Clement Attlee Overview (1945-51)

Created by: ABBIE09
Created on: 15-05-13 16:17

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Clement Attlee (1945-51)
- Social
  - Housing
    - 157,000 prefabricated houses as temporary accommodation
    - 1945- 700,000 lost houses from the war. 1948- 750,000 new houses
    - Minister of Housing = Bevan
      - didnt meet targets cause Bevan has high standards (fussy) and had no money to either
        1 million homes built between 1945-1951
    - 1 million homes built between 1945-1951
  - Education
    - Minister of Education = Ellen Wilkinson
      - Raised leaving age to 15 in 1947
      - introduced free school milk
        Education
        Minister of Education = Ellen Wilkinson
        Raised leaving age to 15 in 1947
        
        introduced free school milk
        
        928 new primary schools built by 1950
        
        Butler Education Act 1994
        Tripartite system
        Secondary Modern
        
        Secondary Technicals
        
        Grammar Schools
    - 928 new primary schools built by 1950
    - Butler Education Act 1994
      - Tripartite system
        Secondary Modern
        
        Secondary Technicals
        
        Grammar Schools
  - Welfare
    - National Assistance 1948
      - mainly for the unemployed
      - means tested (long questionnaire)
      - family allowances = 5 shillings per child per week
        passed by the Tories before 1945 but Labour claimed their successs
    - National Health Service 1948
      - Opened 7th July 1948
      - Stemmed from the National Health Service Act in 1946
      - Provide universal healthcare "free at the point of use"
        free healthcare
        
        free prescriptions
        
        free dental care
      - British Medical Association severely against (40,000 against, 4000 for)
      - Minister of Health = Bevan
        Minister of Housing = Bevan
        didnt meet targets cause Bevan has high standards (fussy) and had no money to either
      - Funded by tax
    - National Insurance 1946
      - offered social security
      - people paid contributions which entitled them to benefits
        minimum needed to be paid in before they could give out
  - Town and Country Planning Act
    - Created Green Belt land
    - Created 14 new towns
      - e.g. Stevenage
- Foreign
  - Korean War begins 1950
  - NATO 1949
    - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
    - "Keep Russians out, Americans in and Germans down"
    - everyone defend an internal country if its attacked by an external one
  - Berlin Airlift 1948-49
    - Russians cut off land transport links so UK dropped in supplies by air
  - Cold War
    - Tension between USA and USSR
  - Marshall Aid 1948
    - Economic support from USA to Europe through AID to prevent Communism spreading
      - removed trade barriers
- The Economy
  - Chancellor of the Exchequers
    - 1st Dalton
      - Resigns in 1947 (budget leak)
    - 2nd Cripps
      - Resigns in 1950 (due to ill health)
      - called Stafford Crapps by BBC radio presenter
    - 3rd Gaitskell
  - 4 month long negotiations in the USA in 1946
    - get a 50 year $3.75 billion loan
      - +2% interest
    - have to devalue the £ from $4.30 to $2.80
      - get a 50 year $3.75 billion loan
        +2% interest
  - increase surtax
  - KEYNESIANISM beliefs that they should spend their way out and stimulate demand
- The Atmosphere
  - Unemployment rose from 400,000 to 1.75million
  - 9 million strikes
  - Rationing
    - Bread started in 1946
    - Potatoes started in 1947
  - Winter of 1947
    - Bad weather
    - No food
      - Rationing
        Bread started in 1946
        
        Potatoes started in 1947
    - No power
      - Electricity restricted
      - TV and Magazines suspended
      - Newspapers cut down
      - external lighting forbidden
      - No electricity for leisure activites e.g. Greyhound racing
- Political stuff
  - General Elections
    - 1945
      - Tories lose
        Churchill's Gestapo speech
        
        Churchill bad leader during peacetime
        
        Poor Tory campaigning due to Churchill's complacentcy
        
        Insult the popular BR report calling it "dangerous optimism"
      - Labour win
        Beveridge Report seen as popular and progressive
        86% of the population were in favour of it
        
        Get rid of 5 evils: want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness
        
        Attlee's good campaigning
        10,000 socialist leaflets were distributed to troops
    - 1951
      - Tories win
        Promise to immediately end rationing
        
        Agreed to build 300,000 houses a year
        
        Promise lower taxes
      - Labour lose
        Unpopular ministers e.g. Cripps
        
        Korean War divided party (angered lefty/communists)
        Causes cuts in NHS budget so Bevan and Wilson resign
        National Health Service 1948
        Opened 7th July 1948
        
        Stemmed from the National Health Service Act in 1946
        
        Provide universal healthcare "free at the point of use"
        free healthcare
        
        free prescriptions
        
        free dental care
        
        British Medical Association severely against (40,000 against, 4000 for)
        
        Minister of Health = Bevan
        
        Funded by tax
        
        Economically split between Bevanites vs Gaitskellites
        
        20% of public spending on defence
  - Resignings
    - Bevan 1951
      - Over cuts in the NHS budget due to the Korean War
        Wilson 1951
    - Cripps 1950
      - Bad health
    - Wilson 1951
    - Dalton 1947
      - Budget leak
  - Cabinet plot to remove Attlee in 1947

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Clement Attlee Overview (1945-51)

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