1a: A changing political landscape

Chapter summary: - In 1918 GB saw the extension of the franchise. This radically altered the political landscape in GB. The main beneficiary of this change was the Labour Party - The war had elevated DLG to the office of prime minister but the coalition he led unravelled in peacetime. DLG was eventually deposed by a meeting of the Conservative Party in 1922 which voted to end to coalition  -Labour had governments in 1924 and 1929 but both were minority governments, making it difficult for the to legislate effectively  - The Liberal Party went into decline in the 1920s eclipsed by Labour who took on the mantle of social reform - Between 1924-9 Stanley Baldwin's Conservative Party dominated GB politics - Ramsey MacDonald's second administration was split over the question of welfare cuts in 191 and the government fell. MacDonald and Snowden formed a National Government dominated by the Conservatives but led by MacDonald - Fascism and communism failed to take hold in GB - Until 1938 most GB people were keen to avoid war with Germany due to traumatic memories of WW1 The Peace Ballot and the Peace Pledge Union were clear signals to politicians that aggression would not be popular but GB rearmed from 1934 anyway - When the war broke out with Germany in 1939, Neville Chamberlain presided over a failed military expedition to Norway that saw his government fall in May 1940 - Chamberlain's replacement was Winston Churchill who unified GB and led the country to victory in 1945 - From 1945 to mid-1970s a consensus existed in GB politics which favoured nationalisation, full employment, an acceptance o a certain degree of inflation and a conciliatory approach to union disputes - In 1945 the Labour Party introduced the most far reaching social reform to health, education, housing and the workplace GB had seen - By 1951 an inability to end rationing led to the end of Labour rule and the start of 13 years of Conservative dominance - Throughout the 1960s inflation and strike days steadily increased - By the 1970s both Conservative and Labour governments were facing huge challenges from the unions - Edward Heath attempted to shift to the right and break the consensus in 1970 but was ultimately unable to do so  -Margaret Thatcher finally moved the Conservative Party to the right in the mid 1970s and won the general election in 1979

Key periods Economic decline and depression 1918-35 Rise of European dictators, 1933-9 War 1939-45 Recovery and austerity 1945-51; Post war consensus 1945+ ; Economic decline 1945+ ; Poor industrial relations 1945+ Welfare state 1951+ Consensus fracturing 1960s+

Key information 1 Changing party fortunes, 1918-39 GB emerged from WW1 victorious but economically damaged; during the war GB amassed £3.2b of war debts mainly to USA The liberal party 1918    - the liberals believed in free trade and a limited role for government; they were a party of social reform; from 1906 they implemented state pensions, unemployment relief and the beginnings of state provided healthcare    - pre WW1 the liberals had dominated politics and had faced: growing unrest over the Home rule in Ireland, the women's suffrage movement and an increasingly militant trade union movement; these were all interrupted due to WW1 but returned in 1918    - votes from the middle and artisan working class began to decline; these were the liberal's key voters    - the party was divided:           - many opposed the growth of the power of the state; conscription           - the war had resulted coalition with the conservatives from 1915 onwards. In 1916 David Lloyd George (DLG) was PM and many felt he was too close to the conservatives          - in the 1918 election DLG stood against many members who had stood in independent opposition to him which split the votes The Labour party 1918    - they evolved from the Labour Representation Committee of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) which was set up 1900 to organise trade unions    - as a result the labour party was seen to be close with the trade union movement who saw it as a useful tool in advancing men's pay and conditions    - in 1906 the labour party had nearly 1m affiliated members and 29MPs     - in 1910 labour had 40MPs and in 1911 it became easier for working class politicians to be elected as the Liberals allowed wages for MPs    - the Representation of the People Act 1918 saw the GB electorate triple in size from 7.7m-21.4m which expanded the party's voter base The Conservative Party 1918    - the conservative party had been associated with the landed gentry in the 19thC but electoral reform had forced the party to change    - by the end of WW1 they presented themselves as the party of the middle class and those aspiring to be better through property ownership    - the conservative party had been part of the coalition with DLG from 1915-8 and supported him as PM until 1922    - after 1918 a large proportion of their votes came from the newly enfranchised property owning women Voting rights    - the extension of voting rights had been ongoing throughout the 19thC with reforms in 1932,67,84; pressure for full democracy increased April 1917 when the USA joined the war    -USA president Woodrow Wilson had made spreading democracy a specific war aim and this put pressure on the government to extend the franchise    - in March 1918 they introduced the Representation of the People Act:          - nearly all GB adult men over 21 could vote          - women >30 were enfranchised if they owned property of were a member of a local government register; counted if they were married to a man who was either    - the Representation of the People Act was followed up in 1928 when women >21  given the vote on the same terms as men    - in 1969 a further act was brought which extended the vote to everyone >18 The decline of the Liberal Party - in 1918 the Liberal government had been in power since 1906 however the 4 years of conflict meant the liberals were a politically spent force and would never form a government in the 20thC elections ->    - the first 2 elections in 1918 and 1922 were important events in understanding the decline of the Liberal Party    - by 1918 liberal leader DLG had sufficiently split the party; the 1918 election was fought between the ruling Liberal-conservative coalition and the labour and liberal opposition partied    - the liberal-conservative coalition won by a landslide victory; the conservatives were the far more popular of the two with >3 times as many votes David Lloyd George ->    - the immediate cause of the Liberals decline was due to DLG    - in 1918 DLG was a national hero and was credited as the 'man who won the war' and a tough negotiator o could represent GB in the Paris Peace Conference    - he came from humble beginnings and made it clear he was an enemy of privilege and disliked the House of Lords (HoL)    - in June 1922 the news reported that he had been involved in a scandal selling knighthoods and peerages; in the past this had happened in return for large donations however it was done discreetly    - DLG was not discreet however and ran his trade from a private office he owned with widespread knowledge of the operation    - during his 6 years of being PM he sold 1,500 knighthoods and nearly 100 peerages; several were sold to the media to prevent them from reporting his actions    - when the 1922 honours list was announced it was found that he had even sold privileges to those with criminal convictions for fraud; at this point the press decided to publish the story    - DLG had previously called the honours system corrupt; the scandal severely damaged his credibility     - his further decision to go to war with Turkey if they didnt follow the Paris Peace Accord further dented his credibility and the conservative made it clear that they disagreed    - a secret meeting of leading Conservatives was held at the Carlton Club, a private members club used by London political elites    - at the meeting it was decided to abandon the coalition with the liberals     - the November 1922 election was a disaster as a result    - those led by DLG (now the National Liberal Party) were reduced to 53MPs    - others were led by Herbert Asquith who had 62MPs    - both sides of the the liberal parties were too small to prevent the decline of the liberals    - DLG personal unpopularity by 1922 was partly the cause of the Liberals' decline but the growth and the popularity of the Labour party had a greater impact The rise of the Labour Party - labour would win office twice in the 1920s but the two Labour governments of the era were to prove disappointments to many of their working class voters who had huge expectations labour in government ->    - the first Labour government was led by Ramsey McDonald in 1924    - it was a minority government and its election was seen as a deeply alarming development by many conservative supporting newspapers (i.e. The Times)    - the party was committed to parliamentary democracy and went to great lengths to demonstrate how moderate it was    - labours opponents in the conservative party and the media liked to compare it to the regime in Soviet Russia and suggested that there might be Soviet sympathisers among the cabinet    - one of the main problems that MacDonald and is government encountered was the strained relations with the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party itself    -MacDonald was forced to make harsh economic choices that affected the poorest voters and had to manage the threat of industrial action    - as PM he had to compromise but the party was critical of him for not being more radical; due to being a  minority government they relied on Liberal support and so any attempt to be too radical would result in a collapse of government    - the government lasted for 9 months which was too short to much legislation to be introduced    - some measures were passed however: Housing (Financial Provisions) Act 1924; increased the amount of money available to local authorities to build homes for low income workers    - government collapse          - MacDonald's government collapsed in the autumn of 1924 following a motion of no confidence which MacDonald only narrowly won          - the motion against Labour came about following the decision the Attorney General Sir Patrick Hastings to drop charges of incitement to mutiny against the socialist newspaper, the Worker's Weekly          - the newspaper had published an article by John Ross Campbell which broke to law by demanding that soldiers refuse to shoot down fellow workers, refuse to fight for profits and turn their weapons on their oppressors          - on august 6th he prosecution