Suez Crisis
Do you agree with the view that the Suez Crisis of 1956-57 did no damage to the fortunes of the Conservative party?
The Suez Crisis which was aided by the French and Israelis wasn’t just a disaster for the Conservative party but Britain as a whole as it created lots of problems and tension internationally especially with the USA. To a certain extent the Conservative party did take some damage although the sources point out some other arguments which suggest it wasn’t just them who suffered. Source 5 & 6 both support the view that the Conservatives took no damage during the crisis. Lee states, ‘There was no internal split in the Conservative party’. Kilmuir agrees with this, and goes onto talk about, ‘Our most lost party workers, although dismayed by our handling of the situation were consumed with the hatred of the Labour party.’ Which means even though they were going through a tough situation the Conservatives kept a strong front and were all in it together against Labour; even the media gave publicity in which spread the disgust to the public about the Labour party. Overall it shows Labour actually had it worse off; they weren’t popular with the public at the time, this later shows at the 1959 general election as Macmillan takes a victory for the Conservatives. On the other hand, Kilmuir was a member of the Conservatives at the time and he might have wanted to give the public the idea that the situation wasn’t as bad as it seemed as his party just caused a major international tensions with our allies. Although he does admit that, ‘Even the most hostile critics of the Conservative party’ had their doubtful moments in the party giving the idea that the party had nothing to hide and that its members knew there would be some slight internal tensions. Opposing the statement, in Source 4, Rowe tells us that after the Suez Crisis, ‘…there as a sharp economic crisis’ and that, ‘Politically, Eden was finished.’. This was true about the economy as there
The Suez Crisis which was aided by the French and Israelis wasn’t just a disaster for the Conservative party but Britain as a whole as it created lots of problems and tension internationally especially with the USA. To a certain extent the Conservative party did take some damage although the sources point out some other arguments which suggest it wasn’t just them who suffered. Source 5 & 6 both support the view that the Conservatives took no damage during the crisis. Lee states, ‘There was no internal split in the Conservative party’. Kilmuir agrees with this, and goes onto talk about, ‘Our most lost party workers, although dismayed by our handling of the situation were consumed with the hatred of the Labour party.’ Which means even though they were going through a tough situation the Conservatives kept a strong front and were all in it together against Labour; even the media gave publicity in which spread the disgust to the public about the Labour party. Overall it shows Labour actually had it worse off; they weren’t popular with the public at the time, this later shows at the 1959 general election as Macmillan takes a victory for the Conservatives. On the other hand, Kilmuir was a member of the Conservatives at the time and he might have wanted to give the public the idea that the situation wasn’t as bad as it seemed as his party just caused a major international tensions with our allies. Although he does admit that, ‘Even the most hostile critics of the Conservative party’ had their doubtful moments in the party giving the idea that the party had nothing to hide and that its members knew there would be some slight internal tensions. Opposing the statement, in Source 4, Rowe tells us that after the Suez Crisis, ‘…there as a sharp economic crisis’ and that, ‘Politically, Eden was finished.’. This was true about the economy as there