History

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  • Created by: bethany
  • Created on: 12-05-13 17:31

Economy

  • COE, Brown was widely acknowledges to have been one of the most powerful chancellors in British history. The GDP of Britain stood at £1.118 trillion in 2007, the 5th largest in the world. 
  • Unemployment fell to 1.7m from 2m (27% jobs created were within the public sector)
  • interest rates were reduced to 5.25% from 6%
  • Increased inward investment, up from £153bn in 1999 to £483bn in 2003
  • government debt fell from 44% to 36% GDP

Not so good...

  • There was some disasters juring this time, Brown solf off almost half of Britain's gold reserves at a loss of £3bn
  • inflation rose 2.6% to 4.8%
  • total increase in taxation per household was £3100
  • the average household owed 160% of its disposable income by 2007 
  • house prices increased 11% annually , total mortgage borrowing borrowing in britain stood at over 1trillion
  • national debt also breached £1 trillion

Lynch "recipe for recession"

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Social

  • Implemented biggest change in health spending since 1945; announcing in 2000 that he wanted ti bring Britain into Europe's top 5 on health spending. Subsequently, funding was increasedfrom £37bn to £94bn, with 20m000 more consultants and Gps, and 70,000 nurses. 
  • Bupa membership increased, 2.3m to 8m. 43% of the sending increass went on staff and wages criticised by many. 
  • Spending on education doubled with that per pupil increasing from £2500 to £500 creating 30,000 new teaching positions and 154,000 support staff. More children therefore met basic targets with 79% of 11 year olds meeting standards in Engligh up from 65% and 76% in maths up from 60%. 700,000 children lifted out of poverty.
  • Despite this 1/6 schools = underperforming, 2 m children. Also he introduced university fees, despite promising not to. At first it was a nominal value, but later increased.
  • Another social change brough in by Blair was the efforts to improve working conditions, especially during his first term's 'Fairness at Work' policy where he introduced the national minimum wage, legally recognised unions and signed EU social chapter on working conditions. 
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Political

In the political arena, Blair's promise to be "whiter than white" proved to be a failure, as New Labour continued the sleaze politics of the Conservativesl For example, with the Ecclestone Affair, where tobacco advertising was allowed to continue on Formula 1 due to the personal influences of Ecclestone, smong allegations that it was because of his donations to the Labour party. There was also th cash for hnours scandal, where even the PM himself was implicated and interviewed by police which is reminiscent of the Cash for questions under Major's time in office. 

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International

On the international scene, Blair followed what be believed to be an 'ethical' foreign policy of 'humanitarian interventinidm' to improve Britain's standing in the world. Successful interventions in Sierra Leone, East Timor and Kosovo show that this was not a wasted decade. Possibly Blair's most important fp decision was his statement that he would send 50,000 troops to Kosovo and so persuading Clinto to threaten a ground invasion. Here Blair forced Milosevic to capitulate without a fight and in doing so saved the lives of thousands of Kovovan Albanians/ On Northern Ireland, as Marr says "Blair can take a sizeable slice of the credit". He was a key presence at the Good Friday Agreement talks; which got a 95% 'yes' vote and 71% vote in the Republic and Northern Ireland respectively. These talks eventually led to the IRA and UVF decommissioning their weapons. Even in Iraq, Blair succeeded in forcing billions of pounds in overseas investment to aid its recovery and, in 2005, Iraqis had their first multi-party eletions in 50 years. The decade was not wasted but allowed Blair to address some of the evils and inequalities that blighted the world. 

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International

Negative consequences of the Iraq war

  • created 2.5m refugees
  • doubled child morality rates
  • and as US intelligence agencies finall admitted, increased the chances of global terrorism, as 7/7 and 2005 indicate
  • in 2007 cost more than £3.8m per day
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International (Iraq and Europe)

Negative consequences of the Iraq war

  • created 2.5m refugees
  • doubled child morality rates
  • and as US intelligence agencies finall admitted, increased the chances of global terrorism, as 7/7 and 2005 indicate
  • in 2007 cost more than £3.8m per day

Europe

Europe – immediately withdrew the objections that Major’s government had raised with Europe on a number of unresolved issues. These related to the extension of European authority over the environment, regional policies and the social chapter. Also made a number of concessions including in Amsterdam 1997 when Britain abandoned its opt out on EU employment and social policy. The rebate issue; size of the annual budget contribution to the EU clouded relations since 1973 – in 2006 Blair negotiated away the UK rebate, as a result Britain’s annual contribution rose to £7bn.

