modern period

Cards (15)

  • Peterloo massacre 1819

    protest meeting for changes to electoral system in Manchester (Peterloo square) where 11 were killed; 400 injured
  • chartists 1836

    aim was to gain political rights and influence for the working classes
  • 1832 reform act
    • increased electorate from 366,000 to 650,000
    • Manchester and Liverpool got their own MPS
    • 73 rotten boroughs remained
    • no secret ballots
    • MPS still bribed votes
  • 1867 reform act
    • 45 small constituencies lost their MPS
    • voting system became more representative
    • all men who owned or rented a house could vote
    • ended the pocket boroughs
    • electorate from 20-40%
  • 1884 reform act
    • both working men in the cities and countryside could vote
    • more seats to the big towns and cities
    • electorate rose from 3 to 5 million
  • suffragists
    • campaigned using peaceful methods
    • led by Millicent Fawcett
    • letters to MPS, rallies and marches
    • nuwss ran a campaign that included 400 meetings
    • 40 MPS supported by 1906 elections
  • suffragettes
    • led by Emmeline Pankhurst
    • Emily Davison killed by the kings horse in the derby race when she stepped out in front of it protesting
    • smashing windows on private property and gov buildings
    • chaining themselves to buildings
    • hunger strike and planting bombs
  • government control during WWI and WWII
    PROPAGANDA AND CENSORSHIP
    • 1914 DORA - prevent potential invasion and to keep homeland morale at a high
    • DORA allowed gov to take over mining and mutations factories
    • Book and films were censored in both wars
  • FOOD AND RATIONING
    • WWI - country only had 6 weeks supply of wheat
    • rationing wasn't introduced until 1918 as campaigned to grow food had worked
    • WWII - rationing on food and clothes began
    • health of nation improved with rationing
  • claims to power
    BUF
    • claimed 50,000 members
    • obtained successful results in bethnal green etc polling almost 8,000 votes although none its candidates was elected
    • as the party became more violent support and membership decreased
  • radicals 1960

    Vietnam war, feminism, civil rights movement and growth in media led to an outbreak of protest
  • general election in 1945
    • labor party won
    • clement Atlee introduced the reforms of the beveridge report which formed the welfare state
    WELFARE STATE:
    • family allowances paid to mother after the first child
    • national insurance 1946
    • NHS 1948
    • promised one million new homes
  • challenges to power in the 1980s
    CND (1950)
    • in 1981 250,000 gathered in London for a rally
    • 30% of the populations support
    • attracted labor votes, it was very influential in raising public awareness of the issue
  • the miners strike of 1984-5
    • coal industry was in decline and was losing money
    • Margaret thatcher entrusted Neil
    • 1990s countries around the world signed treaties limiting nuclear weapons
    • McGregor closed all mines
    • NUM led by Arthur Scargill organised a strike which lasted for a year
  • greenpeace
    • British nuclear fuels limited
    • campaign in the media to highlight what it saw as the waste and danger of plant
    • an embarrassment to the government throughout the 1980s
    • rose public awareness about the issue