A Sixties Social Revolution?

British Society, 1959-1975

Lesson 3

What was the significance

of the 1959 election?
LO: To describe how the
1959 election was perceived
at the time and its impact on
the Labour Party?
Recap - Presentation of reports
 Reading
Harold Macmillan: Unflappable master of the
middle way by Vernon Bogdanor

Questions

• How could Macmillan claim that the British

public had never had it so good?

• How might his statement be considered

inaccurate?
Key Profile: Hugh Gaitskell Activity 1

Born/Died Hugh Gaitskell (1906-63) was a Winchester/Oxford

educated academic from an upper-middle class
Education background. He had served in Attlee’s government
as Chancellor of the Exchequer where he had made
Party his mark as a man of great sincerity. He had strong
convictions and much strength of will and purpose
For but, despite his talent, he was not a good
communicator. He inspired respect rather than
devotion and could appear intellectually arrogant
and inflexible. Nevertheless he managed to heal
Against some of the Labour Party divisions and he proved a
modernising influence. His death at the age of 57
shook the party.

Key Profile: Jo Grimond Jo Grimond (1913-93) was an Eton/Oxford educated

lawyer who became Liberal leader in 1956. He was a
Born/Died
charismatic speaker whose good looks and charming
Education manner won him public admiration. He came over
well on television and helped raise the national
Party profile of the Liberals. He gave the party new vision
and drive, so that they had started winning by-
For elections, eg Torrington (1958), which was its first
success since 1928. As well as taking local
government seats he aimed to create a radical, non-
socialist left-wing party, and by 1966, he had
Against increased the number of Liberal MPs from 6 to 12.
However, the party never recovered from its split
of 1916.
Activity 2
Analysing sources
1. How did the Conservatives try to win
support in the 1959 election
campaign?
 Summer is Better..
Cartoon in The
Observer, 13
September 1959

A parody of the
Conservative
advertising campaign.
They appear as
billposters, pasting
over the critical
graffiti to claim that
even the glorious
summer weather of
1959 was a triumph for
the Conservatives.

2. What point is the cartoonist making about

the Conservative campaign?
3. How does this scene compare
with coverage of elections today?

Progress in the general election is broadcast

from the ITN newsroom on 7 March 1959
4. How far do the views of these
sources differ in relation to the
economic position of the British
people in 1959?
Conservative
Eight years ago was a turning point in
British history. The Labour
Government had failed in grappling
with the problems of the post-war
world. Under Conservative leadership
this country set out upon a new path.
It is leading to prosperity and
opportunity for all. The British
economy is sounder today than at any
time since the First World War. Our
exports have reached the highest
peak ever. We have cut taxes in seven
budgets, whilst continuing to develop
the social services. We have provided
over two million new homes and almost
two million new school places, a better
health service and a modern pensions
plan. We have shown that Conservative
freedom works. Life is better with
Conservatives.
Adapted from the election manifesto, 1959
Difference/ First source Second source
Similarity evidence evidence
Labour
We welcome this election; it gives
us, at last, the chance to end eight years
of Tory rule. Macmillan told us that the
old division of Britain into the two
nations, the Haves and the Have Nots, has
disappeared. In fact, the contrast
between the extremes of wealth and
poverty is sharper today than eight years
ago. The business man with a tax-free
expense account, the speculator with tax-
free capital gains, and the retiring
company director with a tax-free
redundancy payment have indeed ‘never
had it so good’. It is not so good for the
widowed mother with children, the
chronic sick, the 400,000 unemployed,
and the millions of old age pensioners who
have no adequate retirement income.
Instead of recognising this problem as
the greatest social challenge of our time,
the Prime Minister blandly denies it
exists.
Adapted from the election manifesto, 1959
Activity 3 Group activity
You will be divided into three groups-
each one will be allocated a political
party. You will need to study the
election posters and manifestoes of
your party so you can prepare a
suitable election speech. A
spokesperson should be chosen to
deliver it to the class. A mock
election will be held with voting
according to the persuasiveness of
the speakers.
 Conservative
Eight years ago was a turning point in British history.
The Labour Government had failed in grappling with the
problems of the post-war world. Under Conservative
leadership this country set out upon a new path. It is
leading to prosperity and opportunity for all. The British
economy is sounder today than at any time since the
First World War. Our exports have reached the
highest peak ever. We have cut taxes in seven budgets,
whilst continuing to develop the social services. We have
provided over two million new homes and almost two
million new school places, a better health service and a
modern pensions plan. We have shown that Conservative
freedom works. Life is better with Conservatives.