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International

Operation Desert Fox 1998

  • When Blair first came to office, he was shown evidence of Saddam Hussein's interest in Weapons of Mass Destruction. The US and Britain thereated bombing raids in retaliation to Saddam expelling their inspectors. Eventually US and Britian attacked Afghanistan, hitting 250 targets in 4 days. 

Iraq/Afghanistan

  • Following the dramtic events of 9/11 (killed 3000) USA announced a 'War on terror'. Britain supported US forces in their attack upon Al-Qaeda bases. Blair - clever diplomacy reaching out to USSR and Iran, other allies to go against Afghanistan. Successful as Afghan war lords fighting on the floor.
  • 2003 Bush and Blair launched a join attack on Iraq (Dossier from the Joint Intelligence commitee claiming that there was evidence that SH WMD programme.) 20march, attack without UN support. 
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Blair - University top up fees

in 1998 could charge nominal amount of £1000, bu 2004 this value was £3000

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Blair - cultural

·         Migration figures - estimated that 1500 people arriving every day – annual net migration at 185,000 (2006) compared to 50,000 (1968) – Indians largest ethnic group at 984,000 people

·         ethnic minority groups only accounted for 7% (1in10) of population – public opinion however overestimated this & believed figure was much higher

·         London – named ‘big apple’ of World for ethnic minority as 50 minorities their alone – 330 language groups – created multicultural London English language – 2005 won Olympic bid to host games in 2012

·         7/7 bombing on London underground & buses marked the dark side of immigration

·         Nationalities of people coming to Britain included Poles, Australians & white South Africans (people were no longer just coming from the Commonwealth countries – by 2000 English no longer first language of half London primary schools

·         EU immigration – EU expanded to 10 other countries – 427,000 arrived in 2yrs, despite initial estimates of only 26,000 – 1/2mil Poles registered to work in Britain – 27,000 applied for child benefits

·       

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cultural

  Asylum Seekers – Iraq crisis saw arrival of Kurds, Shiites & Sunnis – British immigration regarded as easiest benefits system to get round – Immigration & Nationality department was split into separate agency promising to clear the backlog of 280,000 failed asylum seekers within 5yrs – number of people applying for asylum began to drop

·         Illegal Immigration – Home Office’s Immigration & Nationality Departments had no regulation in preventing illegal immigrants entering the country – estimated that illegal population at 800,000 (2005) despite being  less than 570,000 previously – due to no national recording being implemented 
Bank complained that made it hard to set interest rates as didn’t know no. working
Red Cross Camp at Sangatte (France) – estimated 67,000 had passed through Sangatte into Britain illegally – 2002 convinced France to close the camp

·         British citizen migration – property boom allowed many to buy second home aboard (encompassed all classes) – ½ mil Brits in both France & Spain 
Dubai – attracted Brits when allowed to open property there for first time – 2007 100,000 had moved there – used celebs such as Beckham to promote Palm Island 
Estimated outward flow of Brits at approx. 60,000 per year – 2007 estimated 5.5mil were living aboard (nearly 1in10 of population) – concern as high no. of graduates leaving

·        

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cultural

 Negative impact – criminal gangs of Albanians & Turks – posed threat to British people 
Social Service Bill  given to new immigrants was serious burden on local authorities- British people protested about the extra costs 
Burden created upon education as more people going to school & speaking more languages which made it  hard for teachers  to bring all children to the same level 
Severe shortage of housing – Gov officials scoured South to find more property space

·         Cohen – most peaceful immigration that Britain had ever seen – previously came from Commonwealth so looked different with dark skins – New immigrants came from Eastern Europe so were white skinned 

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