AQA
A-level
HISTORY
7042/2M
Component 2M Wars and Welfare: Britain in Transition,
1906–1957
Version: 1.0 Final
IB/M/Jun23/E4
... [Show More] 7042/2M
A-level
HISTORY
Component 2M Wars and Welfare: Britain in Transition, 1906–1957
Friday 9 June 2023 Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
Materials
For this paper you must have:
• an AQA 16-page answer book.
Instructions
• Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
• Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is
7042/2M.
• Answer three questions.
In Section A answer Question 01.
In Section B answer two questions.
Information
• The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
• The maximum mark for this paper is 80.
• You will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
Advice
• You are advised to spend about:
– 1 hour on Question 01 from Section A
– 45 minutes on each of the two questions answered from Section B.
A
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Section A
Answer Question 01.
Source A
From the minutes of a Cabinet meeting, 23 August 1931.
The Prime Minister informed the Cabinet that he was strongly in favour of accepting the
May Committee’s recommendations. The Bank of England needed to restore confidence
in sterling. He warned the Cabinet of the dreadful consequences that would inevitably
follow from a financial panic and a run on the pound. He was confident that a majority of
the Party was in favour. If the government inflicted spending cuts and tax rises but made
no significant reduction in unemployment benefit, it would alienate much middle-class
support and lose the Party its moral prestige, which was one of its greatest assets. In
conclusion, the Prime Minister admitted that the recommendations as a whole
represented the opposite of everything that the Labour Party stood for, and yet he was
absolutely satisfied that it was in the national interest to implement them if the country
was to be saved. He then pointed out that, if on this question there were any important
resignations, the government as a whole must resign.
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Source B
From a diary entry of JCC Davidson, 23/24 August 1931. Davidson, a Conservative MP
and close friend and political ally of Baldwin, held several ministerial positions between
1920 and 1937.
MacDonald requested a meeting with Baldwin after his Cabinet meeting ended. Samuel
and Chamberlain were also present. MacDonald told them of the situation in the
Cabinet. It was clear that he had declined the King’s request to form a coalition.
Chamberlain pressed him to consider the support in the country he would bring to such
an administration and the effect it would have in restoring confidence. His arguments
seemed to have no effect. To everyone at the meeting, it seemed certain that
MacDonald intended to resign. The next morning all was dramatically changed. The
party leaders met with the King at 10 am. The King again urged MacDonald not to
resign. Their discussions lasted for two hours. There was to be no coalition, but a
so-called cooperation of individuals to cope with the emergency. Once the required
measures had been passed, the parties would contest an election independently.
MacDonald set out for Downing Street to tell the Cabinet what had been decided.
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Source C
From the autobiography of Clement Attlee, 1954. Attlee was a member of MacDonald’s
Cabinet in 1930/31. Attlee turned down MacDonald’s offer of a position in the
National Government.
In the old days I had looked up to MacDonald as a great leader. The unpopular line he
took during the Great War seemed to mark him as a man of character. I had not
appreciated his defects until I entered the Cabinet as a junior minister. I then realised his
reluctance to take positive action and noted with dismay his increasing vanity and
snobbery. His habit of telling me the poor opinion he had of all his Cabinet colleagues
made an unpleasant impression. I had not, however, expected that he would perpetuate
the greatest betrayal in the political history of this country by accepting a commission
from the King to form a so-called ‘National’ Government. The shock to the Party was
very great. I had not thought him capable of such hatred of those who had served him
loyally, though we had become conscious of a growing separation between him and the
rest of the Party. He was increasingly mixing only with people who did not share Labour
values.
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0 1 With reference to these sources and your understanding of the historical context,
assess the value of these three sources to an historian studying Ramsay MacDonald’s
political decisions in 1931.
[30 marks]
Turn over for Section B
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Section B
Answer two questions.
0 2 ‘The Liberal government’s social and welfare reforms, in the years 1906 to 1914, failed
to deal with the problems of poverty.’
Assess the validity of this view. [Show Less]