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AQA History A-level - The Making of Modern Britain 1951-2008 - The…

- - - - Strengths
        
        Reputation from wartime leadership
        
        International statesman
        
        Able ministers in Eden, Butler, Macmillan
      - Weaknesses
        
        Uninterested in domestic affairs
        
        Age and infirmity
      - Cabinet Minister in both Cons. & Lab. governments between 1906 & 1940; became PM during war crisis in May 1940, leading Britain to victory; after war played role of world statesman despite Cons. being in opposition; PM again from 1951-'55
    - - Strengths
        
        Foreign Policy Expert
        
        Experienced - acted as Churchill's deputy
        
        Charming, popular
      - Weaknesses
        
        Inexperienced in domestic affairs
        
        Weak leader, sometimes indecisive
        
        Ill-health
      - Talented politician destined to be PM; rising political star in '30s, playing a key role in WWII as Churchill's Foreign Secretary, and as acting PM in his absence; became PM in '55 by resigned in Jan '57 after Suez Crisis due to ill health
    - - Strengths
        
        Calm, reassuring presence
        
        Good on TV
        
        Reputation from success as housing minister under Churchill
        
        One-nation Cons. supportive of PWC
      - Weaknesses
        
        Became seen as old-fashioned
        
        Lately suffered ill-health
      - MP for Stockton-on-Tees & Churchill's military liaison in WWII; housing minister under Churchill & Foreign Secretary under Eden; 1957 became new Cons. PM after Eden's resignation; politics shaped by 2 World Wars & Great Depression; nearly joined Lab. according to Attlee in 1930s; described as one-nation Cons.
    - - Strengths
        
        Experienced, holding a series of high-ranking ministries
        
        Responsible for influential policies such as tripartite education system & review of capital punishment
        
        One-nation Cons. supportive of PWC
      - Weaknesses
        
        Divisive/ unpopular w/ some colleagues
      - Became famous as 'the best PM the Cons. never had'; architect of 1944 Education Act; played key role in party organisation & policies in preparation for power return in '51; chancellor from '51-'55; was seen as a possible party leader in '57 & '63
    - - Strengths
        
        Conciliatory figure in comparison to more divisive figures like Butler
      - Weaknesses
        
        Not elected as leader of party
        
        Member of aristocracy so seems out of touch
- - - - Support for NHS & welfare system
      - Full employment
      - Mixed economy: Both government & private business action important
      - Working in partnership w/ trade unions & employers
    - - Education
        
        Continuation of tripartite system (grammar, technical highs, secondary) set up by Butler Act of 1944
      - Social Reforms
        
        Welfare/NHS continue to be funded
        
        Acceptance of government regulation: Clean Air Act 1956, Factory Act 1959
        
        Some more liberal social reform: Homicide Act 1957 (restricted death penalty), Wolfenden Report 1957 (suggested homosexuality no longer be a crime)
      - Housing
        
        House-building programme: Macmillan (as Housing Minister) fulfilled Cons. pledge to build 300,000 houses per year by '53
        
        Replacing slums people lived in before the war
      - Industrial policy
        
        Some key industries remain nationalised: only iron & steel were denationalised in '53
        
        Conciliatory attitude towards trade unions
- - - - :arrow_left: Wholly supportive of nationalisation
      - :checkered_flag: Trade unions were concerned Lab. might abandon Clause IV; Gaitskell tried to amend it at '59 conference but backed down in face of opposition from Left
      - :arrow_right: Increasingly saw nationalisation as only one possible policy to be used when appropriate
    - - :checkered_flag: Trade Unionists (TUs) also favoured disarmament w/ motion passed to support it at 1960 Lab. Conference; Gaitskell managed to reverse this next year; Frank Cousins fiercely opposed Gaitskell
      - :arrow_right: Against Unilateral Disarmament
      - :arrow_left: Unilateral disarmament - many supported Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)
    - - :checkered_flag: Division broke out towards end of Lab. admin. 1945-51; set up ongoing rivalry between Bevan & Gaitskell
      - :arrow_right: Necessary to introduce charges to respond to financial pressures
      - :arrow_left: None - NHS to be free at point of delivery
- - - - Profumo affair - Macmillan's Secretary of State for War John Profumo combining sex, spying, high politics
      - Spy scandals e.g Blake (convicted of being Soviet spy in '61), Vassell (civil servant, blackmailed on homosexuality basis, to pass info to Soviet Union)
    - - Death of Bevan & Gaitskell
      - Election of Harold Wilson as leader
    - - Douglas-Home was unelected & a member of aristocracy
      - Target of satire e.g That was the week that was, Private Eye
      - Social change e.g youth culture, immigration, social mobility
    - - Growing economic concerns e.g stop-go economics, payment balance, inflation
      - Rejection of EEC membership application in '63
      - Macmillan's leadership e.g ill-health (major abdominal operation) & 'Night of the Long Knives', which weakened instead of rejuvenated the govn.