Anatomy of Britain Today II. [antikvár]

INTRODUCTIONIt is nearly three years since the original edition of Anatomy of Britain came out, and in that time there have been large changes, in structure, in attitude, and in the government. In Anatomy of Britain Today, I have tried to present an up-to-date picture of who runs Britain, and how, at the beginning of 1965.1 have completely revised the text, and rewritten about a quarter of it. I have found this in many ways a more interesting, and certainly more agreeable task than writing the first book. I have found it easier to pick up information and moods, against the background of the earlier Anatomy, and I have been able to look at the shifts and movements within institutions. I have tried, in particular, to convey the process and atmosphere of Harold Wilson's 'hundred days', and the shake-up it induced. Much of the solid substructure of Britain the aristocracy, the City, the industrial corporationshas hardly changed; but in a large part of Whitehall and politics, in management, education and communications, there have been considerable and exciting upheavals. In the last chapter on 'Britain's Changing Anatomy', I try to sum up the real extent of the changes, to describe the special impact of Harold Wilson, and to pull together the threads that run through the book.I have retained most of the structure of the original version, but all through the book I have altered emphasis and order, subtracted some sections and added more (this book is considerably longer than the first). Some chapters (like 'The Palace') are now shorter, and others (like 'Scientists') are longer. I begin, in the first five chapters, with the more antique and historical institutions, centring round the aristocracy. I then turn to the sudden and very separate presence of Harold Wilson, and to the Labour party. I then deal, at much greater length than before, with the educational system, which is the main instrument of change : and the charts of schools and universities form a kind of centrepiece to the book. After this, in the chapters on the civil service, I try to trace the effect of the new government on the bureaucracies, and conclude the first part of the book with scientists, in their strengthened position.xiii