940
Nationalised the Suez Canal Company that led to the Suez Crisis in 1957, leading to his resignation

RAB Butler

Chancellor 1951-1955
Leader of the House of Commons 1955-1961
Home Secretary 1957-1962

Harold Macmillan

'Supermac'
Prime Minister 1957-1963
Led a united Conservative party
Won a landslide in 1959

Alec Douglas-Home

Prime Minister 1963-1964
Unable to solve balance of payments crisis

Housing 1950s

1951 Conservative Manifesto promised 300,000 new houses to help rebuild lost stock from the war

Social reforms 1950s

1956 Clean Air Act
1956 Housing and Factory Acts aimed to improve working conditions
1957 Homicide Act- restricted use of the death penalty

Wolfenden Report

1957- Decriminalised homosexuality

1950s Labour split

Left- Nye Bevan
Right- Hugh Gaitskell
Issues over Unilateral Nuclear disarmament
Issues over Trade Unions

Bevanite Quarrel 1951

Split over NHS prescription charges
Led to Bevan's resignation

Frank Cousins

Leader of Transport and General Workers Union 1956

EEC

Britain rejected in 1963 and 1967 (Applied in 1961 and 1966)

Night of the Long Knives

!962 Macmillan cabinet reshuffle
Sacked 1/3 of his ministers

John Profumo

Secretary of State for War 1960
Had an affair with Christine Keeler in 1961 leading to the downfall of Macmillan's government in 1963

Increased Affluence

£134 million in tax cuts made by RAB Butler
Wages increased
Costs reduced
Rationing ended in 1954
Higher standard of living and birth rate
New technology- TVs, Cars, Applicances

National Economic Development Council (NEDC)

Set up in 1962 to foster economic cooperation between government and unions

Peter Thorneycroft

Chancellor under Macmillan
Resigned over splits with him in 1958

National Income Commission (NIC)

Oversaw and regulated wages and prices

Charles de Gaulle

French President
Vetoed British entry into EEC in 1963 and 1969

Beeching Report

1963- recommended reducing public expenditure by 30%
Many railroads were cut

Butlins

60,000 people holidayed there

Angry Young Men

Young British Writer in the 1950s and 60s who used their work to challenge the establishment and attack the upper classes
Look Back in Anger 1956 Written by John Osborne

Denning Report

Criticised the government over the handling of the Profumo Affair

Commonwealth Immigrant Act

1962

Notting Hill Riots

1958

Mods

Inspired by Italian fashion
Listened to The Beatles, The Who etc.
Middle Class

Rockers

Inspired by Marlon Brando in 'The Wild One'
Lower/Working Class

Britain's first nuclear test

1952, under Churchill

1949

Founding member of NATO

Burgess and Maclean Affair

Two British officers defected to Soviet Union in 1951.
Worried America who didn't want to share intelligence with Britain

British Colonialism 1950s/Early 1960s

1947-Withdrawal from India
1952-Start of Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya
1957-Independence granted to Ghana
1960-'Winds of Change' speech
1961-South Africa leaves Commonwealth
1961-Independence given to Tanzania
1963-independence given to Kenya

George Brown

Deputy leader of Labour 1964-1970
Alcoholic

Roy Jenkins

Home Secretary 1965-1967
Split off to form SDP in the 70s

Barbara Castle

Secretary of State
'In place of Strife' white paper

Tony Benn

Radical leftist member of the Labour party
Minister of Aviation 1966-oversaw Concorde's construction

Department of Economic Affairs (DEA)

Set up by Wilson and led by George Brown
Tried to secure and restrain inflation by working with unions

Payments Deficit

Labour inherited a balance of payments deficit of £800 million

Battle of Bogside

1969

British Troops sent to Ireland

1969

Bloody Sunday

January 30th 1972
13 killed by British army
Inflamed anti-British sentiment

Post-war Consensus

By 1970 it was breaking down

1970 Election

Conservatives win 330 seats
Heath appeared more competent

Enoch Powell

Secretary of Defence 1968
Made the Rivers of Blood speech in 1968
Attracted 2.5 million voters to the Conservatives

Liberal Reform Legislation

Home Secretary Roy Jenkins pushed through all of these

Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act

1965
Supported by Sydney Silverman
Last men to be hung 1964
Ruth Ellis 1955

Abortion Act

1967
Supported by David Steel
Decriminalised abortion

Sexual Offences Act

1967
Supported by Leo Abse
Decriminalised homosexuality

Divorce Reform Act

1969
Supported by Bill Wilson
Couples allowed to divorce after 2 years of separation

Circular 10/65

1965
Supported by Tony Crosland
Issued to Local Education Authorities to convert to Comprehensive schools

The Open University

1969
Supported by Jennie Lee
Allowed the average person to attend university and get a degree

Robbins Report

1963
Britain slipping behind the rest of the world in education

TVs 1960s

By 1975 75% of homes had a TV
BBC diverted funds from radio to TV broadcasts

Leisure 1960s

People not working on weekends
DIY, Knitting etc.

