Britain 1951-1997
Conservative domination 1951-64
The Churchill and Eden governments 1951-57
Conservative victory 1951 1951 GENERAL ELECTION
• Bevan, the designer of the NHS led a number of Party Votes Seats Percentage of vote
ministers in resigning from the Cabinet in protest
Conservative 13,700,000 321 48.0
of imposed charges on medical prescriptions
• These followers became known as Bevanites Labour 13,900,000 295 48.8
• This encourages other Labour MPs to voice Liberal 700,000 6 2.5
their doubts
Others 200,000 3 0.7
• These Labour divisions stimulated the
Conservatives and gave them ammunition to ght the 1951 election campaign
• The Liberal party’s decision to put up only 109 candidates (a drop of 366 compared to
1950) meant nearly 2 million ex-Liberal votes went to the Conservatives
Labour weaknesses
• Attlee’s government was worn down by heavy economic and nancial di culties
• The government was exhausted after 6 troubled years in o ce
• A number of its ministers, including Attlee and Bevan, had been working continuously in
o ce since 1940
• Serious divisions had been developed between the right and the left of the party over
economic, welfare and foreign policies
• There was resentment among some trade unions at Labour’s slowness in responding to
workers’ demands
• The shrinking in the 1950 election of its large majority made governing di cult and
damaged party morale
• Labour found it di cult to shake o its image as party of rationing and high taxation
• Leading ministers such as the self-disciplined Sta ord Cripps as chancellor of the
exchequer didn’t present and attractive picture to the electorate due to their call for
harshness that they claimed the times demanded
• Britain’s entry into the Korean War in 1950 made Labour’s left-wing unhappy
• Technically, British forces fought as a part of the UN force, although in reality, the
Labour government was sheepishly following the USA into a Cold War engagement
Conservative strengths
• Younger Conservative MPs such as R.A. Butler began to bring new ideas and
con dence to the party
• The nationalisation issue gave them a cause round which they could rally and on which
they could attack the government
• The Conservatives had begun to recover from the shock of the party’s defeat in 1945
• The 1950 election saw an in ux of bright young Conservative MPs eager for battle
against a tiring government
• Under the direction of the dynamic Lord Woolton, the Conservative party had reformed
its nances and consistency organisation and was much better positioned to ght for
seats and votes than in 1945
• The nationalisation of iron and steel was an easy target for opposition attacks
• Some of the electorate were impressed by the Conservatives’ projection of themselves
as upholders of liberty and individualism against the deadening hand of state
centralisation and collectivism
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, Britain 1951-1997
Churchill’s government 1951-55
• He was 77 years old when he became prime minister for the second time which meant
he was too old and frail to be much more than a gurehead
Developments 1951-55
• Rationing was ended
• The Conservatives committed to building 300,000 houses a year
• The government continued with Keynesian policies
• The accession pf Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 began a new ‘Elizabethan age’
• Britain detonated its rst atomic bomb in 1952
• The Korean War had ended
Keynesianism
• John Maynard Keynes believed a fall in demand for manufactured products caused
industrial economies to slip into recession
• The government should use its budgets and revenue-raising powers to acquire capital,
which it could then reinvest in the economy to keep it at a high level of activity
• This arti cial boost in the economy would lead to genuine recovery and growth
• Companies and rms would have full order books and workers, jobs and earnings
• Those earnings would be spent on goods and services, with the result that supply and
demand would be stimulated
• The government should abandon the practice of trying to balance the budget between
income and expenditure
‘Butskellism’
• R.A.Butler was the chancellor of the exchequer from 1951-55 and minister of education
during Churchill's wartime coalition, when he helped create the 1944 Education Act
• He claimed a monopoly of progressive thinking creating the Industrial Charter where he
accepted that Britain should operate a mixed economy
• His ideas were seen so close to those of the Labour party that a key gure of the
Labour right, High Gaitskell, and Butler’s, representing the Conservative left, names
were joined together
• Indicated that the parties met in the middle to form a consensus on matters such as
nance, the economy and the welfare state
• The two did have di erence such that Gaitskell favoured high taxation and greater
government direction, while butler believe in economic control through the use of
interest rates
The economy after Labour
• Cost of British goods had dropped and exports had picked up
• There was increased demand for British products due to the Marshall Plan
• Britain was, however, still heavily in debt after borrowing and continuing defence
commitments during the war
• They didn’t help themselves by taking on huge costs involved in running a welfare
state and maintaining an extensive defence programme
Some of Labour’s aims were continued
• Full employment
• Expanding the welfare state
• Keeping Britain’s heavily committed military defence programme
• Developing a nuclear weapons programme
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, Britain 1951-1997
Eden’s government 1955-57
• Eden was regarded as the heir-apparent to Churchill as Conservative leader
• As he had to wait so long for Churchill to retire, he was eager when he came to o ce
• He was determined to achieve success in foreign a airs to silence criticism that his
domestic policies lacked ‘the smack of rm government’
Key debate
How unpopular was Eden’s Suez venture?
