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Labour Government, 1964–1970
Harold Wilson was appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II on 16 October 1964 and formed the first Wilson ministry, a Labour Party (UK), Labour government, which held office with a slim majority between 1964 and 1966. In an attempt to gain a workable majority in the House of Commons, Wilson called a 1966 United Kingdom general election, new election for 31 March 1966, after which he formed the second Wilson ministry, a government which held office for four years until 1970. History Formation The Labour Party (UK), Labour Party won the 1964 general election by a majority of four seats. The Profumo affair had seriously damaged the previous Conservative Party (UK), Conservative government, meaning Alec Douglas-Home's premiership lasted only 363 days. Wilson's tiny majority led to impotency during this Parliament, and in 1966 another election was called, leading to a majority of 96 and the continuation of the Wilson government. Domestic issues Social i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1964 United Kingdom General Election
The 1964 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 15 October 1964. It resulted in the Conservatives, led by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home, narrowly losing to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, led by Harold Wilson; Labour secured a parliamentary majority of four seats and ended its thirteen years in opposition since the 1951 United Kingdom general election, 1951 election. At age 47, Wilson became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Rosebery in 1894. Background Both major parties had changed leadership in 1963. Following the sudden death of Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell early in the year, the party chose Harold Wilson (at the time, thought of as being on the party's centre-left), while Alec Douglas-Home, at the time the Earl of Home, had taken over as Conservative leader and Prime Minister in October after Harold Macmillan announced his resignation in the wake of the Profumo affair. Douglas-Home shortly afterward discla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of MPs Elected In The 1966 United Kingdom General Election
This is a list of members of Parliament elected at the 1966 general election, held on 31 March. By nation * List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (1966–1970) * List of MPs for constituencies in Wales (1966–1970) Composition These representative diagrams show the composition of the parties in the 1966 general election. Note: This is not the official seating plan of the House of Commons, which has five rows of benches on each side, with the government party to the right of the speaker and opposition parties to the left, but with room for only around two-thirds of MPs to sit at any one time. This is a list of members of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom at the 1966 general election, held on 31 March. Notable newcomers to the House of Commons included David Owen, John Nott, Michael Heseltine, Jack Ashley, Donald Dewar, Gwyneth Dunwoody, John Pardoe, David Winnick, Gerry Fitt and Andrew Faulds. __NOTOC__ By-elections See ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Steel
David Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood (born 31 March 1938) is a retired Scottish politician. Elected as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament for Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles (UK Parliament constituency), Roxburgh, Selkirk, and Peebles, followed by Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale (UK Parliament constituency), Tweeddale, Ettrick, and Lauderdale, he served as the final leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party, from 1976 to 1988. His tenure spanned the duration of SDP–Liberal Alliance, the alliance with the Social Democratic Party (UK), Social Democratic Party, which began in 1981 and concluded with the formation of the Liberal Democrats (UK), Liberal Democrats in 1988. Steel served as a Member of the UK Parliament for 32 years, from 1965 to 1997, and as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) from 1999 to 2003, during which time he was the parliament's Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, Presiding Officer. He was a member o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free Votes
A conscience vote or free vote is a type of vote in a legislative body where legislators are allowed to vote according to their own personal conscience rather than according to an official line set down by their political party. In a parliamentary system, especially within the Westminster system, it can also be used to indicate crossbench members of a hung parliament, where confidence and supply is provided to allow formation of a minority government but the right to vote on conscience is retained. ''Free votes'' are found in Canadian and some British legislative bodies; ''conscience votes'' are used in Australian legislative bodies; ''personal votes'' can be held in the New Zealand Parliament. Under the Westminster system, MPs who belong to a political party are usually required by that party to vote in accordance with the party line on significant legislation, on pain of censure or expulsion from the party. Sometimes a particular party member known as the party whip is resp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Private Member's Bill
A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in which a "private member" is any member of parliament (MP) who is not a member of the cabinet (executive). Other labels may be used for the concept in other parliamentary systems; for example, the label member's bill is used in the Scottish Parliament and the New Zealand Parliament, the term private senator's bill is used in the Australian Senate, and the term public bill is used in the Senate of Canada. In legislatures where the executive does not have the right of initiative, such as the United States Congress, the concept does not arise since bills are always introduced by legislators (or sometimes by popular initiative). In the Westminster system, most bills are " government bills" introduced by the executive, with private members' bil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Divorce Reform Act 1969
