AQA Modern History: The Making of Modern Britain: 1951-1964

AQA Modern History: The Making of Modern Britain: 1951-1964

1. Post War Consensus

   • Expand the Welfare State
   • Build up Nuclear Weapons
   • Mixed Economy
     • Conservatives denationalised steel but kept the rest
   • State subsidies for farmers
   • Butskellism

2. Conservative Key Figures

   • Churchill
     • 1953- had a stroke
     • Resigned in 1955
     • 1951-1955
   • Butler
     • Best PM there never was
     • Buskellism
       • Conservative with left wing views
   • Eden
     • Resigned over Suez in 1957
     • 1955-1957
     • Helped Churchill with government whilst he was unable to
     • People had very high expectations of him as PM
   • Macmillan
     • Supermac
     • Foreign secretary for Eden
     • Retired 1963
     • 1957-1963
   • Sir Douglas-Home
     • 1963-1964

3. Conservatives

   • Achievments
     • Continued consensus
     • Rise in affluence
     • Survived the Suez Crisis
     • Ended rationing
   • Weaknesses
     • 1963 EEC application was rejected
     • Balance of payments crisis
     • Night of the Long Knives- 1962
     • Profumo and Vassal Scandals
       • Out of touch
     • All occurerd within early 60s
     • Establishment still in force
       • Satire became popular
   • 1964 Election
     • More Conservatives losing it, than Labour winning
       • Labour only won by 3 seats
       • Conservatives lost 6% of previous vote
   • 1951 Election

4. Labour

   • Weaknesses
     • Didn't win 1959 despite Suez Crisis
     • Out manouvered by slick conservatives
     • Ill thought out policy on pensions- didn't make sense
     • Split over EEC and CND
       • Made them seem like they weren't a progressive party
     • Trade Unions
     • CND turned some Labour voters away in 1959
       • Some with pro USSR views
   • Achievements
     • Wilson
     • Rise in living standards paved way for social revolution
     • Bevan and Gaitskell both dead so split in party is less obvious
     • White heat of technological revolution
     • Time for a change
       • "Thirteen Wasted Years"

5. Labour Key Figures

   • Clement Attlee
   • Wilson
     • HP Sauce
     • Baked Beans
     • From Huddersfield
   • Hugh Gaitskell
     • Right of the party
     • Won over Bevan
     • Unlucky
       • Leader of Labour whilst party was most divided
       • Economy was prosperous

6. Economy

   • The Golden Age
     • Consumer goods payed on higher purchase
     • Farmers helped with government subsidies
     • 1.7 million new homes built by 1964
     • Unemployment went from 30% to 2%
     • Wage rises
   • Stop Go economics
     • Stop
       • Increase taxes and inflation
       • Wages and imports rise above productivity
       • Increase import controls
     • Go
       • 1955/1959
         • Butler gave away massive incentives to people
     • Balance of payments increases because Britain can't produce enough consumer goods
     • Reacting rather than dictating
       • Thirteen Wasted Years
   • 1957 Crisis
     • Run on the £
     • Changed to Keynesism
     • Sterling recovered against the dollar

7. Society

   • Rise in living standards
   • Maintained and developed welfare state
   • Few gender quality laws passed
   • Immigration
     • Notting Hill riots 1958
       • No laws put in place
     • Macmillan boom 1960
       • 56000 immigrants came in
     • 1962 Commonwealth Immigration Act to limit numbers
   • Education
     • Tripartite system

8. Foreign Policy

   • Winds of change
   • Suez Crisis 1957
   • 1963 EEC application rejected
   • Decolonisation
     • Before suez- slow, gradual, to more 'clever' countries
       • 1947- India and Pakistan
     • After Suez- fast, unprepared, more African countries
       • 1957- Ghana
       • 1960- Nigeria
       • 1962- Jamaica, Uganda
       • 1963- Kenya