A2 history unit 3:the making of modern britain 1951-2007. Section 1
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- Created on: 09-11-14 18:09
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A2 History Unit 3: The Making of Modern Britain 1951-2007
Section 1
The post-war consensus? 1951-1964
How did the Conservatives react to losing in 1945?
- Why did the conservatives lose the 1945 election:
- Anticonservative sentiment
- Memory of Chamberlain (conservative Prime minister before ww2)
- Followed appeasement.
- Appeasement- Gave Hitler what he wanted to avoid a war.
- Made conservatives unpopular- Let the situation spiral
- Macmillan - “It was Churchill who lost the 1945 election, it was the Ghost of Neville Chamberlain.”
- Memory of Chamberlain (conservative Prime minister before ww2)
- Labour Philosophy
- Government intervention
- Planning and equality
- Change in Public mood
- Attlee- “I am certain That the world that must emerge from this war, must be a world attuned to our ideals”
- Government intervention
- Beveridge report 1942
- 5 ‘Giant evils’
- Want, disease, ignorance, Squalor, idleness
- 635,000 copies sold= very popular
- Labour- strongly supportive of the report
- Conservative-Luke warm
- 5 ‘Giant evils’
- Labours ministerial experience during ww1
- Attlee was deputy Prime minister
- Election campaign
- Manifesto- ideas and promises of the party
- Conservatives attacked the Labour party as being a socialist radical party
- Churchill was focused on foreign policies
- Labour:-
- No emphasis on personality
- Manifesto: positive/prog of reform/domestic issues Linked to the Beveridge report.
- Anticonservative sentiment
- Conservative Party reaction
- Immediately after the election:
- Share off vote had dropped 5.9% since the last election (1935)
- Had an enormous of reforming the structure and rethink policies to win the next election.
- Structural reorganisation:
- 1945 campaign – run on a shoestring (no money) and had almost no professional staff
- Built up the party from scratch and recruiting staff after the election
- Lord Woolton (Party Chairman July 1946) was famous. People knew him as he was the minister for food during the war.
- Successful propositions:
- Membership offers
- Fundraising drives
- Successful propositions:
- 1950s- Conservative support had raised to 3 million members from England Scotland and wales.
- Wooltons fighting fund (sorted out the finances)
- Vital for election campaign and employment:
- Small member donations
- Sponsorship from industry
- Wealthy patrons
- Party tried to change image to be democratic and younger
- Young conservative movement
- By 1950 it had been fully restored.
- Vital for election campaign and employment:
- Policy development:
- Labour- introduced NHS and nationalised key industries such as coal steel and the railways. (Left wing policy)
- This increased employment
- No competition
- Some inefficiency
- This increased employment
- Conservatives opposed this and thought that they had to face facts that it was popular.
- Conservatives didn’t know how to present an appealing alternative
- RAB Butler (chairman of the conservative research dept)
- Think tank on policy development
- Under his leadership, the party attracted young conservatives: Enoch Powell ( rivers of blood speech)
- We needed “to convince a board section off the electorate… that we had an alternative policy to socialism… it was by no means easy to convince Churchill of this”-Lord Butler, The art of the possible
- Committee chaired by Butler to look into industrial policy (this…
- Labour- introduced NHS and nationalised key industries such as coal steel and the railways. (Left wing policy)
- Immediately after the election:
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