Flashcards
Edexcel History A Britain 1930 - 1950 - Labour in Power
Cards in this deck (8)
- 1Calling an Election-Many people in Britain saw May 1945 as the war, despite Britain still fighting in Japan
-Churchill and Attlee (CHurchill's deputy) both wanted to keep the coalition government until Japan's defeat
-Labour and Liberals wanted an immediate election, many conservatives wanted to get votes from Churchill's war popularity
-23rd May Churchill resigned and elections were called for 5th June
-Conservatives focused on Churchill and the war, not their policies and the future
-Labour focused on the future and promised reform, built on the social reform that many people wanted after the war - 2Why did the Conservatives Lose?-Many people didn't trust their promises for reform as conservative MPs had spent years opposing such reforms in parliament
-Many people remembered the depression and Conservative attitudes toward the unemployed
-Relied too much on Churchill, not policies
-Labour laid out policies for change in line of what they were demanding in parliament
-Churchill said that a socialist state can't be run without a Gestapo. Attlee had been deputy for the majority of the war - 3Beveridge Report: Publishing-1 December 1942, 300 pages long the Beveridge report was published
-Many MPs disagreed strongly, but the public loved it
-70 000 copies sold on the first day - 4Beveridge Report: Recomendations-Stated that the state should support citizens from the cradle to the grave
-Identified 5 giants to "fight"
-Want, ignorance, Disease, Squalor, Idleness
-The government took more control over aspects of life, people's views on what the government should do changed
-E.g. in 1942 set up free school meals and milk as a temporary measure - 5Beveridge Report: Fighting Want-1945 National Government passed Family Allowance Act that paid 5 shillings per child bar the eldest
-Payments didn't begin until August so people credited the newly elected Labour Party
-1946 National Insurance Act took NI payments from workers (4s 11d) and employers for the government to provide unemployment, maternity and sickness benefits as well as old age pensions
-1946 National Assistance Act provided government help for homeless, disabled and mentally ill - 6Beveridge Report: FightingIdleness
-From 1945 Government building schemes provided work
Ignorance
-1944 Education act, school free until 14
-1947 Education act, school free until 15
Squalor
-1946 New Towns Act meant 17 new towns built and 4 enlarged significantly. By September 1948 had built 750 000 homes, the number destroyed by the war
Disease
-1946 National Health Service Act, free medical, dental and eye care for all
-1947 NHS Act charges on some prescriptions and services - 7NHS: Opposition-Most doctors belonged to the BMA (British Medical Association) which opposed any health care reforms the government tried to pass
-Bevan (Labour Minister of Health) was determined to start the NHS so he pushed the NHS act through in 1946 despite the BMAs protests
-Date was set for January 1948 for NHS to start, but BMA disputes pushed this back to April. Didn't start until June - 8NHS: Impact-People rushed to make use of it not quite believing that there really was free health care
-Government had worked out the cost based on normal usage, so they badly underestimated the cost
-1949 a one shilling cost towards prescriptions introduced (old, poor and disabled needn't pay) only came into effect in 1952 but Bevan resigned as Minister of Health because of it
-1951 put a cost of 1 shilling toward glasses or half the cost of false teeth (old, poor and disabled needn't pay)
-1951-52 first year that NHS didn't overspend
-Many people had medical issues checked out that they didn't have the money to before the NHS
-NHS struggled under the load of thousands of patients
-Dentures cost £20 m in the first year alone
-Waiting list for prescription glasses rose to 6 months
-Withing 10 years infant mortality halved
-Death from infectious disease dropped by 80%
-Life Expectancy rapidly rose
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- Covers everything from Labour winning the elections to the Beveridge Report to the NHS of Edexcel History A's section on Labour in Power in the Britain 1930 - 1950 Unit.
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- Natalia Cliff
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