History+key+words+-+Access+to+History+textbook+-+Glossary.txt

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• fileName "History key words - Access to History textbook - Glossary"
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• 1921 Treaty
• The Anglo-Irish agreement that had partitioned the island of Ireland between an independent south and Northern Ireland (loosely referred to as Ulster) which remained part of the UK

The American formulation for the date 11th September 2001

A Conservative "think-tank", which challenged the idea that the state should redistribute resources in society by taxing the rich and providing for the poor; it argued that the free play of market forces was the best way of fulfilling people's needs

An epic poem by the Roman writer Virgil (70-19BC)

The Islamic terrorist organisation which organised the 9/11 attacks

In theory, the notion of separate and equal development for different racial groups in South Africa; in practice, the subjection of other races to white rule.

The policy followed by the British government between 1935 and 1939 of trying to avoid war by accepting German and Italian territorial demands.

In 1938 US President Reagan announced the development of a strategic defence initiative (popularly known as "Star Wars") which when fully operational would give the USA complete protection against missile attack. This may have been exaggeration but it convinced the USSR that it could no longer keep pace with the West.

A dam on the Nile river that was intended to modernise Egypt by providing a huge supply of hydroelectric power

Describes the hard times the British experienced in the late 1940s. In addition to the restrictions and rationing imposed on them, people had to endure a particularly severe winter in 1946-1947 which exhausted coal stocks and led to fuel shortages and regilar and dispiriting cuts in domestic and industrial electricity supplies.

A wholly Protestant part of Northern Ireland's reserve police force, seen by many as a Protestant army.

The equilibrium between the cost of imports and the profits from exports. When the cost of imports outweighs the income from exports, financial crisis follows.

In 1984, strikers tried to prevent coke lorries leaving British Steel coking plant in Orgreave, South Yorkshire. An estimated 6000 pickets struggled for hours against some 5000-8000 police before finally being overcome. Ninety-three arrests were made, and 51 strikers and 72 policemen were injured.

Followers of Aneurin Bevan, a hero of the left. Interestingly, Bevan was not always as radical as his followers. For example, at the 1957 Labour Party conference, he rejected unilateralism as a policy, describing it as an "emotönal spasm"

On 21st November 1974, in separate explosions in two public houses in Birmingham's city centre, 21 people were killed and 180 seriously injured.

Labour Party procedures allowed individual trade union leaders to cast their conference votes on behalf of all the members of their union, which could number millions.

British National Party. An extremist, racist party.

Containing many conflicting viewpoints

The predominant economic system in the Western world by which individuals and companies trade and invest for private profit.

There were various accusations during the Blair years that the government was engaged in giving out honours and peerages to wealthy donors in return for cash donations to the Labour Party. A long police inquiry eventually concluded in 2007 that there was insufficient evidence to warrant prosecutions.

Confederation of British Industry. Represented Britain's leading manufacturers and industrialists. Officially it was politically neutral, but it tended to side with the Conservatives.

Campaign for Democratic Socialism. A number of CDS members went on to break from Labour in 1981 and form a new political party, the Social Democratic Party.

An official recording of population figures, held every 10 years in the first year of the decade.

A plan, started in 2004, to create by 2010 over 200 special schools to replace the failed comprehensives in urban areas

Relating to the money markets in London's international financial centre, known as "the City"

A society in which a significant number of the population work directly for the government or its agencies

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Founded in 1958 to agitate for unilateral nuclear disarmament, it was dominated from the first by left wingers

Confederation of Health Service Employees

The period of strained relations over the period 1945-1991 between the Soviet Union and its allies and the Western nations led by the USA

The people and the state acting together with a common sense of purpose, which necessarily meant a restriction on individual rights.

A trading system between equal states with the minimum of regulation

Attempted to limit immigration by creating a voucher scheme which restricted the right of entry to those who actually had jobs to go to

Common agreement between the parties on major issues

Someone with strong opinions who acts out of principle rather than political expediency

An amalgram of landowners, land workers, vets, riding schools and those involved in the commercial side of fox hunting.

In October 1962, the USA, having discovered that Soviet nuclear missiles were being installed on the island of Cuba, ordered their removal. After days of acute tension, the Soviet Union gave away and ordered their dismantling and withdrawal

The giving up of weapons

Occur when a government spends more than it raises in revenue

The gap between democratic intenions and their realisation

Population analysis

The period of industrial decline that had witnessed high unemployment and social distress in many areas of Britain and in the 1930s

Reducing the value of the pound against the dollar with the principal aim of making it easier to sell British goods abroad since they would be cheaper in real terms

Granting to Wales and Scotland a considerable degree of control over their own affairs by the creation of a separate Parliament or national assembly. This form of home rule stopped short of complete independence from the UK

Set up in Northern Ireland in 1972 to hear cases without a jury, the aim being to avoid the problem of jury members being intimidated

The process by which the inability to act successfully in one area is compensated for by overzealous action in another

Since the pound was weaker than the dollar, the goods that britain desperately needed from Northern America had to be paid for in dollars.

