1a: Rise and fall of consensus politics - 1945-1979

Question 1

As an overview, what was the Post War Consensus?

Answer 1

1. Commitment to full employment.
2. Commitment to the welfare state.
3. Mixed economy.
4. Centre left economically.
5. Centre right on the foreign policy.

Question 2

Who won the 1945 election; what was the score?

Answer 2

Attlee’s Labour won a landslide.
393 seats (47.7% vote).
140+ majority

Question 3

What did Labour promise compared to the Tories in 1945?

Answer 3

Labour promised social reforms, which Churchill said would be enforced by a Gestapo. “Let’s face the future together”.
The Tories focussed heavily on foreign policy.

Question 4

What were 5 of Labour’s main reforms? (45-51)

Answer 4

1. NHS, 1948: Universalised free healthcare paid for through direct taxation.
2. National Insurance Act, 1946: Unemployment and sick benefits to all workers.
3. National Assistance Act, 1948: Welfare for those not covered by NI Act.
4. 1949 Housing Act: Build more council housing.
5. 1944 Butler Act: Free 2nd education up to 15.

Question 5

What did the National Insurance entail and what was a negative of it?

Answer 5

It provided unemployment and sick benefits to all workers as well as pensions for all (M: 65, W:60), abolishing means testing for state pension.
ISSUE: It was a fixed rate.

Question 6

What happened to Labour at the 1950 election?

Answer 6

Their majority was slashed to 5 seats despite gaining 1.5 million more votes than the Tories.

Question 7

How did Labour aid their own downfall under Attlee?

Answer 7

1949 Redistribution of the Seats Act reduced the number of safe Labour seats.
Rationing continued: Clothing until 1949; Bread 1946-1948 “most hated measure ever” - Daily Mail.

Question 8

What economically harmed Labour under Attlee?

Answer 8

They had to enact austerity due to the £4 billion debt to the USA - cost £70 million a day.
The economy shrank by 1/4 and standard rate of marginal tax in 1949 was 45% (lose support within the middle classes).

Question 9

What happened at the 1951 Election?

Answer 9

The Tories won despite having 250k fewer votes than Labour.

The Tories offered to preserve the welfare state and not reverse any Labour measures.

Question 10

Why was Attlee losing control over the party?

Answer 10

1. Party divided over budget cuts (partly due to the Korean war). Aneurin Bevan resigned.
2. Key members of his Cabinet were ill (Cripps) or dead (Ernst Bevin).
   Attlee’s men were falling away.

Question 11

What was “butskellism” and why was it called that?

Answer 11

Butskellism is what the Economist termed the Tory’s economic policy as it was not too different from Labour’s.

Question 12

Who won the 1955 election?

Answer 12

Anthony Eden with 344 seats and 49.6% of the vote.

Question 13

What was unemployment like in 1955 and what was this indicative of?

Answer 13

1% of the workforce (215k).

Demonstrates the commitment to full employment by the Conservatives.

Question 14

What brought Eden down?

Answer 14

The Suez Canal Crisis, 1956:
Agreed to invade with France and Israel to stop the nationalist Egyptians.
Eisenhower was furious and threatened to sell off the pound, forcing Eden to withdraw to prevent currency collapse.

Question 15

What did the Suez Crisis demonstrate?

Answer 15

It showed that the UK’s international power was waning - it could not act alone, without the approval of the USA.

Question 16

Who succeeded Eden, and did he detract from the consensus?

Answer 16

Harold Macmillan (1957-1963):
He was committed to full employment and a mixed economy, too.
He used Keynesian PWS when unemployment began to rise.

Question 17

What was unemployment like under MacMillan?

Answer 17

Averaged between 300,000 and 500,000 - no return to 1930s levels.
Was the PWC working?!?!?!?!?!

Question 18

Why did harold MacMillan say that the public had “never had it so good”?

Answer 18

Living standards were higher, unemployment was low, and inequality was lower due to the affluent society and the mixed economy.