against Campbell was withdrawn under pressure from back bench labour MPs and MacDonald was accused by both Liberals and Conservative parties of having communist sympathies          - this case coincided with MacDonalds attempt to normalise relations between GB and Russia          -a second motion was passed against the government, calling for an official inquiry into the withdrawal of charges against Campbell          - MacDonald was forced to resign and call an election The General Election, October 1924  - Labour's election campaign was marred by the publication of a damaging story in the Daily Mail; the conservative supporting newspaper claimed that a letter from the Russian revolutionary Gregori Zinoviev to the British Communist Party had been discovered - the letter was latter found  to be a forgery but appeared to the public as an incitement to revolution in order to dissuade people from voting Labour - although the labour vote didnt collapse it lost the election to the conservative party under Stanley Baldwin which formed a majority government  - this election was a defining moment for the Liberal Party as a declining force in GB politics it saw a 12% decline in its share of the vote and a loss of 118 seats - the conservatives were the clear beneficiaries taking seats from both the liberal and labour parties with first time labour voters being left disappointed and voting conservative instead conservative dominance the new conservative government formed by Stanley Baldwin presented itself as an alternative to the Labour Party and the threat of socialism in GB - Baldwin wanted to be seen as a moderate politician who could appeal to all classes; he believe that the rhetoric class war, that had emerged during MacDonald's premiership, was deeply damaging and so he discouraged the conservative party from attacking Labour as secret agents of the USSR  - when confronted with a general strike in 1926 and defeated it, he attempted to be conciliatory to the striker reforms to Labour's funding ->    - despite Baldwin's appeals to his party for peaceful coexistence with the labour party, many conservative MPs still felt he government should use all methods at its disposal to weaken it and the trade unions    - in 1925 a private members bill to prevent the labour party from receiving a political levy from the trade unions which would have financially crippled it; it was opposed by Baldwin and subsequently failed     - Baldwin's conciliatory approach could not be sustained in the long run; following the general strike he yielded to pressure to introduce laws reducing labour's funding from the unions    - in 1927 an amendement to the 1906 Trade Disputes Act menat that the political levy on union members could no longer be automatically deducted from their union membership and passed to the Labour party but the members now had to agree to pay it; >1/3 opted out and labour's finances fell by 35% a changing political landscape, 1929-31 - in march 1929 Baldwin held a general election - although the conservatives won the largest share of the popular vote it did not translate into a majority of seats and MacDonald was able to return to power social reforms ->    - MacDonald had much more ambitious reforms planned for his second term; being a minority government it made him dependent upon the Liberals again but had formed a largely cooperative relationship with them    - passed some reforms:          - 1930 Housing Act; cleared 3/4m slum houses and replaced them with modern homes by 1939          - Coal Mines Act 1930; attempted to ensure better pay for workers and more efficient pits but it was weak and ignored by mine owners          - amendment to the Unemployment Insurance Act; gave the government powers to create public work schemes to alleviate unemployment, funded with £25m of government money    - the government was limited by the growing economic crisis referred to as an 'economic blizzard'  economic problems ->    - during the summer of 1931 there were rumours that the budget would be unbalanced; this caused banks in USA to panic sell the pound which caused it to slump in value    - in order to reassure financiers that their investments were safe the government proposed spending cuts, tax hikes and a 10% cut in unemployment assistance    - these measures would help keep the value of the pound stable but caused hardships for many of GB's poorest - the threat of cuts split the Labour party and MacDonald's cabinet resigned on 24th August 1931 - after negotiating with other main political parties and at the urging of King George V, MacDonald formed a National Government from the 3 main parties with himself as PM - both MacDonald and his chancellor of exchequer, Lord Phillip Snowden, were viewed as traitors to the Labour Party which passed a motion expelling them - they formed a new National Labour Committee which was designed to sponsor Labour parliamentary candidates who supported the National Government  

