AQA A-level HISTORY 7042/2M Component 2M Wars and Welfare: Britain in Transition, 1906–1957 Version: 1.0 Final IB/M/Jun23/E4 7042/2M A-level HISTORYQUESTION PAPER & MARKING SCHEME/ [MERGED] Mark scheme June 2023

AQA A-level HISTORY 7042/2M Component 2M Wars and Welfare: Britain in Transition, 1906–1957 Version: 1.0 Final IB/M/Jun23/E4 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 2 IB/M/Jun23/7042/2M 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. 5 10 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. 5 10 3 IB/M/Jun23/7042/2M Turn over ► 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. 5 10 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 4 IB/M/Jun23/7042/2M 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. [25 marks] 0 3 To what extent was the rise of Labour, in the years 1916 to 1922, due to divisions in the Liberal Party? [25 marks] 0 4 ‘The Labour government was deeply divided throughout the years 1945 to 1951.’ Assess the validity of this view. [25 marks] END OF QUESTIONS Copyright information For confidentiality purposes, all acknowledgements of third-party copyright material are published in a separate booklet. This booklet is published after each live examination series and is available for free download from Permission to reproduce all copyright material has been applied for. In some cases, efforts to contact copyright-holders may have been unsuccessful and AQA will be happy to rectify any omissions of acknowledgements. If you have any queries please contact the Copyright Team. Copyright © 2023 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. *236A7042/2M* A-level HISTORY 7042/2M Component 2M Wars and Welfare: Britain in Transition, 1906–1957 Mark scheme June 2023 Version: 1.0 Final *236A7042/2M/MS* MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL HISTORY – 7042/2M – JUNE 2023 2 Mark schemes are prepared by the Lead Assessment Writer and considered, together with the relevant questions, by a panel of subject teachers. This mark scheme includes any amendments made at the standardisation events which all associates participate in and is the scheme which was used by them in this examination. The standardisation process ensures that the mark scheme covers the students’ responses to questions and that every associate understands and applies it in the same correct way. As preparation for standardisation each associate analyses a number of students’ scripts. Alternative answers not already covered by the mark scheme are discussed and legislated for. If, after the standardisation process, associates encounter unusual answers which have not been raised they are required to refer these to the Lead Examiner. It must be stressed that a mark scheme is a working document, in many cases further developed and expanded on the basis of students’ reactions to a particular paper. Assumptions about future mark schemes on the basis of one year’s document should be avoided; whilst the guiding principles of assessment remain constant, details will change, depending on the content of a particular examination paper. Further copies of this mark scheme are available from Copyright information AQA retains the copyright on all its publications. However, registered schools/colleges for AQA are permitted to copy material from this booklet for their own internal use, with the following important exception: AQA cannot give permission to schools/colleges to photocopy any material that is acknowledged to a third party even for internal use within the centre. Copyright © 2023 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL HISTORY – 7042/2M – JUNE 2023 3 Level of response marking instructions Level of response mark schemes are broken down into levels, each of which has a descriptor. The descriptor for the level shows the average performance for the level. There are marks in each level. Before you apply the mark scheme to a student’s answer read through the answer and annotate it (as instructed) to show the qualities that are being looked for. You can then apply the mark scheme. Step 1 Determine a level Start at the lowest level of the mark scheme and use it as a ladder to see whether the answer meets the descriptor for that level. The descriptor for the level indicates the different qualities that might be seen in the student’s answer for that level. If it meets the lowest level then go to the next one and decide if it meets this level, and so on, until you have a match between the level descriptor and the answer. With practice and familiarity, you will find that for better answers you will be able to quickly skip through the lower levels of the mark scheme. When assigning a level, you should look at the overall quality of the answer and not look to pick holes in small and specific parts of the answer where the student has not performed quite as well as the rest. If the answer covers different aspects of different levels of the mark scheme you should use a best fit approach for defining the level and then use the variability of the response to help decide the mark within the level, ie if the response is predominantly Level 3 with a small amount of Level 4 material it would be placed in Level 3 but be awarded a mark near the top of the level because of the Level 4 content. Step 2 Determine a mark Once you have assigned a level you need to decide on the mark. The descriptors on how to allocate marks can help with this. The exemplar materials used during standardisation will help. There will be an answer in the standardising materials which will correspond with each level of the mark scheme. This answer will have been awarded a mark by the Lead Examiner. You can compare the student’s answer with the example to determine if it is the same standard, better or worse than the example. You can then use this to allocate a mark for the answer based on the Lea