Question 19

What were the key features of the “Affluent Society” under MacMillan?

Answer 19

1. Higher wages (stronger unions + global econ boom).
2. Easier access to consumer credit.
3. Low energy prices.
4. Full employment.
5. Strong Welfare State.

Question 20

Why can one argue that the mixed economy was a success?

Answer 20

It provided material needs for people and improved living standards.

Question 21

What was the Right-Wing fallout that occurred under MacMillan?

Answer 21

1959: key members of the Tory party (Chancellor Thorneycroft and Enoch) resigned.
They believed inflation was a bigger problem than unemployment, and believed the govt should spend less and reduce subsidies - these ideas caught on years later.

Question 22

What was the Night of the Long Knives, 1962?

Answer 22

The Tories were losing favour due to their out of touch, Old Etonian image.
Labour attacked them for not having ability, rather privilege.
MacMillan sacked 7 ministers - this WAS popular with the public.

Question 23

What brought the Conservatives down under MacMillan?

Answer 23

Spy scandals:
They could not be trusted with national security.
Harold Philby: 1963, he was a member of the SIA and defected to the USSR. MacMillan has investigated him and exonerated him in 1955 - this was deeply embarrassing.

Question 24

What was the Profumo Scandal, 1963?

Answer 24

Secretary of State for War, John Profumo had sexual affairs with Christine Keeler.
She had a relationship with Yevgeny Ivanov (USSR attache).
The media blew the story up, to the public’s shock - politicians were not the paragons of virtue people believe they were.

Question 25

Who followed MacMillan and what restricted him?

Answer 25

Alec Douglas-Home.

Restricted by his aristocratic image that was ridiculed in Private Eye (evidence of a decline in deference).

Question 26

In the 1960s, how did Wilson present the Labour Party?

Answer 26

Presented them as the modern, meritocratic classless party.

He used the TV to present himself as the face of modern Britain.

Question 27

Who won the 1964 and by how much?

Answer 27

Labour but only with a 4 seat majority (317 seats).

Question 28

Was the 1966 election an improvement for Labour?

Answer 28

YES!!!

They won 363 seats (47.9% vote) and a 98 seat majority.

Question 29

Wilson promised much, but what hindered him?

Answer 29

The economy was in tatters.

£800 million budget deficit.

Question 30

What did Wilson promise in 1964?

Answer 30

Improve pensions and build 500k houses a year.

He also wanted to keep the military strong (this took up 1/5 of all spending).

Question 31

To act on his promises and aid the economy, what would Wilson have to do?

Answer 31

He would have to devalue the pound so Britain could pay off its debts more easily.
He relented in 1967, devaluing the pound to the dismay of Callaghan, who resigned as Chancellor. It was a huge embarrassment.

Question 32

What significant social reforms was Wilson able to pass in the 1960s?

Answer 32

Abortion Act, 1967: Legal up to 28 weeks (David Steel, Lib).
Sexual Offences Act, 1967.
ROPA, 1969: Lowered voting age to 18.
Open University, 1971: Distance learning so more people could attain degrees.

Question 33

What undermined WIlson’s reforms?

Answer 33

Economic problems.

Question 34

What plagued Wilson in the late 1960s?

Answer 34

Increasing unemployment meant more strikes and a decline in popularity for the govt.

Question 35

What worried Wilson about the union action?

Answer 35

That union-backed MPs may try and take his job (Jenkins, Castle, Callaghan).
His Cabinet was fractured.

Question 36

How did Wilson attempt to resolve the union unrest?

Answer 36

Barbara Castle’s 1969 ‘In Place of Strife’:
Wanted to curb strike action (despite this only resulting in 0.1% of all days lost).
Govt demanded a ballot to reduce union boss power.
Workers in unofficial strikes could be ordered back - is the rules weren’t followed, then unions could face fines and jail.

Question 37

Was In Place of Strife popular?

Answer 37

With the public? Yes.
With the unions and Callaghan? No.
Wilson scrapped it in fear of Callaghan using it to replace him.