Key information 2 The National Government, 1931-45 - following the government's collapse in August, MacDonald called an election in October 1931 fearing it would destroy the Labour Party but was insisted upon by the Conservatives in the National Government - the National Government won the election by a huge majority but it was the conservatives within it who won the majority of seats - MacDonald continued as PM but only as a figurehead - the share of the vote for the labour party slumped with many believing they put themselves and trade unions before the nation - by expelling MacDonald and Snowden the Labour Party appeared to be rejecting a coalition of national unity and the national government presented them as 'running away' from difficult decisions - the national government was to last until 1945 although various elections showed a shift in party support MacDonald's premiership. 1931-35 -MacDonald' premiership was dominated by the economic challenges caused by the Great Depression - the government made some moves to rearm, given the increasingly threatening situation in Europe and the rise of fascism there as well as at home Economic policy and its effect ->    -  the national government implemented spending cuts which had caused the previous governments downfall    - public sector pay cuts of 10% were felt to be so harsh that they led to a mutiny in the Royal Navy naval base of Invergordon    - in addition to the spending cuts the National Government was able to introduce a limited number of tariffs    - by 1933 the end of the Gold Standard and low-interest rates had begun to stimulate an economic recovery; this increased party popularity however MacDonald became increasingly isolated in the government Labour party opposition ->    - the labour party managed to reorganise itself throughout the first half of the 1930s and become the official opposition to the government    - under its new leader, Clement Attlee, it managed to gain 154 seats at the 1935 General Election  The growth in extreme political ideas ->    - throughout the 1930s there was an increase in support for extreme ideas on both the far left and far right    - communist and fascist parties saw an increase in their membership as they began to feel liberal democracy was no longer effective    - by 1935 the British Union of Fascists had 50,000 members and the Communist Party of GB (CPGB) had 9,000    - the CPGB  organised the National Unemployed Worker's Movement throughout the 1930s which is argued to have represented hundreds of thousands of unemployed men    - many intellectuals on the left, including Fabians Sidney and Beatrice Webb, visited the Soviet Union and believed it was an economic success; from the 1930s onwards they often argued convincingly in favour of state planning Oswald Mosley. 1896-1980 ->    - characteristic and forceful Labour MP who was inspired by seemingly dramatic economic policies of Mussolini's Italy which had been under fascist control since 1922    - mosley resigned in frustration of the national government and set up his own organisation, the New Party, in March 1931    - the new party put forward a manifesto for change which temporarily appealed to both those from the left and the right; it demanded a coordinated national economic plan to deal with the economic crisis    - moderates who had previously supported him soon withdrew support when he established his own group of violent enforcers called 'Biff Boys' who attacked his opponents    - in 1932 mosley drew all fascist organisations in GB together with the new party to form the British Union of Fascists (BUF); the union's impacts would overall prove to be negligible but it was a show of challenge to law and order    - the national government passed the Public Order Act in 1936 which banned groups from wearing uniforms and requiring permission for marches and demonstrations; mosley never became a threat and began to decline in 1936    - despite the BUF's decline, it did demonstrate that there were many people who did not believe a system of parliamentary democracy would be able to solve the economic problems Disarmament and rearmament ->    - from 1933 onwards many GB people began to take a much more active interest in world events; the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor of Germany created a divide over rearmament     - with traumatic memories of WW1, many people were drawn to organisations such as the Peace Pledge Union and the League of Nations Union that supported peaceful    - by the early 1930s, the idea that Germany was solely responsible for WW1 had been rejected by GB but that it was an arms race and secret treaties that caused it    - the government negotiated with other powers to disarm at the World Disarmament Conference which ran between 1932-4 but broke down in 1933 when Germany withdrew so it could rearm to the same levels as Europe    - after Germany left, Baldwin argued not for disarmament but for agreed limitations to a nations arms    -from 1934 onwards GB started to rearm: the GB Army was reorganised; The Royal Navy was expanded the munitions industry was developed in partnership with private capital; the RAF was increased in size to 40 squadrons Stanley Baldwin's premiership, 1935-7 - By 1935 Ramsey MacDonald was very unwell and was forced to step down; he was replaced by Baldwin who was elected for his 3rd term    - he pledged new houses, jobs and government help for the most economically deprived parts of the country; he also pledged to improve GB's defences despite the lack of desire for this Labour and collective security ->    - throughout Baldwin's premiership, the labour party continued to be divided on the question of peace and security    - in 1936 when Hitler broke the Treaty of Versailles