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“The conservatives won in 1951 because of Sheer luck, they weren’t even the most popular party” Assess the validity of this view

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“The conservatives won in 1951 because of Sheer luck, they weren’t even the most popular party” Assess the validity of this view
After the election of 1945 Labour began insurmountable changes to Britain as a whole. This included the introduction of the welfare state aswell as the eradication of ‘Beveridge’s 5 evils’, though many people would never look at the big picture in terms of labours influence due to the legacy of the wartime coalition being that of victory and, to an extent, excitement during wartime compared to the underwhelming state of peace. These feelings overshadowed the necessary actions of labour during Attlee’s government due in no small part to poor public relations displayed by Attlee himself. While labour were mending the country by doing such things as introducing the revolutionary National Health Service, which incidentally would weaken the party by causing a split within its ranks over the prescription charge, they were also losing public favour over such things as the continued implementation of rationing. It is due to this information and the fact that labour made the controversial decision to hold another election in which they lost right after a very narrow victory that makes the validity of this statement questionable. The performance of the conservatives during this time period does infact support the validity of this statement in that Labour had won a landslide victory in the earlier election. The conservatives did not support the ideals of the public in most instances, especially when it came to such matters as the military vote due to the conservative’s naturally warmongering attitude. Military personnel were not ready and did not want to become involved in another war. Although the conservatives were not without their share of the vote, it is true that in the number of votes they were not the most popular party which would support the validity of this statement. However, the most important factor to consider is the flaws of the ‘first-past-the-post’ voting system. This entire debate is down to the flaws of this voting system due to its regulations

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