WJEC Unit 6 1880-1980 British history question help on social reform please

Hi,

does anyone know how would I go about answering this question:

How far have attitudes to social reform changed between 1880 and 1980?

Thanks!

Reply 1

stacey4415

I've not studied this topic, but i have studied british political history until 1930 ad we studied why the Liberals introduced welfare reforms, one of the reasons was due to the rise of socialism and they passed their welfare reforms as a way of fighting socialisim, to avoid a revolution, "reform in order to preserve"

The fact that most w/c men could vote by 1906, also kind of forced the parties to respond to the new electorate

What type of attitudes, the general public, politicians etc?

The Lib politician George grew up in "poverty" as a child, ad disliked the UC and sympathised with w/c and underclass,

Sorry if that's not at all a help

Reply 2

cpearson

1880-laissez faire gvt, dominated by landed classes
through th evarious reforms 1832, 1867, Corrput Prac, Secret Ballot etc, Parties had to become more organised in an attempt to attract MC and upper WC (by 1867 1:3 men could vote). Disraeli had his 'Clean Air Clean Water' campaign, and Gladstone had his campaign based on Irish disestablishment. Both parties made moves to attract votes as they didn'thave a family tradition. Could mention previous corn laws.
1906 with Libs is main point though, beginning of the welfare state with 1911 NI Act, along with Education Act 1907, OAP Act of 1908.

I can only really help with that era as that is all my course covers.
The main point is that 19th century had little to do with reforms and the Liberal party is seen as a turning point, especially Asquith and Lloyd George.

Also the ermergence of Labour as the 2nd Party and Ramsay Mcdonald as the first Lab PM.

Reply 3

fredmcbob

Hey there, as above i haven't really studied this topic.
You could talk about the apparent '1960's revolution' and whether it did exist.
Within this you can talk about the growth in consumerism in the UK particularly in the younger generation.
You can counter this however to argue that hardly anyone felt the effects of the so called 'social revolution' etc. and in terms of attitudes many opposed (or feared) the new liberalism in society.
Look into it a bit more there is quite a lot to argue in just that one 10 year period.
Hope thats slightly helpful and good luck.

Reply 4

made_of_fail

Is that an actual past paper question? :eek:

Seems quite different to the questions I've done so far.

I don't have time to do a full outline but something which hasn't been mentioned so far is the starting point in terms of the attitudes in the late Victorian period. Although the 1906 Liberal government was a turning point, attitudes had already turned away in some part from the Victorian individualist ethic (self-sufficiency, a deterrent Poor Law etc). Even so, this was still the predominant approach towards the problem of poverty.