Tory election
posters warn
against voting
Labour

”A bribe a day
keeps the Tories away”
Butler on Gaitskell's
tax pledges
 Labour
We welcome this election; it gives us, at last, the
chance to end eight years of Tory rule. Macmillan
told us that the old division of Britain into the
two nations, the Haves and the Have Nots, has
disappeared. In fact, the contrast between the
extremes of wealth and poverty is sharper today
than eight years ago. The business man with a
tax-free expense account, the speculator with
tax-free capital gains, and the retiring company
director with a tax-free redundancy payment
have indeed ‘never had it so good’. It is not so
good for the widowed mother with children, the
chronic sick, the 400,000 unemployed, and the
millions of old age pensioners who have no
adequate retirement income. Instead of
recognising this problem as the greatest social
challenge of our time, the Prime Minister blandly
denies it exists.

Hugh Gaitskell (left); was joined in the

shadow cabinet by young MPs like Barbara
Castle (centre) and old hands from the
1945 government, like Nye Bevan (right).

Labour ran a professional and upbeat

campaign, directed in part by a
young Tony Benn
 Liberal
We must have more Liberals in Parliament for
the sake of honest, above-board politics. The
Conservative Party is clearly identified with
employers and big business and they cannot
deal objectively or fairly with the problems
continually arising between employer and
employee. The Labour Party is in the hands of
the Trade Union Leaders. The whole nation is
the loser from this crazy line up of power
politics. A Liberal vote is a protest against the
British political system being divided up
between two powerful party machines, one
largely financed by the employers and the
other by the Trade Unions

Leader, Jo Grimond

Front cover of
the Liberal
Manifesto
 'Supermac' leads Tories to victory
Jo Grimond, leader of the
Liberal party said, "The
results today emphasise the
general swing to
Liberalism."

The result is a personal

triumph for the prime
minister

Interesting Fact
Mr Gaitskell, said
What they spent The 1959 election saw Margaret in a statement:
Thatcher first enter Parliament "We have
Conservatives as MP for Finchley. She went on suffered neither
£631,000 to become the first British a landslide nor a
woman prime minister in 1979. disaster, but a
Labour setback."
£239,000
 UK General Election 1959

Party Seats Gains Losses Votes % Votes

Conservative 365 29 9 49.4 13,750,875

Labour 258 5 24 43.8 12,216,172

Liberal 6 0 0 5.9 1,640,760

Findings of survey by M Abrams
and R Rose for Socialist
Although it was
Commentary journal accepted that
Gaitskell had made

Labour was identified with the
working class rather than the
one rather foolish
‘nation as a whole’. mistake– suggesting
that the Labour

Voters had little enthusiasm for
further nationalisation following
Party could raise
the failure of public ownership of pensions without
coal and the railways

Macmillan was favoured over
Why did increasing income
tax – there were
Gaitskell as a leader ‘strong
enough to make unwelcome
Labour Lose? far deeper issues
that prevented
decisions’ Labour from gaining

Labour was seen as the party success. Forty
most likely to prevent a nuclear percent of manual
war workers now
considered
themselves middle
class. Could Labour
“I believe myself that the party in 1959 had allowed itself ever get back into
to get a bit out of date in the sense that there was still a power as the lives
cloth cap image. There was a sort of idea that the of its core voters
ordinary Labour supporter was an unemployed miner living changed?
on benefit, and that the Labour Party stood for
nationalisation and nothing else. There was a sense of
phoney prosperity which was somehow associated with
Harold Macmillan’s moustache.”
Douglas Jay (Labour)
 The
Conservatives
benefitted from
“I think the 1959 election was the economic
successful for the Conservatives growth that had
allowed them to
because Macmillan was proving himself a make tax cuts of
very a competent Prime Minister. He £350m in April
was very powerful in the House of 1959. They were
Commons. He was able to control able to remind
voters that
debates with very carefully prepared wages had risen
speeches and I think the economy was while inflation
encouraged to expand and was at its was low, house
prices were
very best shape when the ’59 election steady and
came along.” everyone was in
work. Macmillan
had effectively
compared his
record to that of
Labour before
1951. He played

Why did the on concerns

about
nationalisation
Tories win? and central
planning.

Lord Butler (Conservative)

 Summary Questions
1. What was the significance of the
election result?
2. How important were economic issues?
3. What impact did the election have on
the Labour Party?
There was talk of a new name for the party and of changing the Labour
constitution, which was committed to ‘common ownership of the means
of production’ (Clause 4), but Gaitskell failed to carry his party with
him on this. He did, however, go on to succeed in resisting the attempts
of the left-wing of the party to unilateral nuclear disarmament in 1961,
and by the time of his death in 1963, he had done much to establish
Labour as a credible party of government.
Activity 4
Further Research

http://www.sixtiescity.com/