Explain why the Cpnservatives won the General Election of 1959
02) - Explain why the Conservative Party won the General Election of 1959 – (12 marks)
WW2 made a huge dent in Britain’s economic capability in terms of international trade and the fact that half of our factories had been converted to build military equipment. Not long before the General Election the economy had begun to pick up.
At the time Labour was a significantly divided party with the Gaitskillites and the Bevanites meaning some support of voters was lost through lack of assurance that the party would lead with strength and could make decisions that were right for the nation and not selfish. The Labour economy policies are also a reason why they lost. Gaitskell promised to increase public spending without increasing taxes. This put his credibility under question. Another reason is that although voters were happy with the nationalisation of electricity, gas, atomic energy and airline industries they thought public ownership of coal and the railways had been a failure when they were last in government and there was little enthusiasm for further nationalisation which Labour was committed to by Clause Four of the Labour Party Constitution. One reason why the Conservatives won was there Stop-Go economic policy. Although the policy itself was bad the Conservatives engineered it by making it a go period when the election came round. They did this by ‘electioneering’ the Budget and cut income tax, purchase tax and the duty on beer. This made the public feel like the economy was good.
Another reason why Conservatives won is that in there manifesto they promised to stabilise the cost of living which would close the gap between rich and poor and double everyone’s standard of living. This was helped by Labour being identified with the working class rather than the nation as a whole. This was a problem as 40% of manual workers now considered themselves middle class so the Labour policies for the unemployed and working class no longer appealed to them, instead they
WW2 made a huge dent in Britain’s economic capability in terms of international trade and the fact that half of our factories had been converted to build military equipment. Not long before the General Election the economy had begun to pick up.
At the time Labour was a significantly divided party with the Gaitskillites and the Bevanites meaning some support of voters was lost through lack of assurance that the party would lead with strength and could make decisions that were right for the nation and not selfish. The Labour economy policies are also a reason why they lost. Gaitskell promised to increase public spending without increasing taxes. This put his credibility under question. Another reason is that although voters were happy with the nationalisation of electricity, gas, atomic energy and airline industries they thought public ownership of coal and the railways had been a failure when they were last in government and there was little enthusiasm for further nationalisation which Labour was committed to by Clause Four of the Labour Party Constitution. One reason why the Conservatives won was there Stop-Go economic policy. Although the policy itself was bad the Conservatives engineered it by making it a go period when the election came round. They did this by ‘electioneering’ the Budget and cut income tax, purchase tax and the duty on beer. This made the public feel like the economy was good.
Another reason why Conservatives won is that in there manifesto they promised to stabilise the cost of living which would close the gap between rich and poor and double everyone’s standard of living. This was helped by Labour being identified with the working class rather than the nation as a whole. This was a problem as 40% of manual workers now considered themselves middle class so the Labour policies for the unemployed and working class no longer appealed to them, instead they