theme 1 a changing political and ecomonic environment

British war debts

£3.2billion mainly to the USA

The liberal party beliefs:

Free trade, limited govt, social reform

Who was prewar dominant?

The liberal party

Unrest in 1918

Irish home rule, women’s suffrage, militant trade union movement

Who did the liberal party appeal

Middle classes and artisan working class

Why did the liberals decline

Rise of labour + party Division

The war divided the liberals:

• state power - conscription

• Conservative coalition from 1915

• DLG became too cons

• 1918 split party vote

The Labour Party origins:

• evolved from the TUC

• Union ties

• After 1911 easier for WC politicians to enter parliament - Liberals allowed wages for MPs

When was the Representation of the people act? What did it do?

1918 - tripled the electorate from 7.7 to 21.4 million

Who did the cons want to attract?

Prosperous WC, wanted to ‘better themselves’ through property ownership.

Who voted Conservative in 1918

Newly enfranchised property-owning women

Who could vote after the 1918 ROTP act?

• nearly all men over 21

• Women over 30 if they owned property or were a member of a local govt register

When was the second ROTP act? What did it do?

1928 - all women over 21 had same voting rights as men

Why did the liberals decline after the 1918 election?

Coalition libs vs independent libs

Coalition conservatives were far more popular

David Lloyd George

• ‘Man who won the war’

• From north wales

• Enemy of privilege - didnt like the Lords

June 1922 scandal

• DLG selling knighthoods and peerages

• Sold nearly 1.5k knighthoods and 100 peerages in 6 years as pm

Carlton Club:

• secret meeting of leading conservatives

• Decided to abandon coalition

• Over DLG wanting war with Turkey

1922 elections results

DLG liberals reduced to 53 MPs

Asquiths MPs increased to 62MPs

Who led the 1st Labour govt, when?

Ramsay Macdonald 1924 - minority Govt

Labours problems 1924

• accusations of soviet ties

• Forced to make harsh economic choices that harmed the poorest

• Threat of industrial action

• Dependent on liberals

Housing act 1924

Increased money available to LA’s to build homes for low income workers

Labour govt collapse:

• autumn 1924

• Motion of no confidence (won)

• Attorney General Hastings dropped charges in incitement to mutiny against socialist news paper

• ‘Refuse to shoot down your fellow workers’

• Macdonald tried to normalise relations with Soviet Union

• Govt inquiry into the withdrawal of charges

• Macdonald forced to resign

General election 1924 - daily mail article

• Conservative supporting paper

• Forged letter from Russian communist Zinoviev to the British Communsit Party

• Told British communists to prepare to overthrow govt

• Aimed to dissuade people from voting labour

1924 election results

Stanley Baldwin Cons - win

Libs 12% decline loss of 118 seats

Labour voters disappointed with Macdonald switched to conservatives

Conservative dominance 1924-29

• alternative to labour and ‘threat of communism’

• Baldwin wanted to be a moderate politician

• Defeated 926 general strike

Reform to labours funding

• 1925 PMB aimed to prevent labour from receiving a political lecture from the trade unions

• Baldwin opposed so it failed

• 1927 amendment to 1906 Trade Disputes Act - opt in to political levy from membership fees - Labours finances decreased 35%

Macdonalds social reforms:

• 1930 Housing Act cleared 750million slum houses

• Cole mines act 1930 - attempted to ensure better pay and more efficient pits - weak: owners could ignore it

• Amended Unemployment Insurance Act - govt could create public works schemes - £25 million govt funding

Economic problems 1931

• rumours of unbalanced budget

• American banks panic selling the pound = slump in value

• Govt introduced 10% cut in unemployment assistance

• Stabilised pound but hurt the poorest

Result of 1931 economic problems

• split Labour Party

• Govt resigned 24th august 1931

• Formed national govt

Macdonalds premiership 1931-35

• dominated by economic challenges - Great Depression

• Rearmament - rise of European fascism

Nat govt economic policy:

• spending cuts

• Public sector par cuts of 10%

• Led to a mutiny in Royal Navy base Invergordon

• 1933 end of the gold standard and low interest rates = economic recovery

Labour Party opposition

• new leader Clement Attlee in 1930’s

• Official opposition

• 154 seats in 1835 election

Extremisms rise:

