5

• Consensus 60s, 70s


  Neither Labour nor the Conservatives interested in joining the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) : 1951 Treaty of Paris, or the European Economic Community (EEC) : 1957 Treaty of Rome-> Britain missed opportunity help shape the new Europe
• Postwar consensus


  Agreement between the main parties in Westminster from the 1940s until the 1970s about certain key principles, including full employment, a mixed economy in which the state controlled certain important industries, active government in which the state would use Keynesian techniques to boost demand, a strong welfare state, conciliation with trade and unions and the role of the expert civil servant in running government and the economy
• Ben Pimlott : 'the myth of consensus'
• Kevin Hickson : consensus limited to policy not ideology
• 1960s : living standards rose continuously, durable consumer goods (cars, washing machines, television sets)
• Conservative election posters in 1959

  • Showing a happy middle-class families with father, mother and two children enjoying their new homes and car : 'Life's better with the Conservatives, don't let Labour ruin it'
• Social changes in the 1960s

  • Contraceptive pills
  • More couples lived openly together unmarried
  • Having a child outside marriage
  • Abortion decriminalized in 1967
  • Divorce laws reformed
  • Homosexual acts (took much longer for public attitudes to homosexuality to change)
  • State censorship for obscenity relaxed
• Critics: effect on traditional family
• Others: easier divorce for women, to escape from violent larynges
• Consequence of Empire : substantial immigration into Britain particularly from the West Indies, the Indian subcontinent and parts of Africa-> prejudice and discrimination, ethnic tensions, serious riots
• Enoch Powell : 'rivers of blood' speech in 1968-> racist, warned against UK's immigration policy
• Consensus 60s, 70s


  Neither Labour nor the Conservatives interested in joining the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) : 1951 Treaty of Paris, or the European Economic Community (EEC) : 1957 Treaty of Rome-> Britain missed opportunity help shape the new Europe
• Postwar consensus


  Agreement between the main parties in Westminster from the 1940s until the 1970s about certain key principles, including full employment, a mixed economy in which the state controlled certain important industries, active government in which the state would use Keynesian techniques to boost demand, a strong welfare state, conciliation with trade and unions and the role of the expert civil servant in running government and the economy
• Ben Pimlott : 'the myth of consensus'
• Kevin Hickson : consensus limited to policy not ideology
• 1960s : living standards rose continuously, durable consumer goods (cars, washing machines, television sets)
• Conservative election posters in 1959

  • Showing a happy middle-class families with father, mother and two children enjoying their new homes and car : 'Life's better with the Conservatives, don't let Labour ruin it'
• Social changes in the 1960s

  • Contraceptive pills
  • More couples lived openly together unmarried
  • Having a child outside marriage
  • Abortion decriminalized in 1967
  • Divorce laws reformed
  • Homosexual acts (took much longer for public attitudes to homosexuality to change)
  • State censorship for obscenity relaxed
• Critics: effect on traditional family
• Others: easier divorce for women, to escape from violent larynges
• Consequence of Empire : substantial immigration into Britain particularly from the West Indies, the Indian subcontinent and parts of Africa-> prejudice and discrimination, ethnic tensions, serious riots
• Enoch Powell : 'rivers of blood' speech in 1968-> racist, warned against UK's immigration policy
• Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales : felt neglected second-class citizens of a shrunken British state
• 1960s-1970s : Britain's economic growth only modest in comparison with that of major competitors in North America, Western Europe and Japan
• Stagflation


  Persistent high inflation combined with high unemployment and stagnant demand in a country's economy
• Heath : oil crisis-> three day working
• Callaghan : debts-> massive loan from the International Monetary Fund
• Winter of discontent : series of public strikes during the winter of 1978/1979 that undermined the Labour government
• Although British politics from 1939 to 1979 was clearly shaped by past history, and showed a marked stability and continuity with the past, it was extensively transformed by the Second World War and its aftermath
• Key features of British politics 1939-1979

  • Development of the welfare state at home
  • The Cold War between the USA and the USSR abroad
  • Decline of empire
• Although the British people continued to enjoy rising standards of living and relatively low unemployment, Britain continued to suffer relative economic decline
• The declining British Empire and the 'special relationship' with the USA were obstacles to Britain engaging with the movement for closer European economic and political integration on the European continent. When Britain finally joined the EEC in 1973, it was too late to shape its rules or share early benefits, and the commitment was less than wholehearted
• From the late 1960s onwards, the UK faced threats to the maintenance of the union from nationalist movements in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The first attempt of Labour to establish greater devolution in Scotland and Wales did not attract sufficient support in referendums in 1979
• Changes in population, living standards and lifestyles raised new political issues, and involved some rejection of traditional values. It helped spark a politics of protest largely outside the traditional party system
• The law ignored lesbians, male homosexuality was still illegal : buggery punishable by imprisonment for life
• Sexual Offenses Act in 1967 : the first significant liberation of the law relating to sex between men in English territory
• Sigmund Freud and Alfred Kinsey : spurred the changes of attitudes to homosexuality-> personal liberty
• Belfast : illegal until 1982
• For the police 'we weren't quite as bad as black people'
• First gay pride in 1972, attracted 2,000 men and women, ended in a giant picnic in Hyde Park