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?

A Sixties Social Revolution? British Society, 1959-1975 Lesson 3

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

Born/Died

Education

Party

For

Against

Hugh Gaitskell (1906-63) was a Winchester/Oxford educated academic from an upper-middle class background. He had served in Attlee’s government as Chancellor of the Exchequer where he had made his mark as a man of great sincerity. He had strong convictions and much strength of will and purpose 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 some of the Labour Party divisions and he proved a modernising influence. His death at the age of 57 shook the party.

Activity 1

Key Profile: Jo Grimond

Born/Died

Education

Party

For

Against

Jo Grimond (1913-93) was an Eton/Oxford educated lawyer who became Liberal leader in 1956. He was a charismatic speaker whose good looks and charming manner won him public admiration. He came over well on television and helped raise the national profile of the Liberals. He gave the party new vision and drive, so that they had started winning by-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 increased the number of Liberal MPs from 6 to 12. However, the party never recovered from its split of 1916.

Analysing sourcesActivity 2

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?

Progress in the general election is broadcast from the ITN newsroom on 7 March 1959

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

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

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

4. How far do the views of these sources differ in relation to the economic position of the British people in 1959?

Difference/ Similarity

First source evidence

Second source evidence

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

Front cover of the Liberal Manifesto

Leader, Jo Grimond

The result is a personal triumph for the prime

minister

Jo Grimond, leader of the

Liberal party said, "The

results today emphasise the

general swing to

Liberalism."

Mr Gaitskell, said in a statement: "We have suffered neither a landslide nor a disaster, but a setback."

'Supermac' leads Tories to victory

What they spent

Conservatives£631,000

Labour£239,000

Interesting Fact

The 1959 election saw Margaret Thatcher first enter Parliament as MP for Finchley. She went on to become the first British woman prime minister in 1979.

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

Why did Labour Lose?

Although it was accepted that

Gaitskell had made one rather foolish

mistake– suggesting that the Labour Party could raise pensions without increasing income tax – there were far deeper issues

that prevented Labour from gaining

success. Forty percent of manual

workers now considered

themselves middle class. Could Labour ever get back into power as the lives of its core voters

changed?

Findings of survey by M Abramsand R Rose for Socialist Commentary journal

� Labour was identified with the working class rather than the ‘nation as a whole’.

�Voters had little enthusiasm for further nationalisation following the failure of public ownership of coal and the railways

�Macmillan was favoured over Gaitskell as a leader ‘strong enough to make unwelcome decisions’

�Labour was seen as the party most likely to prevent a nuclear war

“I believe myself that the party in 1959 had allowed itself to get a bit out of date in the sense that there was still a cloth cap image. There was a sort of idea that the ordinary Labour supporter was an unemployed miner living 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)

Why did theTories win?

“I think the 1959 election was successful for the Conservatives because Macmillan was proving himself a very a competent Prime Minister. He was very powerful in the House of Commons. He was able to control debates with very carefully prepared speeches and I think the economy was encouraged to expand and was at its very best shape when the ’59 election came along.”

The Conservatives

benefitted from the economic

growth that had allowed them to make tax cuts of £350m in April

1959. They were able to remind

voters that wages had risen while inflation was low, house

prices were steady and

everyone was in work. Macmillan had effectively compared his

record to that of Labour before

1951. He played on concerns

about nationalisation

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?

Activity 4

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.

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Further Research