Reassessing "SuperMac": The Legacy of Harold Macmillan

1. Was Macmillan really ‘SuperMac’? Aim – to assess whether Macmillan really deserved this title Standard starter - What does this source tell you about why Macmillan was called Supermac? Super starter - this cartoon backfired on the cartoonist – can you explain this?

2. What do people often forget about Macmillan’s speech?

3. Was Macmillan really ‘SuperMac’? Aim – to assess whether Macmillan really deserved this title What may these words have to do with ‘SuperMac’? Personality Economy Immigration Butler Education Empire EU Cold War – this is all foreign policy which we will cover next week.

5. Was Macmillan really ‘SuperMac’? Aim – to assess whether Macmillan really deserved this title Personality Macmillan managed to escape the blame for the Suez crisis, so he could heal the damage which had been done. He was already popular from his successes as the Minister for Housing. He was known to be charming and he had an excellent sense of humour, when the left-wing cartoonist published her satirical cartoon of him he simply commented how it had improved his image and Britain had ‘never had it so good’ under him. In the house of commons during Prime Minister’s questions he would deflect Gaitskell’s many difficult academic questions by answering the easiest ones and simply ignoring the rest. He was however ruthless when he needed to be, such as in the ‘Night of the Long Knives’.

6. Was Macmillan really ‘SuperMac’? Economy As we have seen the economy was improving in some ways for Britain, but not in others. People’s standards of living were improving and people had more luxuries than ever before. However, our world GDP rankings had fallen from 3rd to 6th, unemployment remained high and our proportion of world trade fell from 25% in 1950 in 15% in 1964. Macmillan continued to operate a mixed economy and Keynesianism. Inflation and deflation would negatively impact the Keynesianist economy. To stop this if it looked like the economy was inflating Macmillan’s government would raise interest rates to discourage borrowing and restrict imports. If it looked like deflation may happen then taxes and interest rates were lowered to encourage people to buy more. It was called ‘stop-go’ – stop inflation and spending by raising interest rates and restricting imports, and ‘go’ when deflation threatened by encouraging borrowing and lowering taxes. However, this policy didn’t seem like an integrated plan, it was simply responding to events. As a result Britain entered ‘stagflation’, where inflation kept rising and industry kept declining – so Britain suffered the worst of both worlds. By 1961 ‘stagflation’ had reached crisis point as wages rose rapidly and industry slumped. Selwyn Lloyd (the Chancellor of the Exchequor) and Macmillan introduced a large purchase tax and increased the bank rate to 7% (which was very high). The public sector received a pay freeze whilst the private sector kept increasing their wages – teachers, nurses and civil servants resented the government for this. In 1962 purchase tax was raised again – but this time on sweets, soft drinks and ice cream.

7. Was Macmillan really ‘SuperMac’? Immigration As decolonisation started and increased momentum, part of the agreement for many countries was that the decolonising counties’ citizens would still be considered British citizens and that they could come to the UK as they pleased. It was also to recruit people into industries which had employee shortages after the end of WWII. Empire Windrush was the fist to arrive in 1948 with Jamaicans on board, mainly to hospital and transport services who had advertised for them in Jamaica. Then, Indians and Pakistanis arrived for textiles factories, especially in the North East. With immigration tensions arose over accommodation, especially in inner cities where there was competition for affordable houses from low-paid British workers and immigrants. The unemployed also blamed immigrants for filling job vacancies. In 1958 riots erupted in Nottingham and Bristol between ‘Teddy Boys’ and Afro-Carribbeans. The Salmon Report stated that the causes of the riots were caused by ‘teddy boys’ becoming ‘local heroes’ against growing black residents, sexual jealousy of young white males who resented white women going out with black males, the anger towards immigrants for accepting lower pay and driving down wages, and the frustration at increasing rents as groups of immigrants would rent houses together, pay more and thus force up rents. The government approached the riots in a similar way to the report, they didn’t consider the racism aspect and approached it as an issue of law and order. The government saw it as an immigration issue, that it was rising too quickly, and introduced the Commonwealth Immigration Act of 1962 which restricted immigration heavily to those who already had job permits, who tended to be white. When people realised this act would be passed citizens from India, Pakistan and the West Indies arrived even more quickly.

8. Was Macmillan really ‘SuperMac’? Butler was the home secretary from 1957-1962. Whilst he was home secretary he passed the homicide bill, which limited the death penalty to only murdering police officers and prison wardens. He also passed the Street Offices Act which wanted to clamp down on prostitution by imposing tougher penalties on prostitutes. It was also recommended to Butler that homosexuality should be made legal (it was currently illegal), but he decided this would be too unpopular with the rest of the Conservative party, so he left this as it was. In education, the tripartite system seemed a failure as the 11+ tended to separate children, didn’t cater for those who matured later, tended to focus funds towards the grammar schools rather than the secondary modern schools, and that poorer students tended to end up in secondary moderns. The Conservatives built the first comprehensive schools in the 1950s, although it wasn’t until 1965 under Labour that this became a nation wide policy. In higher education the Robbins Report in 1963 recommended that universities should be expanded, scientific education be emphasised, that technology colleges should be become universities, and that higher grants should be given to those from poorer backgrounds.

9. Was Macmillan really ‘SuperMac’? Aim – to assess whether Macmillan really deserved this title Lets take a vote...

10. Admin • Find your essay log sheet in your handbooks • Fill in the titles of your 3 essays so far, marks, how to improve • Organise your folder! Where should the capitals and ‘the’ be? conservatives continued a lot of Labour’s policies, for example they continued developing an independent nuclear deterrent. conservatives did however follow some of their own policies which were conservative in nature. The lady dressed very conservatively. Conservative. The Conservatives. Their policies were very conservative.

11. Essay Feedback • Sources in introduction

12. Essay Feedback • Sources in conclusion To conclude, the conservatives did continue policies from the Labour government. They in fact carried on and improved many for example proposals for Housing and the National Health service. Source 3 also mentions they Butler did follow Keynesism, an although this was spoken with ‘different emphasis’ it did result i the Conservative’s following many policies of the previous government.

13. Essay Feedback • Explaining source quotes Carry out some improvements.