by reoccupying the Rhineland, Labour opposed the threat of economic sanctions but the national government was divided    - Harold Nicholson, a national labour MP and former diplomat who attended the Paris Peace Conference summed up the situation in 1936; any threat of action against Germany would result in a general strike in GB    - the GBs and French governments did nothing following Germany's actions but Baldwin continued with rearmament Chamberlain's premiership, 1937-40 - Stanley Baldwin resigned in 1937 due to ill health, making way for his chancellor Neville Chamberlain to become PM - Chamberlain was PM during a period of economic recovery, falling unemployment and stable prices - the main problem that the National Government under Chamberlain and Baldwin before him would face was the breakdown of international order made war increasingly likely but the antiwar movement in GB was growing in strength a factor which made rearmament more difficult - the desire for peace among the electorate encouraged the national government to allow a series of concessions to Nazi Germany as Hitler continued to tear up the Treaty of Versailles Neville Chamberlain, 1869-1940 ->    - became lord mayor of Birmingham in 1915, served as Director of National Service in 1916 administering conscription in DLG's government    - by 1923 he was chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin's first administration and the 2 men maintained strong political allegiance for the following 12 years; he became chancellor of the exchequer in the national government too    - he is often associated with appeasing Hitler and on 3 occasions he went to Germany in 1938 to try and prevent war; the Munich Agreement of September 1938 granted nearly all of Hitler's demands and allowed him to annex the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia  and Chamberlain returned promising 'peace for our time' but Hitler attacked Poland in September 1939 and war broke out    - after a failed military expedition to Norway in April 1940, Chamberlain resigned having lost many MP's support and he died later that year    - as chancellor and PM he misjudged the scale of military spending requires; he increased military spending by £120m in 1934 believing this would cover 5 years but by 1937 it had been increased to £1.5b and was still an underestimate of the total amount needed 2 years later when the war began Chamberlain replaced ->    - following the declaration of war in September 1939, the British Expeditionary Force was mobilised to France where a 7 month stand off occurred with little actions    - the 'phoney war' ended in April 1940 with a bungled GB attempt to save Norway from German invasion    - in the resultant Norway debate in parliament on May 7th, Chamberlain faced the full fury of both opposition and government benches for the incompetent handling of the war     - he narrowly won a vote of no confidence but recognised it in real terms as a defeat; on May 9th Chamberlain attempted to form a new coalition government but the Labour Party refused to serve under him, leaving either lord Halifax or Winston Churchill    - halifax realised he could not run the war from the house of lords ad stepped aside to give the job to Churchill who came into power on the day of Germany's invasion of France    - Churchill's wartime cabinet was a mixture of political parties and included many labour politicians from the centre and right who he thought were ready to place national interests above party politics Churchill's premiership, 1940-45 - on may 13th Churchill made his first speech as PM to the house of commons offering 'blood, toil, tears and sweat' as the situation in France deteriorated - by the end of the month the situation had worsened, the German Army had swept through France and the British Expeditionary Force withdrew to Dunkirk where they were trapped on the beaches waiting for evacuation - german successes brought about a new political crisis in government as some ministers considered whether or not to make peace; on may 25th Halifax proposed a negotiated settlement with Germany which clashed with Churchill - churchill called a meeting of the whole cabinets arguing that GB would be a slave state if it agreed to German terms - much of the popular view of Churchill, his stoicism in the face of adversity was formed during this debate and subsequent speeches to parliament - Churchill's wartime cabinet served under him until the war ended in may 1945 and at the end of WW2 social, cultural and political changes were accelerated by the pressure of total war that had affected every part of society        