Democratic Unionist Party, which had broken away from the Official Unionist Party in 1971

A traditional shorthand way of referring to Britain's mnilitary and naval bases and commitments in the Middle East and Asia

The European Free Trade Association formed by Britain, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland and Denmark

The Equality and Human Rights Commission, successor to the Commission for Racial Equality

Exchange rate mechanism. A precursor to monetary union within the EU

Those countries that gave up their individual currencies for the euro

As Foreign Secretary between 1935 and 1938, Eden had developed a deep distrust of Germany's Adolf Hitler and Italy's Benito Mussolini

A large group of Conservative MPs, openly led by Bill Cash, and supported by most of the party's Eurosceptics, who fought against the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty

Those who doubted that the UK's closer integration into Europe would serve British interests

Not relying on conventional party politics

The essence of a federation is that the member states forgo a significant degree of individual sovereignty in order for the union of states to have effective executive power.

Crypto-Communists and Soviet sympathisers

The candidate with more votes than his nearest rival wins the seat, irrespective of whether he has an overall majority of the votes cast.

A representation of the major ills afflicing post-war Britain. Want, to be ended by national insurance. Disease, to be ended by a comprehensive health service. Ignorance, to be ended by an effective education system. Squalor, to be ended by slum clearance and rehousing. Idleness, to be ended by full employment.

Groups of union members ready to rush to areas where strikes had been called to add their weight in persuading workers not to go through factory gates

Representatives of a particular viewpoint who advise government on the policies it should follow. Such groups often represent only themselves rather than the wider public. An example is the lobby group ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) which, although small in number, was able to exert a disproportionate influence.

An economic system in which the forces of supply and deman are allowed to operate naturally without regulation by the government

Algeria, part of the French Empire, had a large Arab population most of whom supported the Algerian independence movement

Similar movements, which originated in North America, but quickly spread to Europe. They believed in direct action as a way of spreading their beliefs about the threat to the planet.

Gross Domestic product. The annual total value of goods produced and services provided in Britain

The planned extermination of a people or a race

Manipulating constituency boundaries so as to leave Protestants in control

The notorious Nazi secret police that had terrorised Germany under Adolf Hitler, between 1933 and 1945

Gross National product. The annual total value of goods produced and services provided by Britain at home and in trade with other countries

General Practitioners, family doctors

Became the site of a womens peace camp which picketed the US base from 1981 to 2000, a graphic example of the extraparliamentary protests against government policy that were a feature of late twentieth-century politics

The murdering of six million Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe

Those who dispute that the Nazi murder of the Jews took place

Punishment of arrogance

In a six week period in May and June 1940, France had been totally overwhelmed by German forces and forced to surrender and accept occupation

The International Monetary Fund. A scheme intended to prevent countries going bankrupt. It began operating in 1947 and by 1990 had been joined by over 150 countries. Each of the member states deposited into a contral fund from which is could then draw in time of need

The feeling among the ex-colonial powers that their previous possession of colonies disqualified them from taking direct action in African affairs.

In 1947, to the anger of its left wing, the Labour government initiated a research programme that led to the denotation of a British atom bomb in 1952 and a hydrogen bomb in 1957

A decline in the purchasing power of money, which meant Britain had to spend more dollars to buy its imports

The interlocking systems and installations which enable a nations industrial economy to operate, e.g. transport, power supply, sewerage and communications

The irish National liberation Army, whose republicanism was part of its programme for Marxist world revolution

Used to raise of lower the cost of borrowing money, thus retarding or stimulating economic activity

The sale of financial and insurance services to foreign buyers, traditionally one of Britains major sources of income from abroad

The Irish Republican Army. Dedicated to the creation through violence of an all-Ireland republic. Its political front was Sinn Fein, a legitimate political party. At the end of the 1969, the movement split into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA.

In 1948, in the face of the underlying hatred of its Arab neighbours, Israel became a sovereign Jewish state, taking most of the territory known as Palestine.

