How far do you agree that the landslide victory of the Labour Party in the 1945 general election was only possible because of Britain's experience in the Second World War?

?
View mindmap
  • How far do you agree that the landslide victory of the Labour Party in the 1945 general election was only possible because of Britain's experience in the Second World War?
    • Thesis: Labour's victory was due to Britain's wartime experience
      • Success of state intervention
        • Emergency Medical Service (1939)
          • Support for collectivism/planning/egalitarianismappealed too industrial working classes/ more middle classes
        • Emergency Work Orders (1941)
          • Support for collectivism/planning/egalitarianismappealed too industrial working classes/ more middle classes
      • Promised to implement the Beveridge Report (1942)
        • In 'Let Us Face the Future' manifesto
        • Beveridge was appointed by  a Labour politician
      • Success of Labour politicians in the National Government (mostly home front)
        • Attlee was a caretaker deputy PM
          • Formidable opponent
            • 'Unfit to govern' was proved wrong
        • Bevin minimised strikes/maximised output
        • Herbert Morrison coped with the Blitz
        • Hugh Dalton was economically competent (as Minister for War Economy)
        • Stafford Cripps
      • Labour's pre-war record was weak and undistinguished
      • Conservative failings
        • Chaimberlain's appeasement
        • Dunkirk
        • Failure to re-arm
        • Unemployment
    • Antithesis: Labour's victory was due to other factors
      • Churchill's assumed victory (despite indications of rising Labour support in the war)
        • Lacklustre campaign
          • Accused Labour of using Gestapo like police to enforce radicalism
          • Manifesto was called 'Mr Churchill's declaration of Policy to the Electorate'
        • More of a statesman interested in foreign affairs
        • Memories of Lloyd George failing to create a 'land fit for heroes'
          • Failure to solve the Depression of the 1930s
        • Memories of Churchill returning Britain to the Gold Standard (1926)

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar History resources:

See all History resources »See all Britain transformed, 1918-97 resources »