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Topic 1: Labour Government 1945-1951
Revision Brainstorm Past Paper Questions (for part B):
Do you agree with the view that the outcome of the election of 1945 was ‘a foregone conclusion before electioneering even started’ (Source 5, line 32–33)?
Do you agree with the view expressed in Source 6 that the achievements of the Attlee Government were remarkable?
Do you agree with the view that Labour governments in the years 1945–51 established a society with ‘a significantly greater degree of social equality’?
Do you agree with the view that the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948 was ‘entirely the achievement of Aneurin Bevan’ (Source 4, lines 20–21)? Historical Controversy: Was the Labour government a radical and socialist government did it move toward the New Jerusalem?
The establishment of the Postwar consensus - good or bad? Key dates:
May 1945 end of WWII in Europe
July 1945 General Election - first (maj)Labour government
1946 NI Act, NHS Act
1947 Severe Cold Weather
1948 Railways nationalised (NHS inaugurated)
1950 General Election (narrow Lab victory)
1951 Iron and Steel nationalised - general election labour defeat Key Figures:
Clement Attlee - quiet figure (centre-left) PM
Nye Bevan - son of a miner, left-wing, big personality, minister of Health - NHS
Stafford Cripps - Christian and socialist, Chancellor for period of maximum austerity
Ernest Bevin - Supporter of "little Clem" more moderate right-wing, Foreign Sec, anti-comm + pro-American Theme 1: Labour win 1945 (shock victory)
First Majority Lab government - massive majority of 180 (remember they still don't get 50% of vote PR system)
Long term memory of CON (free market great depression 1930s) failure of 'Land fit for heroes' + appeasement
Lab min popular in War coalition - Attlee, Cripps etc.
Bad Con campaign - Churchill 'Gestapo' slur
Churchill only associated as good war leader
Lab new approach - Reconstruction and state planning progressive 'Zeitgeist'

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