• in response to liberal emocracy not solving economic crisis

• 1934 BUF had 50k members

• 1834 Communist party of GB had 9k members

Oswald Mosley:

• labour MP inspired by economic policy of Mussolini

• Resigned form Nat govt and started the New Party in 1931

• ‘Bilf boys’ violent enforcers that attacked political opponents

• Formed BUF 1932

• Negligible impact of political system - did challenge law and order

• Declined after 1936

BUF membership:

50k at its peak - didn’t believe in political system during the depression

Public order act 1936

Banning groups (BUF) from wearing uniforms and requiring permission for marchers and demonstration

The peace ballot

• 1934 millions of householders asked opinions on war and security

• Organised by League of Nations

• 11 million people supported collective security

• Peace pledge union = 100k people pledging to oppose war

Disarmament vs rearmament

• brits no longer believe Germany was solely responsible for WW1

• World Disarmament Cinference 1932-34 - Germany withdrew - wanting equal armament to Britain’s and France’s

• Baldwin argued not for disarmament but for international agreements of limited arms ‘parity’

Britains rearmament 1934-

• RAF increased to 40 squadrons

• British army reorganised

• Navy expanded

• Munitions industry developed with partnership with private capital

Abdication crisis:

• Edward VIII 1936

• Relationship with American divorce Wallis Simpson (attitudes to sexual morality)

• Told Baldwin he Intended to marry her - would be seen as morally unacceptable

• Cabinet made him abdicate to marry her to avoid constitutional crisis

• George VI - his brother - made made

World events

• 1935 Italy invades Abyssinia

• 1936 hitler reoccupies Rhineland

• 1936 outbreak of Spanish civil war

• 1937 japan invades china

• Hitler annexe the Sudetenland and Austria

Neville chamberlain:

• Baldwin resigns 1937 0 chancellor Chamberlain made PM

• Faced the breakdown of international order (WW2)

• Growing antiwar movement in Britain

• Appeasement toward hitler

Churchill’s premiership 1940-45

• replaced chamberlain the day France as invaded

• ‘Blood, toil sweat and tears’ - 13th may speech

• Political crisis as some govt ministers wanted to five onto hitler

• Halifax wanted to negotiate with hitler - Churchill refused

• War cabinet till 1945 - social cultural and political changes were accelerated by the pressures of total war

Conservative and Labour consensus areas:

• full employment even with inflation

• Mixed economy with heavy industry - some state ownership

• Welfare state and NHS

• Cooperation between Govt industry and TU’s on wages and prices

1945 general election (end of coalition)

• Conservative 210 seats

• Labour 292 seats

• Liberals 12 seats

Churchill’s 1945 election manifesto

• believed he’d be rewarded by public

• Focus on foreign policy

• Claimed labour would rely on ‘gestapo’ to police social reforms

Labour general election 1945

‘Let us face the future’

Action on housing, jobs, social security and a NHS

Landslide victory

Labour govt 1945-51 reforms

• establishment of a NHS

• National Insurance Act

• National Assistance Act

• The Housing Act 1949 - extended local authorities power to build public sector houses for all incomes

• Education Act 1944 implemented

1950 election result

• labour win (no landslide)

• 5 seat majority (tiny)

• Polled 1.5mill more votes than Cons

Reasons for labour decline:

• 1949 HoC Act - reduced labour safety seats by redrawing constituency boundaries

• Decline in popularity with MC voters

• Shrinking WC - 78% in 1931 / 72% in 1951

Causes of dissatisfaction with labour:

• rationing: wartime food and fuel continued - bread became rationed in peacetime

• Austerity: unable to revive britain’s economy

• Taxation: the standard rate of taxation 1949 was 45% top rate of marginal tax for high earners was 90%

State of labour govt post 1951 election

• Attlee exhausted of 5 years in govt

• Many ministers fell ill or died

• FS Ernst Bevin died

• Division over budget cuts

• Chancellor Cripps resigned in October 1950 due to ill health

Korean war:

• 1950 - Britain joins as part of UN to defend South Korea

• ^military spending - Gaitskill announced Austerity Budget 1951

• Prescription charges for glasses and dentistry = NyeBevin resigns

Butskellism

Economic and welfare policies associated with post0war consensus

R A Butler + Hugh Gaitskill

Eden’s govt 1955-57

• Churchill in office rill 1955 despite stroke in 1953

• Churchills foreign minister - young and popular

• 1955 gen elect to gain strong mandate = electorate approved of cons economic policy

• Only 1% unemployed

The suez crisis: context

Brit presence on Egypt since 19th century to protect Suez Canal as route to India - shared with Europe and America for oil shipping - Egypt (president Nasser) wanted control - wanted to buy it - Nasser occupied Canal Zone July 1956 - Egypt had relationship with USSR

The suez crisis: invasion

France and Israel invite Brit to invade Suez Canal Zone - Eden agreed in secret - wanted to be seen as a strong statesman

Began November 1956 - PRes Eisenhower wasn’t consulted on Brit intentions - threatened to sell US £ reserves and collapse value - Britain forced to withdraw - Eden resigns Jan ‘56

Macmillan’s Britain 1957-63:

• Eden’s Chanc X

• Mixed economy + ^living standards + ^employment + ^social equality = popular Mac Govt = 1959 gen elect increased majority

Dissent on the right:

• 1959 chancellor Thorneycroft, Treasury minister Birch, Financial secretary Enoch Powell ALL RESIGNED

• Believed Macs was spending too much and storing economic problems for the future + inflation was the biggest threat not unemployment

• Proposed tax rises + end to subsides for nationalised industries + spending cuts + take excess money our of the economy

• Resignation was embarking for Govt, made little impression on public as low unemployment and low inflation

• They were right tho

Night of the long knives - context:

• 1962 Cons declining popularity - seen as out of touch - 35 Etonians in govt

• Gaitskill’s Labour argued privileged conservatives held Britain back

• Consumer spending = economic problems = Mac needed to act

Night of the long knives - events:

• 7 ministers sacked from cabinet and replaced with younger men

• Cons sen as aging and privileged instead of young and meritocratic

• Popularity of America’s young JFK - TV and NEWS populated with youth culture

• Mac seen as ruthless but sackings were popular with public and demonstrated ability to take action

Scandal: John Vassal

1952-1963 vassal, a navy attache in the British embassy in Moscow, was blackmailed by KGB. Large quantities of top-secret info on British Royal Navy - caught when soviet spies defected to the West and gave MI6 Vassal’s name

Scandal: Harold ‘Kim’ Philby

Jan 1956 Philby, one of brits most senior intelligence agents defected to USSR - had been head of Counter intelligence and suspected of spying since 1950. MacMillan as foreign sec in 1955 had publicly exonerated him (cleared him) not revealed till 1968 because of Official Secrets Act how important Philby was in MI6

Scandal: Profumo

June 1963 - sec of state of war admitted to affair with Christine Keeler. Had previously denied affair to Mac. Also had an affair with Russian Attache Yevgeny Ivanov - Petra’s focused on spy angle despite little actual security risk

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

• Mac resigned oct 1963

• Skilled administrator and astute politician

• Image problem: member of HoL, Earl title, aristocratic, ridiculed by media

Wilsons govt 1964-70

• meritocratic, classless Labour Party

• Used TV to present himself as the face of modern Britain

• Only 4 seat majority

Wilsons plans and problems:

• chancellor Callaghan found out economic problems were far worse than thought

• Prev chancellor Reginald Maudling, tax cuts and spending promises left a £800million budget deficit

• Had promised pension improvements and ½million new homes a year + maintained military presence overseas

• Had to devalue £ - allowed Govt to pay off debts and aided exports - Wilson didnt want to

• 1967 had to devalue anyway - huge Govt embarrassment - Callaghan resigns as Chancellor

Wilsons achievements:

• 1966 gen elect = majority

• Social and economic reforms

• New unis and polytechnics

• Open uni established

• Laws on abortion and homosexuality and the death penalty liberalised

  BUT undermined but economic problems.