Liberal Reforming Legilsation Flashcards
What were the two ways legislation could be passed?
- Government bills –> this accounted for vast majority
- Also provision for backbench MPs to propose legislation through private members bills
- 1960s saw a No. of backbenchers bring through reform
- successful because Jenkins, Home Secretary was sympathetic and enabled enough parliamentary time to be available for the reforms to be passed.
Name all the Acts that were passed:
- The Abortion Act 1967
- The Sexual Offences Act 1967
- Theatres Act 1968
- Abolition of the Death Penalty 1969
- Divorce Reform Act 1969
When was the abortion act? + what did it do ?
-1967
-private members bill by Liberal David Steel to allow abortion of unwanted pregnancies went through
Roy Jenkins ensures an all night Commons sitting in order to pass the bill
- permitted the legal termination of a pregnancy within the first 28 weeks
- only justification needed was ‘mental suffering’
Why was the abortion act passed?
- Between 100,000 and 200,000 illegal abortions were performed each year and around 35,000 women were admitted to hospital with complications as a result
- Between 1958-1960 - 82 women died
- The Abortion Law Reform Association campaigned from 1945
When was the sexual offences act passed?
What did it do?
- 1967
- Homosexuals won partial liberation in 1967
- Private Member’s bill, moved by Labour backbencher Leo Abse and supported by almost all-labour members, decriminalised homosexual relations.
However: - both partners had to consent
- both be over the age of 21
- had to be in private
When was the theatres act + what did it do?
- 1968
- Effectively ended theatre censorship
When was the Abolition of the Death Penalty?
What did it do?
- 1969
- Ended capital punishment
- The Labour backbencher, Sydney Silverman’s bill for the ending of capital punishment was passed in 1965 –> made permanent under Callaghan in 1969
Why was the Abolition of the Death Penalty?
- The anti-hanging campaign had received a particular boost from the case of Ruth Ellis, young mother who murdered her unfaithful lover in 1955
When was the divorce reform act?
what was it ?
- 1969
- the government allowed for the amendment of divorce laws
- Couple could divorce if:
- They had lived apart for 2 years and both partners agreed to divorce
- If they had lived apart for 5 years and one partner wanted a divorce
- following reform there was huge increase in No. of divorces
Why was the divorce act passed?
- Until 1960s divorce law demanded evidence that one party had committed adultery –> for most meant impossible
- long seen as intrusive and inhumane
Progress with voting age?
- Lowered from 21 to 18 in 1969
What was “progress” with drugs and counter culture?
- When Woolton Committee recommended the legalisation of soft drugs like cannabis, Callaghan rebuffed it sharply
- Most people by 1970s seemed to be turning against aggressive student demonstrators and cultural experimentation in general
What progress was there with the Arts?
- Set up Ministry of Arts under Jennie Lee –> huge public boost for culture
- vigorous patron of theatres, art galleries, libraries, the British Film institute, and much else
- Her White Paper in 1969 set the agenda for public debate on the arts for years to come
- Arts Council given considerable new funding –> 9 million by 1971
What progress was there in education?
- The expansion of higher education and the establishment of the Open University
- The 1961 Robins Report to promote higher education pursued
–> polytechnics replaced colleges of technology
–> Colleges of Advanced Technology granted university status - both aimed at encouraging science
- By 1968, there were 30 polytechnics and 56 universities
What were positive effects of the increased progress with education?
- opened up higher-education for many whose families had never attended a university
- much higher participation ratio in higher education resulted
