Explain Why the Conservatives Were the Favorites Going Into the 1959 Election.

Explain why the conservatives were the favorites going into the 1959 election.

The conservatives went into the 1959 election as favorites for a number of different reasons, I am going to describe and explain some of them.

Firstly, the conservatives had just enjoyed time in power and it had been very successful. After they returned to power in 1951 Britain had an economic boom and ever-increasing national prosperity throughout the 1950s which found many of British people in work and very little unemployed. They did this by encouraging industries and factories so they grew which meant more jobs. The conservatives started to call their opponents “socials” instead of Labour which gained them more popularity. The 1959 election campaign was leaded with the phrase from party leader Macmillan “Britain has never had it so good” which made people feel good and believed that Britain truly was the best under the conservatives.

Also, the things they were promising were seen to be better and more what the people wanted compared to Labour and the Liberals. There manifesto included sharing prosperity which included increasing trade opportunities and working with trade unions which appealed to the public as trade unions were very popular amongst Britain. Other things they wanted was employment and economic change which they wanted to achieve by technical advance, better roads and also to help farmers. Arguably the most popular of promises from the conservatives was to improve opportunity and security by putting money into education, making better housing areas available and also improving the National Health Service. The last major promise was a policy for peace. This included setting up the United Nations, improving relations with Russia, disarmament and the banning of nuclear tests. These aims also helped gain Conservative popularity as after the war people just wanted peace and no foreign affairs and the party shared this perspective.

The overall reason why the...