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20 A LEVEL ESSAY PLANS ON BRITAIN
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20 essay plans on various past exam questions from the Britain past papers
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Why did the Labour party win the 1964 election?Scandal
+ Profumo, Vassell, Philby, etc - this undermined faith in the government
- But this was a year or two before the election - this meant there may not be a strong
link to the loss
Economic issues
+ Poor state of the economy with stop / go - this means that the economy was out
performed by other Europe countries, adding to the difficulties when applying for
membership of the EEC which was rejected in 1963
- But the economy did have growth and some strengths - this means that the
electorate could still have hopes in the conservatives
Leadership
+ Wilson new and dynamic “white heat of technology” - this means that the Labour
leadership was more favourable. Home reinforced the public’s views of the
conservative party as an ‘old boys club’
- Home older and from the Lords and selected to take over from Macmillan -
meant that he had experience within government
Changes in society in the 1950s
+ The social changes in the 1950’s, such as the increased independence of the young,
created a climate where many people aspired to create a moder, classless Britain:
this benefitted the labour party as they were more popular than the conservative
party among voters under 44
- However Labour still lagged behind the Conservatives among older voters
and women, this meant that the Conservatives had an advantage as older
voters have always been more likely to vote
The liberal party
+ The liberal party benefited from the conservatives growing unpopularity in the 1950s
as many middle class voters were not prepared to vote Labour. This meant that votes
were taken away from the Conservatives, creating a spoiler effect
- However although Labour won in the end, the overall Labour vote fell slightly
due to this
Most important: Economy, Liberal, Leadership, Scandal, Changes in Society
,How effective was Harold Wilson as prime minister?
Mostly ineffective in dealing with trade relations and economic problems however the social
reforms of his premiership were significant
Trade
- Wilson wanted to more strongly regulate industrial relations
- Attempted to address this through ‘In Place of Strife’, published in 1969
- Over 50 MPs rebelled in debate in HoC
- Resistance in party + Cabinet (Jim Callaghan) caused Wilson to back down
- TUC were outraged
- Failue of IPoS contributed to the fall of the Labour party
- Demonstrated to others that Trade Unions held too much power
+ However Wilson had at least tried to come to an agreement with the trade union and had
addressed the conflict between the government and the trade unions
Economy
- Despite the creation of ‘The National Plan’ and the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) to
modernise the economy, the National Plan never had much chance of success as the
treasury didn’t cooperate with it
- Reccomendations within the National Plan undermined the Treasury’s deflationary
measures.
- Furthermore the deflationary measures used by the government of 1964-70, only served to
delay the devaluation of the pound as it was still needed in 1967even after severe deflationary
measures by the chancellor.
- Additionally, even the devaluation of the pound didn’t show effects on trade figures,
which were stubbornly slow to improve, this meant that deflationary measures were
still needed in March 1968, before improvement was seen
+ However the National Plan was a smart method of showing voters that the government had a
vision for the future and contributed to the Labour party’s victory in the 1966 election
+ It is important not to undermine delfationary methods used by the government, as they
reduced the balance of payments deficit and prevented a run on the pound.
+ Additionally in 1969 there were signs of improvement as the balance of payments at last
showed a surplis
Social
- Although Wilson did enact some significant social reforms, many of the changes in legislation
had poor enforcement measures.
- For example the Race Relations Act 1968 made discrimination in housing and
employment illegal, however due to the legislation being based on complaint system
it was not intended to place on the respondent a requirement to take steps to prevent
future discrimination.
- In addition, the Sexual Offences Act 1967 was similar in its weaknesses, the use of
the word ‘private’ when outlining where homosexual acts were legal was strictly
interpreted and there were continued prosections
+ However these pieces of legislation went a long way in accepting the changes in society and
were significant in bringing legislation up to date with public opinion
+ A significant change in education was the creation of the Open University, which offered
adults the chance to work for a degree on a part time basis
+ Furthermore after the publication of the Robbins Report in 1963 there was considerable
expansion of university education to provide an educated workforce to compete in the modern
world.
, How successful was Edward Heath as prime minister?
Not successful in achieving aims, could be attributed to outside factors however?
Economy
- Heath failed to maintain his policy of reducing state intervention in industry and refusing to
rescue failing enterprises
- When the aircraft division of Rolls Royce faced bankruptcy the govt nationalised it in order to
secure the defence industry
- The u turn showed Heath as indecisive and made it hard for voters to understand what they
were supporting.
+ However the policies had some success such as the grant to Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
safeguarded its 3000 jobs
- However the Oil shock was detrimental to this
Trade
Industrial Relations Act 1971:
- Similar to In Place of Strife: unpopular
- TUC told members to re-register and defy the NIRC
- Increased bitterness of union confrontations
- A legal judgement in 1972 in favour of the workers who had refuse to appear in front of the
NIRC, undermined the credibility of the Act
Miners Strike: Jan-Feb 1972
- Wanted a 47% pay increase: BUT way over govt policy of 8% offered by National
Coal board
- Eventually, after the declaration of an emergency and regular power cuts the
government awarded the miners a large pay increase
Problems for govt
- Made them look weak
- Encouraged other workers
- Added to inflationary pressure
- Emphasised failure of legislation
+ However it could be argued that some of these issues were beyond Heath’s control, the
severe winter weather meant that the government was under greater pressure to resolve the
issue as the regular power cuts were dangerous
Oil crisis
- Egypt and Syria at war against Israel to recover land lost in 1967
- After perceived western support for Israel, the countries cut back supplies of oil and
quadrupled their prices
- Since britain depended on oil for 50% of its energy needs, this had a decisive impact on
prices
This then went on to have further impact when there was a miners strike in 1973, one miner told
Heath that this was to bring down the government
- Led to a state of emergency and 3 day working week from 31 December
- Failure to control miners
Heath responded to strikes in February by calling an election, which he lost
+ Beyond Heath's control: the conflict in the Middle East was out of Heath’s control and it was
an unforeseeable event that he had to deal with quickly due to the severity of the crisis.
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