modern period

• 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