Changing attitudes to authority: the permissive society
The Permissive Society
The 1960s are often labelled the era of the permissive society — a time when laws, attitudes, and social norms shifted away from the conformity of the 1950s towards greater individual freedom. Within a decade, Britain decriminalised homosexuality, abolished the death penalty, relaxed divorce law, legalised abortion, and ended theatre censorship. All these reforms happened under Home Secretary Roy Jenkins between 1965 and 1967, a period sometimes called the “permissive moment.”
Whether these changes were truly “permissive” — a morally neutral extension of liberty — or represented a breakdown of moral standards, was fiercely debated at the time and has been argued over ever since. Critics such as Mary Whitehouse, who founded the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association in 1965, argued that television and the new laws were corroding public morality. Supporters argued that the reforms simply brought the law into line with how many people already lived.
The Profumo Affair of 1963 was one of the most damaging political scandals of the post-war era. John Profumo, Harold Macmillan’s Secretary of State for War, had an affair with Christine Keeler, who was simultaneously involved with Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet naval attaché. Profumo denied the affair in a personal statement to the House of Commons, then admitted he had lied. He resigned in June 1963. The scandal contributed significantly to Macmillan’s own resignation later that year and to the Conservatives’ defeat in 1964.
The Legalisation of Homosexuality
Before 1967, sexual acts between men were criminal offences in England and Wales, carrying penalties of up to life imprisonment. The law was applied inconsistently but had ruined many lives — the 1952 prosecution and chemical castration of mathematician Alan Turing being one of the most notorious examples. The Sexual Offences Act 1967 decriminalised private consensual acts between men aged 21 or over in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland followed much later).
The Act was a partial liberalisation. The age of consent remained 21 (higher than the heterosexual age of 16), and it did not apply to the armed forces or the merchant navy. Public attitudes towards homosexuality remained largely hostile, and discrimination in employment and housing was widespread. Nevertheless, the Act was a significant legal milestone that began a process of reform that would continue for decades.
Capital punishment for murder was suspended by the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 and abolished permanently in 1969 (though it remained for treason and certain other offences until 1998). The campaign to abolish hanging had been strengthened by several controversial executions: the hanging of Derek Bentley in 1953 despite doubts about his responsibility, and the execution of Timothy Evans in 1950 (later exonerated after it emerged that the serial killer John Christie had committed the murders Evans was convicted of).
The miscarriage of justice in the Evans case and concerns about executing the innocent made the arguments for abolition more persuasive. Ruth Ellis, hanged in 1955 and the last woman executed in Britain, also attracted public sympathy. Opinion polls at the time suggested a majority opposed abolition, making this a case where Parliament acted against popular opinion on a matter of principle.
CND and Nuclear Protest
The CND — the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament — was founded in 1958 in response to British nuclear weapons testing and the growing fear of nuclear war. Its annual marches from the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire to London drew tens of thousands of participants. CND attracted support from across the political spectrum, including scientists, clergy, intellectuals, and young people.
CND’s membership peaked in the early 1960s during the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962), when the world came closest to nuclear war. The peace symbol (designed by Gerald Holtom in 1958 specifically for CND) became one of the most recognisable political symbols of the twentieth century. CND was associated with a broader critique of Cold War politics, American foreign policy, and Britain’s junior role in the Western alliance. The movement waned after the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty, though it revived in the 1980s in response to Cruise missile deployment.
CND’s first Aldermaston march took place at Easter 1958; it attracted an estimated 4,000 marchers from London to Aldermaston. From 1959 onwards the march ran from Aldermaston to London and drew tens of thousands of participants. It was one of the largest peace movements in British history.
Student Protest, 1968
1968 was a year of global protest. In France, student uprisings brought the country close to revolution. In the United States, anti-Vietnam War protests convulsed campuses. In Britain, the most dramatic moment came on 17 March 1968, when approximately 10,000 people marched to the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square in London to protest against the Vietnam War. Several hundred demonstrators attempted to rush the embassy; there were 246 arrests and more than 50 injured.
Student activism spread through British universities. Sit-ins, occupations, and demands for student representation on university governing bodies became common. Students at the London School of Economics were particularly active. The protests reflected a generation questioning not only foreign policy but also the structures of educational authority, class deference, and what they saw as the hypocrisy of the political establishment. The Profumo Affair had already shown that the ruling class was not morally superior; 1968 challenged whether it was politically legitimate.
Drug use, particularly cannabis and LSD, became associated with youth culture and the counter-culture of the 1960s. The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 created the classification system (Class A, B, C) still in use today, and significantly increased penalties for supply. High-profile prosecutions, including the 1967 arrests of Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards for drug possession, became part of the cultural conflict between establishment authority and youth culture. The Times published a full-page advertisement calling for cannabis law reform, signed by 65 prominent people including Beatles member Paul McCartney.
The tension between the permissive liberalisation in some areas of law and increasing restrictions in others (such as drugs) illustrated the contradictory nature of the “permissive society.” Roy Jenkins’s reforms aimed to expand personal liberty in private behaviour; drug law remained firmly restrictive on public safety grounds.