Question 38

What did Heath seak in 1970?

Answer 38

A break from the PWC.

• Abandon commitment to full employment.
• Reduce the size of the state.

Question 39

What did Heath begin to do after the Selsdon meeting?

Answer 39

Introduce policies to break from the PWC.

Supposed to be a “quiet revolution”: less govt interference to make people more enterprising.

Question 40

What was the Barber Budget?

Answer 40

Heath’s first new budget.

• Tax cuts and govt spending cuts.
• Ended Wilson’s incomes policy - wages to be set by the market, not the govt.

Question 41

Was the Barber Budget a success?

Answer 41

No.
It couldn’t cure economic problems and actually fuelled inflation.
Heath had to u-turn and increase intervention.

Question 42

How was Heath’s relations with the unions?

Answer 42

Poor.
Industrial Relations Act (1971) attempted to introduce Castle’s measures but was ineffective in a time of high inflation, and the TUC would not co-operate.

Question 43

What was the state of Mining like in the Heath years?

Answer 43

Miners were paid 3% less than manufacturing workers.

NCB had closed 400 pits, making 420,000 redundant - industry shrank.

Question 44

What was the result of the poor wage for miners in 1970?

Answer 44

The NUM voted for 33% pay rise so they could be on par with others.
However, the pay policy restricted to wage rises of 8%.
A strike ballot was successful and strike began in January 1972.

Question 45

What were Scargill’s flying pickets?

Answer 45

1,000 miners blockade power stations and coal depots - strangle the country.
He had 400,000 miners operating at 500 sites.

Question 46

What was the impact of the 1972 strike?

Answer 46

1972: Electricity output reduced to 25%.

Heath capitulated, offering a 27% wage rise - he hadn’t planned for the strike. Thatcher learnt from this.

Question 47

Why was there another strike in 1973/1974?

Answer 47

The Oil Crisis meant the country was dependent on coal, so it was an opportunity to improve wages.

Question 48

What happened because of the 1973/74 strike?

Answer 48

Power stations ran short on coal supplies, reducing elec production.
State of emergency declared and a 3 day working week (Jan-Mar 1974).

Question 49

What happened at the 1974 election?

Answer 49

Labour formed a minority govt ad the public lost confidence in Heath.
Wilson had claimed that Heath had tried to strip union rights away.

Question 50

What did the right of the Tories think of Heath?

Answer 50

Saw him as a traitor for not following through on his pledges.
Nick Ridley and Keith Joseph formed the “Selsdon Group”: free market and little state intervention.

Question 51

What happened in the October 1974 election?

Answer 51

Labour gained a majority of 3 seats.

Question 52

What did Wilson do back in power?

Answer 52

Scrapped Heath’s Industrial Relations Act.
Attempted to return to corporatism with the social contract - govt would subsidise cost of living if unions stopped with wage demands.

Question 53

Was the social contract successful?

Answer 53

It helped end the strikes, but did not tackle inflation, the underlying cause of the strikes.

Question 54

What was the 1976 IMF Crisis?

Answer 54

Callaghan believed Britain had been living beyond its means - banks had lost faith in Britain and the £.
Requested a £4 billion loan but this meant £3 billion of spending cuts, hurting the economy.

Question 55

How did Tony Benn react to the IMF crisis?

Answer 55

Called for a “siege economy”:

• Leave EEC and be economically self-sufficient.
• Leave the world economy.

Question 56

What did Callaghan and Healey do?

Answer 56

Began to abandon the PWC and introduce monetarism.

This was pragmatic.

Question 57

Was Callaghan popular in 1978?

Answer 57

Despite internal divisions with Benn, he was.

He was polling way ahead of Thatcher in 1978.

Question 58

What brought Callaghan’s govt down?

Answer 58

The Winter of Discontent, 1978:

• Poll rating slumped - March 79, 69% dissatisfied (only 45% actually happy with Thatcher tho).
• 1979: 44 seat majority for Thatcher.