Edexcel History A Britain 1930 - 1950 - Labour in Power

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Covers everything from Labour winning the elections to the Beveridge Report to the NHS of Edexcel History A's section on Labour in Power in the Britain 1930 - 1950 Unit.
Natalia  Cliff
Flashcards by Natalia Cliff, updated more than 1 year ago
Natalia  Cliff
Created by Natalia Cliff over 7 years ago
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Question Answer
Calling an Election -Many people in Britain saw May 1945 as the war, despite Britain still fighting in Japan -Churchill and Attlee (CHurchill's deputy) both wanted to keep the coalition government until Japan's defeat -Labour and Liberals wanted an immediate election, many conservatives wanted to get votes from Churchill's war popularity -23rd May Churchill resigned and elections were called for 5th June -Conservatives focused on Churchill and the war, not their policies and the future -Labour focused on the future and promised reform, built on the social reform that many people wanted after the war
Why did the Conservatives Lose? -Many people didn't trust their promises for reform as conservative MPs had spent years opposing such reforms in parliament -Many people remembered the depression and Conservative attitudes toward the unemployed -Relied too much on Churchill, not policies -Labour laid out policies for change in line of what they were demanding in parliament -Churchill said that a socialist state can't be run without a Gestapo. Attlee had been deputy for the majority of the war
Beveridge Report: Publishing -1 December 1942, 300 pages long the Beveridge report was published -Many MPs disagreed strongly, but the public loved it -70 000 copies sold on the first day
Beveridge Report: Recomendations -Stated that the state should support citizens from the cradle to the grave -Identified 5 giants to "fight" -Want, ignorance, Disease, Squalor, Idleness -The government took more control over aspects of life, people's views on what the government should do changed -E.g. in 1942 set up free school meals and milk as a temporary measure
Beveridge Report: Fighting Want -1945 National Government passed Family Allowance Act that paid 5 shillings per child bar the eldest -Payments didn't begin until August so people credited the newly elected Labour Party -1946 National Insurance Act took NI payments from workers (4s 11d) and employers for the government to provide unemployment, maternity and sickness benefits as well as old age pensions -1946 National Assistance Act provided government help for homeless, disabled and mentally ill
Beveridge Report: Fighting Idleness -From 1945 Government building schemes provided work Ignorance -1944 Education act, school free until 14 -1947 Education act, school free until 15 Squalor -1946 New Towns Act meant 17 new towns built and 4 enlarged significantly. By September 1948 had built 750 000 homes, the number destroyed by the war Disease -1946 National Health Service Act, free medical, dental and eye care for all -1947 NHS Act charges on some prescriptions and services
NHS: Opposition -Most doctors belonged to the BMA (British Medical Association) which opposed any health care reforms the government tried to pass -Bevan (Labour Minister of Health) was determined to start the NHS so he pushed the NHS act through in 1946 despite the BMAs protests -Date was set for January 1948 for NHS to start, but BMA disputes pushed this back to April. Didn't start until June
NHS: Impact -People rushed to make use of it not quite believing that there really was free health care -Government had worked out the cost based on normal usage, so they badly underestimated the cost -1949 a one shilling cost towards prescriptions introduced (old, poor and disabled needn't pay) only came into effect in 1952 but Bevan resigned as Minister of Health because of it -1951 put a cost of 1 shilling toward glasses or half the cost of false teeth (old, poor and disabled needn't pay) -1951-52 first year that NHS didn't overspend -Many people had medical issues checked out that they didn't have the money to before the NHS -NHS struggled under the load of thousands of patients -Dentures cost £20 m in the first year alone -Waiting list for prescription glasses rose to 6 months -Withing 10 years infant mortality halved -Death from infectious disease dropped by 80% -Life Expectancy rapidly rose
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