Britain in close-up [antikvár]

Introduction This book aims to describe Britain as it is today, and to go beyond popular and stereotyped images to examine the more complex realities of modern Britain and its people. It also attempts to assess the changes taking place in Britain today and to indicate the direction in which the country is travelling as it enters the twenty-first century. The political bacltground It is impossible to do so without reviewing, in very broad outline, what has been happening to Britain in recent years. In general terms, Britain has experienced three major phases of government since 1945; 1945-79, 1979-97 and the period since 1997. In 1945 a Labour government under Prime Minister Clement Attlee established what was later called 'the post-war consensus' between the two main parties, the Conservative and Labour Parties. This consensus referred to fundamental economic and social matters, so that Britain could rebuild itself economically and socially following the Second World War. Despite ideological differences, both Conservative and Labour governments followed the principles for the national economy formulated by the great pre-war economist J.M. Keynes, which stated that capitalist society could only survive if government controlled, managed and even planned much of the general shape of its economy. The requirements of war (1939-45) had increased the belief in, and practice of, government planning. Labour nationalised those industries and services considered central to the national economy: notably coal and steel production, gas and electricity supply, and the railways. Labour also established virtually full employment and a 'welfare state', which guaranteed free health and education, pensions and benefits for the old, disabled, sick or unemployed. The maintenance of the welfare state and full employment were accepted by the Conservatives as fundamental responsibilities of government. However, neither principle could be ensured without an expanding economy. As the Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (1957-63) remarked, managing the post-war economy was like juggling four balls in the air: an expanding economy, full employment, stable prices and a strong pound. It was only in the question of full employment that post-war governments were truly successful. Regardless of which party was in power, Britain's economy became characterised by a 'stop-go' cycle: periods of inflation followed by crises in the balance of payments, the difference between the value of total imports and exports. By its own standards Britain seemed to be doing reasonably well, but it was doing only half as well as other industrialised countries, and Britain's share of world trade fell from 13.9 per cent in 1964 to 10.8 per cent in 1970. This poor comparative performance was reflected in the decline of the manufacturing industry, once Britain's proudest asset. By 1980, manufacturing productivity per head in Britain was two-thirds that in Italy, half that in France and less than half that in West Germany. By 1975 the post-war consensus was beginning to collapse, with growing economic difficulties, most notably the doubling of the number of unemployed in the two years 1974-75, to exceed one million. In the winter of 1978-79, nicknamed 'the Winter of Discontent', the trade unions refused to accept the pay restraint demanded by the Labour government's economic strategy. Largely as a result of this refusal, Labour lost the election of 1979, which was fought on two issues: the question of union strength and the broader question of national economic decline. While Labour proposed continuing with the same economic policies, the victorious Conservatives, under their new leader Margaret Thatcher, offered a radical alternative. Thatcher's ideas and values, marking the second major phase of post-war government, dominated government policies until the defeat of the Conservatives in 1997. She brought an entirely