Key information 3 The rise of consensus politics and political challenge, 1945-79 - Labour achieved a considerable amount in its first five ars of government and its social reforms were popular with much of the country - main reforms were:    - the establishment of the National Health Service    - the National Insurance Act    - the National Assistance Act    - the Housing Act 1949 wich extended local authority's powers to build public sector housing for all income groups    - the implementation of the Education Act 1944 - after its landslide win in the 1945 election, the Labour government went on to win another in 1950 which saw its majority slashed to just 5 seats despite polling >1.5m more votes than conservatives Reasons for the decline in Labour's vote - some of Labour's lost seats in 1950 were due to the 1949 House of Commons (Redistribution of seats) Act which reduced the number of Labour safe seats by redrawing constituency boundaries - others were lost due to the decline in popularity with the middle class alongside the size of the working class shrinking as only 72% viewed themselves as working class in 1951 compared to 78% in 1931 - the main causes of Labour were:     - rationing; wartime food and fuel rationing continued after the war with some items such as bread that were not restricted during wartime becoming rationed in peacetime    - austerity; the labour party seemed unable to revive GB's struggling economy in the immediate post-war years    - taxation; the standard rate of taxation in 1949 was nine shillings in every pound (45%) and the top rate of marginal tax for high earners was 90% The 1951 General Election - following the 1950 election, PM Clement Attlee found it increasingly difficult to control the Labour government; by 1951 he was exhausted by 5 years of government and many of his most able ministers fell ill or had died - when Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin died in 1951 the party lost one of its most able and talented ministers and in October 1950 Sir Stafford Cripps resigned due to ill health; this deprived Attlee of 2 of his most experienced ministers in just over 6 months of each other - in 1951 the party was conflicted due to budget cuts - in 1950 GB became involved in the Korean War to protect South Korea as a part of the new United Nations force; the war resulted in a huge increase in military spending and the new chancellor Hugh Gaitskell announced an 'austerity budget' in 1951 - the new budget introduced prescription charges for glasses and dentistry and resulted in the resignation of Aneurin Bevin, the minister for labour and pioneer of the NHS - Attlee had previously been skilled at defusing feuds within the party by but in 1951 he lacked authority and called an election in October which was lost to the conservative party - although Labour gained, more votes it won fewer seats because of the new constituency structure and the first-past-the-post system - Labour voters tended to be concentrated in fewer, mainly urban, constituencies - the conservative won by 26 constituencies and so formed the next government whilst promising to maintain the main features of the welfare state and return the country to prosperity, whilst remaining united unlike Labour Conservative dominance, 1951-64 - for the next 13 years, the conservative party would dominate GB politics and win 2 general elections in 1955 and 1959 - the main thrust of the policies were not much different to those of Labour; The Economist used the term 'Butskillism' which was a mixture of the chancellors' names from 1951 and 1955 (Gaitskell and R.A.Butler) to describe the economic welfare policies associated with the post-war consensus - winston Churchill returned to Downing Street for 4 years just as the wartime rations and restrictions came to an end; he was 76 at this time and many of his colleagues observed he had lost his dynamism and drive but acted as a 'caretaker' Eden's government, 1955-7 - even though Churchill suffered a stroke in 1953 he still managed to remain in office until retiring in 1955 - churchill was replaced by Antony Eden who was a relatively young and popular politician with an impressive wartime record as churchill's foreign minister - in 1955 Eden called a general election in May 195 to ensure he had a strong mandate and was proven right - by July 1955 GB had the lowest unemployment figures in recent history with only 215,000 people out of work (just over 1% of the workforce) - within a year however, Eden become embroiled in a foreign policy disaster; the Suez crisis suez crisis ->    - GB had maintained a presence in Egypt since the 19thC to protect the Suez canal which was owned by GB and France and used as its route to India    - after Indian independence in 1947 the canal was used as a means of shipping oil to GB, Europe and USA    - the nationalist president of Egypt, Gamal Abdul Nasser, stated that the canal should be in Egyptian hands and that he would be willing to pay GB shareholders a fair price for it     - Eden reacted with suspicion and hostility and when Nasser occupied the Canal Zone on July 26th 1956. his close relationship with the USSR convinced the GB that the canal would soon fall into Soviet hands    - when France and Israel invited GB to take part in an invasion of the Suez Canal Zone, Eden agreed in secret to participate; his motivation was to not be humiliated by Nasser and he knew his standing in the conservative party depended on presenting a strong image as an international statesman    - when the invasion began on November 5th 1956, US President Eisenhower, reacted angrily as a result of not being consulted on GB's intentions; he threatened to sell USA reserves of GB currency and collapse the value of the pound    - faced with the possibility of an economic crisis, Eden withdrew and resigned in January 1957    - the events at Suez showed a depletion of GB's world power and its dependence upon the USA Macmillan's GB, 1957-63    - Eden was replaced by his chancellor of the exchequer, Harold Macmillan    - a mixed economy, rising living standards, low