To What Extent Was the Decline of the Staple Industries Essay Example

To What Extent Was the Decline of the Staple Industries Essay To what extent was the decline of the staple industries the most significant development affecting the people of Wales and England 1880 – 1929? The decline of the staple industries was a very significant development in people’s lives. Before the decline of the staple industries, Britain was known as the â€Å"workshop of the world† this was due to the fact that Britain producing 2/3 of the worlds coal, 50% of the worlds iron and 5/7 of all the worlds’ metal. This all changed when countries like Germany and the US used cheaper methods of extracting and producing these resources that Britain’s buyers looked else wear, the decline of these main industries caused a wave of job losses and other main industries to suffer. Britain lost its place as the most powerful empire; there were many reasons for this. Britain didn’t have the necessary raw materials needed for industrialisation; Britain’s farming industry couldn’t produce enough food to feed the growing population. The Liberal reforms were very significant in people’s lives. There were many reasons for why the liberals decided to reform Britain and these issues are highlighted in Booth and Rowntrees reports about people living below the poverty line. These reports tell us that if someone lost their job before the reforms they had to rely on their savings, family and friends, and the pawn brokers or depend on the poor laws which were the only sort of social protection they had. We will write a custom essay sample on To What Extent Was the Decline of the Staple Industries specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on To What Extent Was the Decline of the Staple Industries specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on To What Extent Was the Decline of the Staple Industries specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The government hardly ever stepped in to help people, the conservative government and member of the House of Lords all believed that if a person was poor that meant they were lazy; these reports discovered that that wasn’t the case and that in fact the majority of the poorest in society were born there. Some shocking statistics had shown that 11% of primary school children were malnourished and in 1900 the height for enlisting was reduced to 5 feet and even 50% who enlisted were in too ill health. There was a major need to reform, because working conditions needed to be improved in order to improve Britain’s employed for the future. Another significant factor that affected the people of Britain was the changing role of women in Britain. The main cause in the change to women was primarily down to world war one. The war opened up a wider range of occupations to female workers and hastened the collapse of traditional womens employment, particularly domestic service. From the 19th century to 1911, between 11 and 13 per cent of the female population in England and Wales were domestic servants. By 1931, the percentage had dropped to under eight per cent. For the middle classes, the decline of domestic servants was facilitated by the rise of domestic appliances, such as cookers, electric irons and vacuum cleaners. The popularity of labour-saving devices does not, however, explain the dramatic drop in the servant population. Middle-class women continued to clamour for servants, but working women who might previously have been enticed into service were being drawn away by alternative employment opening up to satisfy the demands of war. The number of women in the Civil Service increased from 33,000 in 1911 to 102,000 by 1921. The advantages of these alternative employments over domestic service were obvious: wages were higher, conditions better, and independence enhanced. Another reason was the general strike. The general strike was called by the TUC to support the miners in their quarrel with the mine owners, who wanted to reduce their wages by 13 per cent and increase their shifts from seven to eight hours. Workers in industries such as iron, steel and coal were encouraged to stay off work. The strike affected people across the country because these industries were at a standstill this caused the rest of the country to suffer. To conclude, I think that there were many significant factors that affected the British people and the declined of the staple industries was one of them. However, i think that the most significant factor was the war, as this affected all sexes and age groups across the country and no one was left unscathed by it.

Lies, damned lies and statistics - Emphasis

Lies, damned lies and statistics Lies, damned lies and statistics There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. So said Benjamin Disraeli (and later Mark Twain, who was quoting him). Yet the public (and thats all of us, at one time or another) continues to be sucked in by reports based on spurious logic and facts of dubious provenance. If youve ever wondered why, you should read Risk, by Dan Gardner. Its a fascinating explanation of why we fall for sensationalist writing every time. The link between the MMR triple vaccine and autism is one of the latest examples of the triumph of hype over reality. Reports of a link were based on a study involving just a handful of children. And countless subsequent and much bigger studies failed to confirm it. So the UK Government issued a statement saying that there was no link. And thats when it all kicked off probably helped by the Governments denial. (After all, if the Governments denying it, then it must be true, right?) The newspapers began filling up with studies of children whod received the triple jab and then went on to develop the condition. Queues formed at clinics offering measles, mumps and rubella vaccination in three separate injections (a method that unlike the triple jab had never been tested on a large scale for either safety or efficacy). More and more people sought alternatives, such as homoeopathic vaccination. And crucially vaccination rates plummeted, to way below that required to produce herd immunity. Now, years later, measles infection rates have climbed dramatically more than 1300 last year in the UK alone, compared with just 56 ten years ago. The World Health Organization has abandoned its hope of eradicating the disease in the short term. And all because of a dubious, almost certainly unrepresentative study. So why did we fall for it? It would be tempting to say that most people lack the technical knowledge to assess statistics properly. That may be true, but theres more to it than that. Psychology plays a huge part. Our emotions are produced in the parts of the brain that evolved long before the parts that enable us to reason. And we make judgements usually subconsciously based on emotion (or gut feel) long before we use logic to work out if our gut feeling is right. Then theres innumeracy. According to French neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene, were slower to compute 4+5 than 2+3. In fact, humans innate skill with numbers isnt much better than that of rats and dolphins. Its just that weve learned how to overcome it with a lot of effort. (When polled, 45 per cent of Canadians didnt know how many millions there are in a billion, for example.) So instead, people rely on gut feel: autism is a Bad Thing, so MMR must be bad. Logic never really gets a look in. Risk explains in a clear and compelling way why our lives are dominated by irrational fears (as well as why we dont worry about the things we should worry about). Its the perfect antidote to the current epidemic of negative news. And if you dont want to read that, heres another statistic for you, this time from the late comedian George Carlin: Think about how stupid the average person is; now realise half of them are dumber than that.