• On 4th November 1956 at an anti-war rally, Bevan accused the government of
blackening the name of Britain
• It was believed that those who expressed against the Suez venture may have been the
only ones against it and the rest who didn’t speak up may not have had an issue with it
• Left-wing press assumed the British people were overwhelmingly against the attack
• A poll on the 2nd December 1956 recorded slightly over 50% in favour of Eden’s policy
Macmillan’s government 1957-63
• R.A. Butler was thought to be the likely successor after Eden, however his detached
manner that made him reluctant to engage in ghting party politics required
• Macmillan was much more con dent and suited for the job than Butler
• As chancellor the exchequer, he supported Eden during the Suez crisis and admitted
the operation increased Britain’s debts by £564 million but he escaped unscathed
• Macmillan made Butler his home secretary who took a liberal approach towards legal
and social issues - introducing the Homicide Act in 1957 to end the death penalty
HAROLD MACMILLAN (1894-1986)
• He was born half Scottish, half American and served gallantly in WWI, giving him
particular respect for the working class
• Argued for the acceptance of Keynesianism and for extending state direction of a
broad range of services
• He was the rst PM to commit Britain to entering European union and was a
supporter of independance for African colonies
• Macmillan became known as ‘Supermac’ to refer to his government’s uncertain
economic performance and then ‘Mac the knife’ after the Night of the Long Knives
where he dismissed half of his cabinet in 1962
Conservative economic policy 1957-64
• The British economy appeared sluggish compared with
developments in Europe and the USA after the war and Macmillan’s chancellors of the
they made no serious attempt to change their strategies exchequer
• They continued Butler’s main line of policy to operate a Peter Thorneycroft 1957-58
mixed economy and follow a lose form of Keynesianism Derick Heathcote-Amory 1958-60
to avoid the extremes of in ation and de ation Selwyn Lloyd 1960-62
• In ation was controlled with use of annual budgets and Reginald Maudling 1962-64
taxes and interest rates lowered to control fall in demand
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, Britain 1951-1997
Budget politics
• Derick Heathcote-Amory introduced tax cuts to boost support for the government in the
election in 1959
• However, due to in ation, nancial restraint would have been more appropriate
• The tax cuts led to increased consumer spending causing higher in ation and a wider
trade gap and as a result de ationary measures, including tax and interest rate rises,
cuts in public spending and an attempt to put a limit on wages
• When the 1964 election was coming up, the government returned to an expansionist
budgetary policy causing another boom in consumer spending
• As demand for goods couldn’t be met, there was a sharp increase in the import of
foreign manufacturers causing a balance of payments de cit of over £800 million
‘Stop-go’
• Britain lacked a genuine economic strategy and policy lagged behind events
Stop refers to the situation arising when consumption and prices rose too quickly
Brake was the reaction where increased taxation and interest rates made it harder
to borrow money
Go refers to the situation where production and exports declined
Accelerator was the reaction when taxes and interest rates were cut so it was easier
to borrow money again
Stag ation
• Both stagnation and in ation occurred causing industry to decline but in ation persist
• Therefore, the economy experienced both the negative e ects and di culty of
managing a modern economy
• Isn’t very e cient due to the time lag e ect
Britain’s industrial growth rate Percentage of R&D
• Britain’s GDP growth rate was the lowest in Western Europe at only spent on defence
2.3% (Italy = 5.6% and France = 4.3%)
Japan 0.9
• The main reason for this was its heavy defence expenditure and it still Italy 2.6
maintained costly military and naval bases around the world and ran
France 26.2
an expensive nuclear arms development programme
UK 34.5
• By 1964, Britain was spending £1.7 billion of defence, committing an USA 40.6
extraordinary proportion with only the USA spending more
Living standards under the Conservatives: consumerism
• In 1975, Macmillan made a speech, claiming British people had ‘never had it so good’
• He was positive about the economy but recognised the issue of rising prices
Wages
• There was a continuous rise in living standards due to wages rising way ahead of prices
causing an increase in material prosperity
• Although in ation continued to increase, it never overtook the increase in real wages
Financial credit (hire purchase)
• There was a greater availability of credit, enabling people to borrow much larger sums
of money than they could obtain and with loan repayment spread out on ‘easy terms’,
people could by products they couldn’t have a orded
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