unemployment and declining social inequality made the Macmillan government very popular    - in 1957 GB wages and living standards were at their most equal in the 20thC between the rich and the poor    - in 1959 Genral Election the conservatives increased their majority  dissent on the right ->    - 1959 Chancellor Peter Thorneycroft, Treasury Minister Nigel Birch and Financial Secretary to the Treasury Enoch Powell all resigned; they felt Macmillian was spending too much and storing up economic problems    - they believed that inflation posed a bugger threat to the economy than unemployment did; they proposed spending cuts, tax rises nd an end to subsidies to nationalised industries alongside other measures to take out excess money    - the resignation of the 3 men was embarrassing but during a period of low unemployment and relatively low inflation, their exit made little impact on the wider public night of the long knives ->    - by 1962 the popularity of the conservative party was declining; Macmillan's privileged background and the large number of upper class cabinet members (35 being former eton students)  gave the impression that the pary was out of touch    - the labour party under Gaitskell and then Wilson, argued that priviledged aristocratic conservatives that had rose through conections, not their ability, were holding GB back    - the dramatic increase in consumer spending had resulted in a series of unforeseen economic problems and Macmillan needed to demonstrate that he was in control    - macmillan sacked 7 ministers from his cabinet and replaced them with younger men in an attempt to save his image as the conservatives were seen to be ageing ad privileged instead of young and meritocratic    - in the early 1960s tv and newspapers were dominated by youth culture and the likes of JFK as US president     - macmillan was breifly seen to be ruthless but it was widely approved showing that he was capable of taking action scandal ->    -  another area where the conservatives were starting to be mistrusted was the issue of national security    - at the height of the cold war, 3 high profile scandals rocked the government    - john vassal: between 1952-62he was a naval attache at the GB embassy in Moscow and was blackmailed by the KGB where he passed on large quantities of top-secret information on the GB Royal Navy and was caught when Soviet spies defected to the west and gave MI6 his name    - Harold 'Kim' Philby: in Jan 1963 he defected to the USSR despite being one of GB's most senior intelligence agents. he was the head of GB Counter Intelligence and had been under suspicion since the 1950s. As foriegn secretary in 1955 Macmillan had publicly announced that he had investigated and exonerated him and so was hugely embarrased when he defected. because of the Official Secrets Act it was not announced untill 1968 that Philby was such a high officer    - John Profumo: less than 6 months later in June 1963, the government's secretary of state for war admitted to having an affair with Christine Keeler. He had previously denied the affair to Macmillan who had believed him; it later transpired that she had also had a relationship with Yevgeny Ivanov who was a Russian attache and the media focussed on the spy angle despite it being a likley security risk Sir Alec Douglas-Home - ill health and the stress of mounting problems forced Macmillan to resign in October 1963 - Home was regarded by most of his party to be a skilled administrator ad an astute politician - Home's image problems would damage the conservatives in the next election; he was a member of the house of lords and had the title of Earl before he renounced it to become PM - satirists on tv and in magazines ridiculed Home for his aristocratic manners Wilson's government, 1964-70 - he had been the leader of the labour party for a year when he won the 1964 election  - he presented the party as meritocratic and classless, comparing it to public perceptions of the conservative party - during the election wilson effectively used the tv to present himself as the face of modern GB; despite this labour only won by a slight majority and thus could not make major policy changes without a new election to gain more seats wilson's plans and problems ->    - wilson and his chancellor, James Callaghan, discovered in the first few days that GB's economic problems were far worse than they had previously thought; previous chancellor, Reginald Maudling, had delivered generous tax cuts and spending promises to the last budget and left the country in £800m deficit    - wilson had promised to improve pensions and build 1/2m new homes a year alongside maintain GB's military presence overseas which was 1/5 of GB's spending in the 1960s    - wilson did not wish to abandon his commitments to either social reform or GB's prestige and so to lessen the pressure on the economy, devalued the pound in 1967 against his wishes; this caused Callaghan to resign as chancellor wilsons achievements ->    - in 1966 there was a second general election which enabled labour to get the majority it needed    - wilson's government made many reforms: new universities and polytechnics were built; the open university was established; laws on abortion, homosexuality and the death penalty were liberalised    - much of this undermined the economic problems     - the sense