The Divorce Reform Act 1969 (c. 55) is an act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. The act reformed the law on divorce in England and Wales by enabling couples to divorce after they had been separated for two years if they both desired a divorce, or five years if only one wanted a divorce. People could end marriages that had "irretrievably broken down" and neither partner had to prove "fault". It received royal assent on 22 October 1969 and became law when it commenced on 1 January 1971. The law built on the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, which allowed people to divorce without an Act of Parliament where there had been adultery and cruelty, rape, bestiality or incest, and the Matrimonial Causes Act 1937, which extended the eligible grounds for divorce to include cruelty, incurable insanity and desertion (of three years or more). The act was passed only after lengthy and complex processes of negotiation, including a royal commission, discussion and eventual backing for the "irre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatres Act 1968
The Theatres Act 1968 (c. 54) abolished stage censorship in the United Kingdom, receiving royal assent on 26 July 1968, after passing both Houses of Parliament. www.legislation.gov.uk Since 1737, scripts had been licensed for performance by the Lord Chamberlain's Office (under the Theatres Act 1843, a continuation of the Licensing Act 1737) a measure initially introduced to protect Robert Walpole's administration from political satire. By the late 19th century the Lord Chamberlain's Office had become the arbiter of moral taste on the stage, and the "Angry Young Men" of the 1950s were in some ways a reaction against the banality of the morally conservative and formally restricted period of theatre that had preceded them. Theatre critic Kenneth Tynan, whilst working with Laurence Olivier as literary manager and Dramaturg of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abortion Act 1967
The Abortion Act 1967 (c. 87) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that legalised abortion in Great Britain on certain grounds by registered practitioners, and regulated the tax-paid provision of such medical practices through the National Health Service (NHS). The Act made it lawful to have an abortion up to the 28th week if two registered medical practitioners believed in good faith that the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman, or harm her physical or mental health, or that of any of her family members. It did not extend to Northern Ireland until the implementation of the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2020. Under this legislation, a registered medical professional could terminate a pregnancy where the pregnancy had not exceeded 12 weeks in length, there was a risk to physical or mental health within 24 weeks of pregnancy, or, at any time during pregnancy, where the pregnant woman's life was at immediate risk, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sexual Offences Act 1967
The Sexual Offences Act 1967 (c. 60) is an act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It legalised homosexual acts in England and Wales, on the condition that they were consensual, in private and between two men who had attained the age of 21. The law was extended to Scotland by the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980 and to Northern Ireland by the Homosexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 1982. Background Homosexual activity between men had been a criminal offence in England and Wales since the Middle Ages. Before the Reformation it was punished by ecclesiastical courts; the Buggery Act 1533 transferred the jurisdiction to the royal courts, with the penalties including death. With many revisions, this legislation remained in force until the enactment of the Offences Against the Person Act 1828, or " Lord Lansdowne's Act", which retained capital punishment as a possible sentence for the crime. The Victorian era saw the punishments shift to being more lenient but also more ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capital Punishment In The United Kingdom
Capital punishment in the United Kingdom predates the formation of the UK, having been used in Britain and Ireland from ancient times until the second half of the 20th century. The last executions in the United Kingdom were by hanging, and took place in 1964; :capital punishment for murder was suspended in 1965 and finally abolished in 1969 (1973 in Northern Ireland). Although unused, the death penalty remained a legally defined punishment for certain offences such as treason until it was completely abolished in 1998; the last person to be executed for treason was William Joyce, in 1946. In 2004, Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights became binding on the United Kingdom; it prohibits the restoration of the death penalty as long as the UK is a party to the convention (regardless of the UK's status in relation to the European Union). Background During the reign of Henry VIII, as many as 72,000 people are estimated to have been executed. In Elizabethan Engl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murder (Abolition Of Death Penalty) Act 1965
The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 (c. 71) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It abolished the death penalty for murder in Great Britain (the death penalty for murder survived in Northern Ireland until 1973). The act replaced the penalty of death with a mandatory sentence of imprisonment for life. Provisions The 1965 act amended the Homicide Act 1957, which had already reduced hangings to only four or fewer per year. The 1965 act was introduced to Parliament as a private member's bill by Sydney Silverman MP. The act provides that charges of capital murder at the time it was passed were to be treated as charges of simple murder and all sentences of death were to be commuted to sentences of life imprisonment. The legislation contained a sunset clause, which stated that the act would expire on 31 July 1970 "unless Parliament by affirmative resolutions of both Houses otherwise determines". Resolutions were passed in the Commons and Lords on 16 a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Profumo Affair
The Profumo affair was a major scandal in British politics during the early 1960s. John Profumo, the 46-year-old Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, had an extramarital affair with the 19-year-old model Christine Keeler beginning in 1961. Profumo denied the affair in a statement to the House of Commons in 1963; weeks later, a police investigation proved that he had lied. The scandal severely damaged the credibility of Macmillan's government, and Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister in October 1963, citing ill health. The fallout contributed to the Conservative government's defeat by the Labour Party in the 1964 general election. When the Profumo affair was revealed, public interest was heightened by reports that Keeler may have been simultaneously involved with Captain Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet naval attaché, thereby creating a possible national security risk. Keeler knew both Profumo and Ivanov through her friendship with Stephen W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