British Airways

1964
Allowed travel abroad to Europe and North Africa
But still expensive

Betty Friedan

Wrote The Feminine Mystique

Matrimonial Property Act

1970
Took into account the work of a wife in divorce settlements

Equal Pay Act

1970
Equal Pay for men and women
Came into force in 1975

Contraceptive Pill

Made free to married women in 1961

Vietnam War

Began 1st September 1955
Wilson refused any direct military involvement after LBJ asked for it in 1968

Denis Healy

Minister of Defence
Proposed spending cuts to reduce the defence budget t under £2 Billion
To do this troops were removed from Adan, the Middle East, Malaysia and Singapore

Rhodesia

!965 Iain Smith issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence for Rhodesia without accepting majority rule
Wilson put an oil embargo on Rhodesia
Negotiations on HMS Tiger in 1966 then on the HMS Fearless in 1968 but to no avail as Smith disavowed everything he said on return to Rhodesia
Made Wilson look very weak

Entry into EEC

Heath secured this in 1973

Strike Action 1970s

Industrial Relations Act 1971 restricted workers rights to strike
Industrial Relations Court put in place to judge if strikes were valid
Strike ballots and cooling off period also introduced
1972 Industry Act- Government meddling in union affairs

Major Strikes Early 1970s

Miners Strike 1972
Dockers Strike
Postal Strike
Oil Crisis 1973

Heath's U-Turn

1972
Reversed his policy of free-enterprise economics when he nationalised the failing Rolls Royce and putting money into Upper Clyde Ship Builders

Arthur Scargill

Leader of the NUM in the 1980s

!974 Election

Led to a hung parliament with Labour only being ahead 5 seats

Callaghan's problems

Wilson unexpected resignation in 1976
Poor Balance of Payments, putting pressure on the pound
Winter of Discontent 1978-79
Northern Ireland
Devolution- 'Lib-Lab' Pact, Liberals wanted devolution for Scotland and Wales

Sex Discrimination Act

1975
Aimed to end discrimination against men and women

Mortgage

Women allowed to take out mortgages without a male guarantor 1971

Employment Protection Act

1975
Paid maternity leave
Outlawed discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy

Immigration Act

1971
Aimed to reduce the number of immigrants from the New Commonwealth

Race Relations Act

1976
Attempted to tackle discrimination based on race

EEC referendum

1975
68% voted yes
Yes- Press, Big Business
No- Michael Foot, Enoch Powell

Detente

Easing of tensions between the US and USSR after the Cuban missile crisis

Markov Affair

1978
KGB assassination
Tensions in Europe

Heath visits China

1972
Becomes People's Friendship Envoy

OPEC Oil Crisis

1973
Yom-Kippur War
3 Day Week for electricity

Thatcher

Prime Minister 1979-1990
Conservative Leader 1975-1990
Conviction politician

Wets and Dries

Wets- soft and squeamish over monetarism
Dries- Thatcherites and supporters of monetarism

Westland Affair

1986
Heseltine storms out of cabinet meeting and resigns as Minister of Defence

Norman Tebbit

Trade Secretary
Very supportive of Thatcher

Geoffrey Howe

Chancellor under Thatcher until 1983
Foreign Minister until 1989 when he resigned over Europe
'Cricket Bat Speech'

Nigel Lawson

Chancellor from 1983-1989
Resigned over Thatcher's use of a private advisor over him when it came to the economy

Michael Heseltine

Minister of Defence under Thatcher
Deputy PM under Major

SDP

Formed in 1981 by 32 breakaway Labour MPs

Neil Kinnock

Succeeded Michael Foot in 1983 as Labour leader
Led Labour through many tough defeats
Resigned in 1992

Falkland War

1982
Argentina vs UK over Falkland islands
Made Thatcher popular before 1983 election

Internment

1971
Taking prisoners without a trial