UK History - Section 2 Liberal reforming legislation

Who was the Home Secretary from 1965 until 1967 and why was it good ?

• Roy Jenkins

• During it, the Labour government a number of liberally legislation which defined the Wilson administrations

What are Private members bills ?

• Bills put forward by Individual MP’s rather than the government or opposition parties

• When they are directed as ‘moral’ issues, parties usually allow their MP’s to decide how they want to vote - ‘free votes’

• These bills are usually unsuccessful unless the government enables their progression as Jenkins did during his tenure as Home Secretary

What was the influence, what happened and what were the results of the ‘end of capital punishment’

• Influences : Limits to number of Capital crimes introduced in 1957, Case of Ruth Ellis, Campaigning work of the Labour MP ‘Sydney Silverman’

• What happened : Abolished for a 5 year trial in 1965

• Results : Change was made permanent in 1969

What was the influence, What happened and the results of the ‘Divorce Reform’ ?

• Influences. : Second - Wave feminism

• What happened : Divorce Reform Act (1969) allowed ‘no fault’ divorce where a marriage had been irretrievably broken down which meant a couple could divorce if they lived apart for 2 years and both consented, or lived apart 5 years where one party did not consent

• Result : Divorce rates rose from 2/1000 in 1950 to 10/1000 by mid 1970’s

What’s as the influence, What happened and the result of the ‘Legalisation of abortion’

• Influences : Campaign by MP ‘David Steel’, Demand for abortion (bet. 100,000 and 200,000 abortions were performed illegally each year, Impact of illegal backstreet abortions (around 35,000 women ended up in the hospital after complication following the abortion and bet. 1958 and 1969, 82 women died as a result of these complications), Thalidomide disaster (1959 - 1962) which increased the number of abnormal foetuses

• What happened : In 1967, Abortion Act legalised abortion within the first 28 weeks of a pregnancy and with written consent of 2 doctors

• Result : Number of abortions went up from 4/100 live births (1968) to 17.6 in 1975

What was the Influence, What happened and the result of the ‘Legalisation of homosexual relations’

• Influence : Wolfenden committee (set up by Conservative government) recommended the decriminalisation of homosexuality, Campaigning by the Labour MP (Leo Abse)

• What happened : Sexual Offences Act (1967) decriminalised homosexuality if the following were met : Both partners had to be over 21, Both had to consent and It had to be private

• Results : Homosexual men did not have to live ‘double lives’ to avoid persecution, Conditions of the Act meant that some prosecutions of homosexual men continued

Why was the tripartite system of education facing criticism by the 1960’s

• Failure to create equal status

• Grammar schools were dominated by the middle classes

• Secondary school pupils were seen as failures for the age of 11 years old

What was the reason for the introduction of comprehensive schools ?

• Before 1965, some loca authorities (LEA’s) begun to establish comprehensive schools - the process sed up during the Labour government (1964 - 1970)

What were the key reasons for introduction of comprehensive schools ?

• Wilson argued that the comprehensive system ensured all pupils could have a grammar school education, rather than being limited to a minority of pupils

• Tony Crosland (supporter of comprehensive schools) became Minister of Education in 1965

• In 1965, Crosland encouraged the introduction of more comprehensives by issuing ‘Circuular 10/65’ (requested that LEA’s convert to comprehensive schools)

• In 1966, money for new school buildings became conditional on LEA’s drawing up plans for comprehensive schools

What happened for the introduction of comprehensive schools ?

• By 1964, 1/10 pupils were being educated in a comprehensive school (increase of 10 % since 1951)

• By 1970, al but 8 LEA’s drew up pans to introduce comprehensive schools

• By 1970, there were 1145 comprehensive schools and 1/3 of state - educated pupils went to comprehensive school

What was the impact of the introduction of comprehensive schools ?

• Lots of disruption as schools were merged to create comprehensive schools

• Some middle - class parents turned to ‘direct grant schools’ or the independent sector to avoid comprehensive schools

• The retention of some grammar schools meant that not all comprehensive schools were truly comprehensive

What was the Robbins committee, why was it introduced and what was needed to increase places and encourage to stud science and technology ?

• Set up in 1961 to examine Britains higher education provision and confirmed fears that Britain fell behind other countries like the US, France and Germany

• To encourage the study of science and technology, the government responded with : College of Technology became polytechnics who concentrated on applied education, 9 colleges of advanced Technology became universities, ‘new universities’ were founded (like Bath and Bradford)

• This meant that there were more opportunities to new types of potential students - even though more established universities still enjoyed a higher status

What did the establishment of the ‘Open University’ help the government show ?

• Increased social mobility by creating opportunities for people who previously were denied them

• Modernised Britain by embracing the ‘white heat of technology’

Who oversaw the creation of the ‘Open University’ and why ?

• Jennie Lee (women from working class family)

• Recognised the befits she gained from attending the university and wanted to share it to others

What were the ‘factors’ of the ‘Open University’ in Milton Keynes

• Most students were part - time (time for personal life etc)

• They tended to come from less traditional university student backgrounds (older people, women and working class etc)

• Courses wre largely studied through distance learning - radio and TV were used to assist this

• By 1980, the OU had 70,000 students and awarded more degrees each year compared to Oxford and Cambridge put together