(4) "The civilised society" - Education
and culture
Description
A level British History (Labour, Wilson 1964-70) Mind Map on (4) "The civilised society" - Education
and culture, created by Marcus Danvers on 03/03/2014.
(4) "The civilised society"
- Education and culture
Roy Jenkins as Home Secretary
Roy Jenkins (Home Secretary) encouragement of what he
termed "the civilised society" that made an impact on ordinary
people in Britian and certainly excited more dabate.
There was a dramatic "freeing up" of society as
the state eased regulation of whole areas of
Human behaviour and softened punishiment
Almost all of the changes come about as a result of private members
bills, but as Roy Jenkins made clear none would have made it onto
the statute book without government approval and help
Punishment
Reforms
Capital
Punishment 1965
In 1965, silverman finally got a Bill
that suspened capital punishment
for five years passed and in 1969, it
was completely abolished
Criminal Justice
Bill 1967
The Criminal Justice Bill in 1967, which ended the birching of young offenders. It also
introduced the concept of a suspended sentence and extened early parole for certain prisoners.
The bill also sought to increase certainty of conviction by allowing majority vercicts in jury cases.
Social Reforms
Sexual Offences
Bill 1967
Leo Abse, a Welsh Labour MP, was responsible for the Bill. There was growing pressure
from the great and the good to legalise homosexuality between consenting adults. Across
much of the country there was a slow but growing toleration of homosexuality
Many had noted how the law as it stood encouraged blackmail and that the
spy, John Vassall, would probably not have betrayed his country had it not
been possiable for the Russians to blackmail him for his sexual taste.
The medically Termination of
pregnancy (or Abortion) Bill 1967
The illegality of abortion makes estimates of its extent difficult, but 100,000
per year in the UK in the 1950's appear likely. This added up to considerable
medical risk as well as social stigma and humiliation for many girls and woman
David steel's bill not only legalised abortion on the
grounds of physical harm to the mother, but also
allowed her mental health to be taken into account
The Family
planning act 1967
It sought to cut the number of unwanted pregnancies by
removing the restrictions of medical or matital status on
woman's access to local authority birth control services
Divorce Reform Act 1969
This act made divorce much easier. To its supporters, it helped
to end years of private suffering and domestic unhappiness; to
its critics it encouraged the break-up of the family
Theatre Act 1968
This was the Abolishment of theatre censorship,
which was conducted by the Lord Chamberlins office
Race relations Reforms
Race Relation acts of 1966 and 1968, established and then
extended the powers of the Race Relations Board, which was
designed to investigate complaints against unfair discrimination
Education and Culture
Tony Crosland Education Secretary, he took up
Labour party 1964 commitment to further
comprehensive education with enthusiam
Tony Crosland was a product
of Winchester Collage (private
school) and Oxford
He famouly declared war on the grammar
schools of England and Wales, despite the
fact that it advances social mobility
Unable to fulfil his pledgy entriely,
but he speed up the process
The famous Education Department directive 10/65, tying
money for new schools buildings to local authorities
adopting plans to implement comprehensive schools
By 1970 129 out of the 163 English and Welsh local
education authorities have agreed plans for
reorganising their secondary schools
Crosland had also expressed discontent with
the attitudes of big business and private
sector back in 1956, with respect to education
Apart from setting up the Newsom
Commission to consider the
problem, nothing was done
Crosland enthusiastically promoted higher education.
There was a massive expansion of polytechnics,
brought about in 1967 and design to close the
technology gap between Britain and her competitors
Culture
Jennie Lee, was appointed
Minister for the Arts
She oversaw a considerable expansion in funding for arts and the
grants to Art Coucil virtually tripled, adding considerably to the
artistic diversity and excellence of the country
Not only a good in itself, it promoted
tourism and helped to make Britain a
world centre of artistic merit
Perhaps even more important was her
campaign to launch the Open University; a
campaign vigorously backed by Wilson