Self-proclaimed warriors in the defence of Islam

The government body principally responsible for providing ministers with national security information

Between 1952 and 1960, clashes between British forces and Kenyan nationalists resulted in the death of 13,000 native Kenyans and 100 Europeans

The formal addresss delivered by the monarch at the beginning of each parliamentary year settng out the governments policies

US dominated UN armies resisted the takeover of South Korea by the Chinese backed Communists of North Korea from 1950 to 1953. Britain suffered the loss of 1788 servicemen, with another 2498 being wounded

A significant number of Labour MPs, some of whom were Marxists, were strongly sympathetic towards the Soviet Union. At this stage, the full horrors of Stalins regime had yet to be revealed, so it was still possible to believe that the USSR was a model socialist state

Term used by Lloyd Georges wartime government of 1916-1918, when promising to reward the British people for their heroic efforts

A deal made by James Callaghan and David Steel in MArch 1977, committing the Liberals to vote with the government in the Commons in return for the governments agreement to consult the Liberals on key issues. The pact lapsed in the autumn of 1978

The remaining number of years an individual is likely to live after a given age.

A disputed place name; Republicans called it Derry

Anti-republican, pro-unionist

Great Soul

A system that attracted federalists since it enabled contentious resolutions to be passed without being blocked by a member state using its individual veto

The natural laws of supply and demand operating without interference by government

In the pre-war period, to qualify for dole or relief, individuals or families had to give precise details of all the money they had coming in

A Marxist group founded in 1964 with the aim of infiltrating Labour and forcing revolutionary policies on it. It had considerable success at local level, becoming a dominant force in the 1970s and 1980s in the councils of Merseyside

Short for mordern conveniences, e.g. central heating, and household accessories such as vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, radios and TVs

Mods drove motor scooters and were rather more smartly dressed than rockers, who rode proper motorbikes; their pre-arranged fights usually took place in seaside resorts on bank holidays

Celebrated occasions in the First and Second World Wars when British forces recovered from initial defeats to win the final military struggle

Clause IV of the Labour Partys constitution committeed it to achieving "the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange". In practice, common ownership on public control meant government control.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. A defensive alliance forced in 1949 by 10 Western European countries as a safeguard against Soviet expansion. The USA eagerly accepted the invitation to join.

The net difference between the number of deaths and the number of births

The National Coal Board, the body with overall responsibility for running the industry.

The net different between the number who left Britain and those who entered it.

Largely West Indians, Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis

Began as a slogan at the 1994 Labour Party conference, the first held with Tony Blair as leader, and become the title by which the party was known from then on.

A broad conservative movement in the USA and Britain in the 1980s which combined an attack on Keynesian economics and growing state power with an emphasis on the need to maintain traditional social values

A deliberate over-dramatisation used by the press to compare Macmillans reshuffle with Hitlers massacre of his leading supporters in Germany in 1934

Regions in which the police are reluctant to persue enquiries because of the hostility and wall of silence they will meet

This resource had come on tap in the late 1970s and turned Britain from a net importer to a net exporter of oil

National Union of Public Employees

Largely Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians and South Africans

Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Formed in 1961, this body came to represent all the leading oil-producing nations, including the strategically important Arab states of Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya and Saudi Arabia

First introduced in 1947, this measure, which became law in 1949, reduced the delaying power of the House of Lords over a Commons' bill to two sessions and one year

Personal Equity Plan

A flat-rate levy to fund local services, to be paid by all adults resident in the local area, not just owners of property; introduced into Scotland in 1989 and into England and Wales in 1990

A way of appealing directly to ordinary people that bypasses normal party politics

The dilemma facing the low paid; if they continued working they were penalised by being taxed, which reduced their net income to a level little higher than if they simply drew unemployment benefit

Introduced in November 1974 to give the police and authorities considerably extended powers of search and arrest

A weekly session when selected members of the House of Commons put direct questions to the Prime Minister

Until the 1980s, among the highest paid workers in British industry, they were reluctant to accept new work practices based on new technology since this would threaten their job security and high earnings

The selling of nationalised (government owned) concerns fully or in part to private buyers and investors

A society in which as many people as possible are encouraged to become homeowners, an extension of the principle that the ownership of property is an essential component of democracy

The allocation of seats to parties according to the number of votes they gain overall

Making non-common market goods uncompetitive by denying them entry or placing tariffs on them

Public Sector Borrowing Requirement. The public sector includes the whole of national and local government activity and the nationalised industries. The cost of running these had to be met from government revenue. If the revenue is insufficient the difference is made up by borrowing. The gap between government revenue and government needs is known as the PSBR

An expert on election trends and voting patterns

An attitude that has religious roots but has become secularised. It is the view among certain people that because they find some forms of social behaviour distasteful they are entitled to prohibit others from engaging in them, even to the point of making the behaviour illegal.

