(1) Why the Conservatives win the 1951 General Election

(1) Why the Conservatives win the 1951 General Election

1. What problems are facing Britain in the summer of 1949

   • Labour loss control of London County Council in 1949
   • "House wives leage" complaing about rationing
   • Popular films celebrate the triumph of the individual and their illegal appetites over the all- controlling state
   • Resignation threates
     • Alexander will resigns if there were cuts to defence
     • Bevin will resigns if there were cuts in social servics
     • Crips, has nerves frayed by insomnia "ready to resign about anything"
     • Bevan spoke of resigning if defence suffered damage

2. Labour problems

   • Economic and financial difficulties of Britain
   • Divisions in the party over economy, welfare and foreign policy e.g. Bevan and Wilson resigned over the ’51 Budget
   • Unpopular ministers such as Stafford Cripps and Manning Shinwell
   • “Age of austerity” image
   • Britain’s entry into the Korean War angered Labour’s left-wing (highlighting wider Cold War issues: should the UK support Russia or the USA?)
   • A decrease in the Parliamentary majority made it difficult for Labour to govern after 1950

3. Conservative structural re-organisation and recovery

   • In 1945 General Election, the Conservatives had almost no professional staff; between 1945-7, they constructed a list of members, and handbooks for party workers
   • 1945-50: 300 people qualified as constituency agents for the Conservatives
   • The Conservative Party attempted to project a more youthful image, e.g. Young Conservatives got underway in 1946 – social and political!
   • Membership and fundraising meant that the Conservatives had a membership of nearly 3m – the biggest of its kind
     • Just under a million in 1945 to 2,250,000 by june 1948
   • Democratisation of the Party was important, e.g. as a result of the Maxwell-Fyfe report of 1949 on selection procedures
   • Lord Wootton’s “Fighting Fund” enabled expansion of Conservative staff and PR
     • Lord Woolton wanted to make the party more dependent on a large number of small subscription
       • Candidates were forbidden to contribute more than £25. this was an attempt to encouage less-wealty applicants
   • Woolton toyed with the idea of changing the name of the party but instead decided that the Conservatives should refer to the Labour party as the Socialist Party
     • This tactic was followed until 1959 when it was discovered that a large number of the electorate thought that labour and the socialstic were two different parties

4. development policy Conservative

   • Policy phrases such as “property-owning democracy” became well-known
   • Crucial documents as such The “ Industrial Charter ” (1947) were produced as acoherent responce to Labour’s policies popular on the welfare state. It:
     • Argued for a decrease in taxation and expenditure
     • Placed great emphasis on the need for co-operation within industry
     • Acknowledged the role of Trade Unions in a democratic society
     • Attacked monopolies
   • The “Industrial Charter” was followed up by charters on other policies, including women and agriculture. The Right Road for Britain set out general party policy
   • In 1950, the Conservatives agreed to build 300,000 houses a year, a powerful weapon with voters wanting new houses

5. The fall of the Labour government 1950-51

   • The events of 1950 were to show how fragile the British economy was
     • The year started well with dramatic improvmentsin exports, followering devalution
     • By the end of the year the new winter of gloom approached
     • The outbreak of the korean war in june 1950 pushed up the cost of commodity prices world wide, producing a new balance of payments crisis in britain, parly due to re-armament programme
     • The trade union were increasingly impatient of wage restriant. In the summer of 1950 the TUC conference, rejected further wage restraint and it appeared that the good industrial relations of the post-war years were about to come to an end
   • Gaitskell 1951 Budget causted a row in the cabinet. Bevan and Wilson hotly contested Gaitskell's proposals, they resigned. This wealened the government
     • Bevan argued against the imposition of prescription charges as striking a blow against the principles of an NHS, free at the point of delivery
     • Wilson opposed the scale of re-armament