of optimism that dominated politics in 1964 had disappeared by 197 with the feeling that wilson had not fulfilled his promises wilson and his cabinet ->    - declined in popularity towards the end of the 1960s as unemployment began to steadily grow and the number of days lost to strikes began to increase    - wilson became increasingly suspicious of government ministers fearing that they were after his position; Roy Jenkins, James Callaghan and Barbara Castle were all potential candidates    - the decline in the cabinet's morale had serious consequences       - in 1969 legislation to curb unofficial strike was proposed by Barbara Castle but due to wilson's paranoia he refused fearing that Callaghan would use it to create a confrontation; this led to a decade of rising strikes and union unrest Heath's government, 1970-4 - Edward Heath attempted to bring about a radical political change from 1970 onwards; he sought to break the post war consensus regarding the size of the state and commitment to full employment - prior to the 1970 election Heath and his shadow cabinet met at the Selsdon Park Hotel and planned a new manifesto and began introducing it after his election  - Heath referred to the change in direction as a 'quiet revolution'; he believed that by removing the state from people's lives they would become more enterprising - a first budget from Chancellor Anthony Barber featured tax cuts and government spending cuts; Heath ended wilson's incomes policy believing that wages should be set by the market - the Barber budget failed to cure GB's growing economic problems and fuelled inflation; heath was forced to take a U-turn within 18 months - heaths biggest problem was his poor relationship with trade unions; by 1974 there had been 2 miners strikes  - Heath faced criticism from both his party and opposition; wilson accused Heath of trying to strip away union rights whilst his party saw Heath as a traitor for betraying his promises from Selsdon with some forming the 'Selsdon Group' dedicated to introducing free market policies and reducing state intervention - following the 2nd miners strike over the winter of 1973-4, Heath declared a state of emergency and a 3 day week - he called a general election in February 1974 as a referendum on union power but lost; reflects a lack of confidence in his abiloty to manage the union, inflation and economic decline Labour government, 1974-9 - Harold Wilson was back as PM with a minority government  - wilson was older, in poorer health and had little of the modernising zeal that he once had  - the hung parliament meant that he needed to call a second election in 1974; he gained a slender majority of 3 seats The third Wilson government, 1974-6 ->    - the 1st priority of the government was to end union unrest by repealing the Industrial Relations Act; instead it attempted to return to the corporatism of the 1960s by developing a policy called 'social contract'    - in return for the unions agreeing not to pursue excessive wage claims, the government would offer subsidies to the cost of living    - wilson attempted to present his government as conciliatory towards the unions    - in short he ended miners' strikes but the new policy did nothing to deal with the underlying cause of the strikes, inflation.    - wilson's party was divided into 3: the centre right, soft left and hard left          - the centre right: Wilson, Callaghan and Denis Healey. ideas were similar to the of the left of the conservatives. Healey embraced monetarism in 1975 and abandoned the post war commitment to full employment          - soft left: led by Micheal Foot. pro-union but lacked Tony Benn's radicalism          - hard left: led by Tony Benn. extreme left wing thinking. wanted a siege economy (control imports and reduce exports) in response the the 1976 IMF crisis - wilson resigned in 1976 having become less interested in and concerned with running the government Callaghan's government, 1976-9 ->    - following wilson's decision to resign he became PM    - he was from the centre right like wilson and his Chancellor Denis Healey was; they began to abandon key aspects of the post war economic consensus    - he was a pragmatists and did not follow policies based on ideology but on practicality; this clashed with Tony Benn, part of the cabinet    - he did not believe that GB could spend its way out of the crisis but must 'pay its way' in the world    - he believed GB had borrowed to live beyond its means for too long and that this caused the loss of confidence in GB and the pound    - Benn proposed leaving the EEC and believed that GB could effectively cut herself off from the global economy using a siege economy o protect state spending on welfare from international banks and currency traders    - Benn became an increasingly marginal figure as his arguments were seen to be unworkable and extreme    - despite divisions, Callaghan was able to remain popular with the electorate and was believed that he would defeat Margaret Thatcher at the next elections as she had low opinion poll ratings    - the winter of strikes caused Callaghan's own poll ratings to slump; in March 1979 69% were dissatisfied with the government's performance yet only 45% thought Thatcher was performing well as leader of the opposition - in March 1979 Margaret Thatcher won the General Election for the conservatives