Research and development. Economic research and development provide the means of industrial growth

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher shared a great respect and liking for each other. Reagan's presidency from 1980 to 1988 saw the USA follow economic policies which were very similar to Mrs Thatcher's

The purchasing power of earnings when set against prices. When prices are high money will buy less; when prices are low the same amount of money will buy more.

The return to the UK of a proportion of its budgetary payment to the EU

Founded on 25th January 2004 in London as a socialist breakaway group from the Labour Party, its name represents the words Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community and Trade Unionism

Royal Ulster Constabulary. An almost exclusively Protestant armed police force. The Catholic population came to regard the RUC as a sectarian force whose main task was to coerce them and protect the Protestant political establishment.

A catastrophic fall in Britains currency reserves caused by large withdrawals of deposits by international investors

Special Air Service, the crack anti-terrorisy unit of the British armed services

The annual percentage of an individuals disposable income that is saved rather than spent

A scheme by which the European nations pooled their most productive resources - coal and steel - in a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)

Created in 1998 following a referendum in Scotland the previous year, in which, in a turnout of 60%, three quarters of the voters opted for a system in which Scotland, while remaining within the UK, would have its affairs run by a Scottish Parliament and a Scottish Executive with tax-raising powers

An imaginary anti-Keynesian, pro-market individual.

Investors in companies or public utilities, such as electricity and gas

The term covered such activities as "cash for questions", the practice whereby, in return for payment, MPs asked questions in the Commons that were intended to promote the interests of particular commercial companies

Eden had an unfortunate habit, when emphasising a point, of smacking the palm of one hand with the back of the other. It was this that the press were mocking when they accused him of being irresolute as Prime Minister

Sometimes referred to as the Social Charter, part of the Maastricht treaty, which committed EU member states to introduce extensive welfare schemes

An agreement in 1972 between Wilson and Vic Feather, the TUC General Secretary, to the effect that when Labour was returned to power the unions would follow a wage restraint policy in return for the adoption of pro-worker industrial policies by the government

Shaping society so as to provide protection and opportunity for all its citizens

The countries of Eastern Europe, which were dominated by the Soviet Union

The term coined by Churchill in 1946 to describe the common values and perceptions that, he believed, made the USA and Britain natural allies

A compound word of stagnation and inflation. It referred to the situation in which industry declined but inflation still persisted, with the result that the economy suffered the worst of both worlds

When consumption and prices rose too quickly, the government put on the "brake" by increasing taxes and raising interest rates, thus making it more difficult to borrow money. When production and exports declined, the government pressed the "accelerator" by cutting taxes and lowering interest rates, thus making it easier to borrow money

The building in Belfast which housed the Northern Ireland Parliament

The principle that in matters of special concern to a particular member state, that state should have the right to bypass European decisions

The 1960s saw the relaxing of many of the old taboos in regard to lifestyle and social behaviour; the music of the BEatles and the Rolling Stones, and the fashions of Londons Carnaby Street typified the youthful character of the age

Gaelic for Prime Minister

Young men of the 1950s with a strong tendency to violence when gathered in numbers; they took their name from their style of dress which recalled the fasions of King Edward (Teddy) VII

Tax Exempt Special Savings Account

Transport and General Workers Union

France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg

A term, relating to the avoidance of extremes, often associated with Blaur and New Labour's policies in general

Borught together the existing EU treaties into one formal binding document

Unilateral Declaration of Independence

The body set up to resolve international disputes; its permanent members were the USSR, the USA, Britain, France and China

Those who believed that Britain should give up its atmoic weapons without waiting for a multilateral agreement between the nuclear powers to do so

In the face of popular nationalist opposition, the USSR abandoned its authority over the countries of Eastern Europe without a fight; this culminated in the collapse of the USSR itself in 1991

Each individual member of the UN Security Council had the right to cancel out the collective or majority decision of the others

An undertaking not to press for higher wages until Britain's economy had improved

Created in 1998 following a referendum the previous year which gave the pro-devolution voters a mere 0.6% victory; initially the Assembly was simply a revising chamber examining UK measures that related to Wales, but later legislation gave Wales governmental powers, similar to those enjoyed in Scotland

USed during the Thatcher years as a description of those in the government and Conservative Party who opposed or were uncertain about the tough measures that Mrs Thatcher adopted

A preliminary parliamentary statement of the government's plans in regard to a bill that it intends to introduce

The term comes from the familiar first line of Shakespeare's Richard III: Now is the winter of our discontent

World Trade Organisation, the international body responsible for negotiating and monitoring trade agreements between countries

Young upwardly mobile professional person

Spirit of the times, i.e. the dominant prevailing attitude