Britain

• 1942 Beveridge Report- 5 Giants


  Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness
• Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, Idleness

  WANT, Family Allowances Act 1945 National Insurance Act 1946 National Assistance Act 1948. National Service Act 1946. Education Act 1944. New Towns Act 1946. Full Employment
• Clement Attlee

  Prime Minister 1945-1951

  Leader of the Labour Party 1935-1955

  Presided over decolonisation of India, Pakistan and Burma

  Introduced the Welfare State
• Nye Bevan

  Minister of Health under Attlee

  Responsible for NHS

  Resigned in 1951 over rearmament program
• Hugh Gaitskell

  Labour leader 1955-1963

  Minister of Fuel and Power 1947

  Chancellor 1950
• Harold Wilson

  Prime Minister 1964-1970, 1974-1976

  Steered Britain clear of Vietnam war
• Winston Churchill

  Prime Minister of Great Britain during WWII, then again in 1951-1955

  Created the 'Special Relationship' with the US

  Resigned due to ill health in second term
• Anthony Eden

  Prime Minister 1955-1957

  Secretary of State for War in 1940

  Nationalised the Suez Canal Company that led to the Suez Crisis in 1957, leading to his resignation
• RAB Butler

  Chancellor 1951-1955

  Leader of the House of Commons 1955-1961

  Home Secretary 1957-1962
• Harold Macmillan

  'Supermac'

  Prime Minister 1957-1963

  Led a united Conservative party

  Won a landslide in 1959
• Alec Douglas-Home

  Prime Minister 1963-1964

  Unable to solve balance of payments crisis
• Housing 1950s

  1951 Conservative Manifesto promised 300,000 new houses to help rebuild lost stock from the war
• Social reforms 1950s

  1956 Clean Air Act

  1956 Housing and Factory Acts aimed to improve working conditions

  1957 Homicide Act- restricted use of the death penalty
• Wolfenden Report

  1957- Decriminalised homosexuality
• 1950s Labour split

  Left- Nye Bevan

  Right- Hugh Gaitskell

  Issues over Unilateral Nuclear disarmament

  Issues over Trade Unions
• Bevanite Quarrel 1951

  Split over NHS prescription charges

  Led to Bevan's resignation
• Frank Cousins

  Leader of Transport and General Workers Union 1956
• EEC

  Britain rejected in 1963 and 1967 (Applied in 1961 and 1966)
• Night of the Long Knives


  1962 Macmillan cabinet reshuffle

  Sacked 1/3 of his ministers
• John Profumo

  Secretary of State for War 1960

  Had an affair with Christine Keeler in 1961 leading to the downfall of Macmillan's government in 1963
• Increased Affluence

  £134 million in tax cuts made by RAB Butler

  Wages increased

  Costs reduced

  Rationing ended in 1954

  Higher standard of living and birth rate

  New technology- TVs, Cars, Applicances
• National Economic Development Council (NEDC)

  Set up in 1962 to foster economic cooperation between government and unions
• Peter Thorneycroft

  Chancellor under Macmillan

  Resigned over splits with him in 1958
• National Income Commission (NIC)

  Oversaw and regulated wages and prices
• Charles de Gaulle

  French President

  Vetoed British entry into EEC in 1963 and 1969
• Beeching Report

  1963- recommended reducing public expenditure by 30%

  Many railroads were cut
• Butlins

  60,000 people holidayed there
• Angry Young Men

  Young British Writer in the 1950s and 60s who used their work to challenge the establishment and attack the upper classes

  Look Back in Anger 1956 Written by John Osborne
• Denning Report

  Criticised the government over the handling of the Profumo Affair
• Commonwealth Immigrant Act

  1962
• Notting Hill Riots

  1958
• Mods

  Inspired by Italian fashion

  Listened to The Beatles, The Who etc.

  Middle Class
• Rockers

  Inspired by Marlon Brando in 'The Wild One'

  Lower/Working Class
• Britain's first nuclear test

  1952, under Churchill
• 1949

  Founding member of NATO
• Burgess and Maclean Affair

  Two British officers defected to Soviet Union in 1951.

  Worried America who didn't want to share intelligence with Britain
• British Colonialism 1950s/Early 1960s

  1947-Withdrawal from India

  1952-Start of Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya

  1957-Independence granted to Ghana

  1960-'Winds of Change' speech

  1961-South Africa leaves Commonwealth

  1961-Independence given to Tanzania

  1963-independence given to Kenya
• George Brown

  Deputy leader of Labour 1964-1970

  Alcoholic
• Roy Jenkins

  Home Secretary 1965-1967

  Split off to form SDP in the 70s
• Barbara Castle

  Secretary of State

  'In place of Strife' white paper