Last min flashcards

• HH Asquith


  • 1908-1916
  • Lost election
  • 1914 WW1 begins
• David Lloyd George


  • 1916-1922
  • 'Coupon election'
  • Splits Liberal party
  • 'Cash for honours'
  • Conservatives ended coalition
  • WW1 ends
  • 1918 ROPA
  • 1922 'Chanak incident'
  • 1922 'Geddes Axe'
• Andrew Bonar Law


  • 'Unknown Prime Minister'
  • Died of throat cancer
  • Ill health
  • Speech in 1922 encourages conservatives to end coalition
• Stanley Baldwin


  • 1923-1924
  • Lost vote of confidence
  • 1924-1929
  • Lost Election
  • 1925 Return to Gold Standard
  • 1926 General Strike
  • 1927 Trade Disputes Act
  • 1928 vote extended to women over 21
  • 1929 Wall St. Crash
• Ramsey Macdonald


  • 1924-1924
  • Lost election
  • First Labour Prime Minister
  • 1929-1935
  • Minority government
  • Seen as a traitor
  • Ill health
  • Unemployment 2 million
  • Forms National Government
  • 1931 Abandons Gold Standard
• Neville Chamberlain


  • 1937-1940
  • Resigned
  • Appeasement - 'peace in our time'
  • 1939 Germany invades Poland - WW2 begins
• Winston Churchill


  • 1940-1945
  • Won the war
  • Lost Election
  • WW2
  • 1940 Emergency Powers Act
• Clement Atlee


  • 1945-51
  • Lost Election
• Winston Churchill


  • 1951-1955
  • Retired
  • 1954 End of rationing
• Anthony Eden


  • 1955-1957
  • Retired, ill health
  • Suez Crisis
• Harold Macmillan


  • 1957-1963
  • Resigned - ill health
  • 1963 'Profumo Affair'
• Alec Douglas-Home


  • 1963-1964
  • Lost Election
• Harold Wilson


  • 1964-1970
  • 'White heat'
  • 1967 devaluation of the pound
• Edward Health


  • 1970-1974
  • Lost election
  • Break with consensus
  • 'Who governs Britain'
  • Britain join EEC (precursor to EU)
  • 1973 Oil crisis
  • 1974 'three day week'
• Harold Wilson


  • 1974-1976
  • Minority government, then majority of three seats after Oct 1974 election
  • Resigned - ill health
  • 1976 IMF loan
• James Callaghan


  • 1976-1979
  • 1979 'Winter of Discontent'
• Margaret Thatcher


  • 1979-1990
  • Resigned
• A changing political and economic environment 1918-1979
• The Wealth of Nations was written in 1776
• In classical economic theory, the word 'rational' means that economic agents are able to consider the outcome of their choices and recognise the net benefits of each one. Rational agents will select the choice which presents the highest benefits
• Consumers act rationally by


  Maximising their utility
• Producers act rationally by


  Selling goods/services in a way that maximises their profits
• Workers act rationally by


  Balancing welfare at work with consideration of both pay and benefits
• Governments act rationally by


  Placing the interests of the people they serve first in order to maximise their welfare
• Rationality in classical economic theory is a flawed assumption as people usually don't act rationally
• A firm increases advertising

  Demand curve shifts right
• Demand curve shifting right

  Increases the equilibrium price and quantity
• Marginal utility


  The additional utility (satisfaction) gained from the consumption of an additional product
• If you add up marginal utility for each unit you get total utility
• Decline of the Liberals
• How did the Liberal Party develop in interwar British politics?
• In the 1910 General Elections, the Liberal Party retained power and formed a government.
• In 1915, the Liberal Party had strong representation on the coalition wartime government.
• During the First World War, the Liberal Party begins to split which leads those who support Lloyd George forming a coalition government with the Conservatives after the 1918 General Election.
• The Liberal Party loses the 1922, 1924, 1929 and 1931 General Elections by large margins - 1922 Labour gains more seats then the Liberals and become the main opposition to Conservatives
• During this time, the Liberal Party supported the minority Labour governments of 1924 and 1929-31.
• Why did the Liberal Party fall as a political force in the interwar period?

  • Collapse of party unity
  • Impact of the Representation of the People Act
  • Impact of the 1918 General Election
  • Failure of Lloyd George after 1922
• The First World War saw the government implement the Defence of the Realm Act [1914] which gave the government extended powers, such as economic controls, conscription and rationing to avoid defeat.
• These illiberal measures were opposed by many in the Liberal Party.
• However, DORA was supported by leading and popular Liberal, David Lloyd George. Lloyd George in 1916 managed to oust traditional Liberal, Herbert Asquith as Prime Minister. This was as much to do with Asquith's wartime leadership as well as policies.