Economic and social progress in Great Britain (1945-1990)

Mme Paniandy.

Economic and social progress in Great Britain (1945-1990)

From Clement Atlee to Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party have been succeeded each other at the head of the British politics. In fact, the Labour Party has given importance to social considerations, whereas the Conservative Party has focused on passing economic laws. How did they both contribute to progress in Great Britain ? Firstly, they answered to social issues. Secondly, they established economic laws.

To start with, the post-war society faced the crisis. The Prime Minister was at that time Clement Atlee from the Labour Party. His aim was to care of people with implementing a welfare state. During his term of office, Atlee fought against the « five giants » (Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness) to make his country great again and more independant upon the American assistance, therefore he created family allowances and the National Insurance in 1946 and the National Health Service in 1948.

After Clement Atlee, the Labour Party returned to the power almost twenty years later with the election of Harold Winston in 1964. Winston made Britain a more liberal country with reform of the divorce and abortion laws, the legalisation of homosexuality and the abolition of the death penalty. However Harold Winston failed in making the Labour Party « the natural party of government » and lost the election to Edward Heath, the new leader of the Conservative Party, undoubtedly because of his economic policies weakness.

Then, Clement Atlee didn't pass only social laws, he also implemented the nationalisation of basic industries in 1946.

After a lapse of thirty years, the biggest economic revolution of the XXth century came for Britain with Edward Heath, the leader of the Conservative Party who succeeded to Harold Wilson in 1970. Heath was an ardent Europhile so he caught the opportunity to enter the European Economic Community (EEC) after he death of De Gaule who had vetoed the earlier applications of the Great Britain to become a member of the EEC. In this way, Great Britain joined the European Union (EU) in 1973.

During the 80's, Margaret Thatcher (new leader of the Conservative Party) drove a strong economic programme based on monetarism. She ran completely contrary to the Nationalisation project of Clement Atlee in selling off nationalised industries. She also controlled trade unions and sold council houses in order to create a « property-owning democracy ».

To conclude, through the XXth century, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party have both contributed to the progress in Britain by reinforcing its social and economic development. This progress, added to the fueled proximity of the state with the USA in international politics, has made of the Great Britain one of the most powerful countries in Europe.

...