Britain Since 1945: Aspects of Identity

The BBC 's early television service was given a major boost in with the coronation of Elizabeth II , attracting a worldwide audience of twenty million, plus tens of millions more by radio. Many middle-class people bought televisions to view the event. As austerity receded after and consumer demand kept growing, the Labour Party hurt itself by shunning consumerism as the antithesis of the socialism it demanded. Small neighbourhood shops were increasingly replaced by chain stores and shopping centres.

Cars were becoming a significant part of British life, with city-centre congestion and ribbon developments springing up along major roads. These problems led to the idea of a green belt to protect the countryside, which was at risk from development of new housing units. Consumption, became more equal, especially as the landed gentry was pressed to pay its taxes and had to reduce its level of consumption.

The last food rations were ended in , along with hire-purchase controls. As a result of these changes, large numbers of the working classes were able to participate in the consumer market for the first time. Ownership jumped from 18 percent in to 29 percent in and 60 percent in Various fringe benefits became more common. By the end of the s, Britain had become one of the world's most affluent countries, and by the early Sixties, most Britons enjoyed a level of prosperity that had previously been the privilege of only a small minority.

In , Queen magazine declared that "Britain has launched into an age of unparalleled lavish living. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan claimed that "the luxuries of the rich have become the necessities of the poor. Opportunities in life, if not equal, were distributed much more fairly than ever before and the weekly wage-earner, in particular, had gained standards of living that would have been almost unbelievable in the thirties.

Labour historian Martin Pugh stated:. Keynesian economic management enabled British workers to enjoy a golden age of full employment which, combined with a more relaxed attitude towards working mothers, led to the spread of the two-income family. John Burnett notes that ownership had spread down the social scale so that the gap between consumption by professional and manual workers had considerably narrowed.

The provision of household amenities steadily improved in the late decades of the century. From a European perspective, however, the UK was not keeping pace. Between , it was overtaken by most of the countries of the European Common Market in terms of telephones, refrigerators, television sets, cars and washing machines per household. In comparing economic prosperity using gross national product per person , the British record was one of steady downward slippage from seventh place in , to twelfth in , to twentieth in Labour politician Richard Crossman , after visiting prosperous Canada , returned to England with a.

Economists provided four overlapping explanations. The "early start" theory said that Britain's rivals were doing so well because they were still moving large numbers of farm workers into more lucrative employment, which Britain had done in the nineteenth century. A second theory emphasised the "rejuvenation by defeat", whereby Germany and Japan had been forced to re-equip, rethink and restructure their economies. The third approach emphasised the drag of "imperial distractions", saying that responsibilities to its large empire handicapped the home economy, especially through defence spending, and economic aid.

Finally, the theory of "institutional failure" stressed the negative roles of discontinuity, unpredictability, and class envy. The last theory blamed trade unions, public schools, and universities for perpetuating an elitist anti-industrial attitude. In the s, the exuberance and the radicalism of the s ebbed. Instead a mounting series of economic crises, including many trade union strikes, pushed the British economy further and further behind European and world growth. The result was a major political crisis, and a Winter of Discontent in the winter of —79, when widespread strikes by public sector trade unions seriously inconvenienced and angered the public.

Historians Alan Sked and Chris Cook summarise the general consensus of historians regarding Labour in power in the s:. If Wilson's record as prime minister was soon felt to have been one of failure, that sense of failure was powerfully reinforced by Callaghan 's term as premier.

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Labour, it seemed, was incapable of positive achievements. It was unable to control inflation, unable to control the unions, unable to solve the Irish problem, unable to solve the Rhodesian question, unable to secure its proposals for Welsh and Scottish devolution, unable to reach a popular modus vivendi with the Common Market, unable even to maintain itself in power until it could go to the country and the date of its own choosing. It was little wonder, therefore, that Mrs. Thatcher resoundingly defeated it in Bright spots included large deposits of oil that were found in the North Sea, allowing Britain to become a major oil exporter to Europe in the era of the s energy crisis.

While economic historians concentrate on statistical parameters, cultural historians added to the list of factors to explain Britain's long-term relative economic decline. According to Peter Hennessy , these include:. His goals were blocked by militant Protestants led by Reverend Ian Paisley. British leaders feared their withdrawal would lead to a "doomsday scenario", with widespread communal strife, followed by the mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of refugees. By the s, the failure of the IRA campaign to win mass public support or achieve its aim of a British withdrawal led to negotiations that in produced what is commonly referred to as the ' Good Friday Agreement '.

This won popular support and largely ended the most violent aspects of The Troubles.

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During the summer of , the nation's spirits were raised by the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. It restored the royal family to the headlines where they would become a permanent fixture in tabloids and celebrity gossip publications, as well as a major tourist attraction. Diana became what Tony Blair called the "People's Princess," an iconic national figure, rivalling or surpassing the Queen, until her divorce. Her accidental death brought an unprecedented spasm of grief and mourning. Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty.

All over the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity. All over the world, a standard bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden, a very British girl who transcended nationality. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic. In the late s Britain was still a Christian nation, with its religiosity reinforced by the wartime experience.

Peter Forster found that in answering pollsters, the British people reported an overwhelming belief in the truth of Christianity, a high respect for it, and a strong association between it and moral behaviour. Morgan agreed, noting that "the Protestant churches, Anglican, and more especially non-conformist, all felt the pressure of falling numbers and of secular challenges Even the drab Sabbath of Wales and Scotland was under some threat, with pressure for opening cinemas in Wales and golf-courses in Scotland.

Brian Harrison reports that the forces of secularisation grew rapidly, and by the s Protestantism was a shadow of its strength. Compared to Western Europe, Britain stood at the lower end of attendance at religious services, and near the top in people claiming "no religion". By every measure number of churches, number of parish clergy, church attendance, Easter Day communicants, number of church marriages, membership as a proportion of the adult population the Church of England was in decline after In there were only half as many parish clergy as in Roman Catholicism held up, thanks initially to immigration from Ireland and later from Poland.

The Muslim population of England and Wales was over 50 times larger in compared to 50 years before. Sophie Gilliat-Ray attributes the growth to "recent immigration, the growing birth rate, some conversion to Islam, and perhaps also an increased willingness to self-identify as 'Muslim' on account of the 'war on terror'.

The s was a bleak period for feminism.

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In the aftermath of World War II, a new emphasis was placed on companionate marriage and the nuclear family as a foundation of the new welfare state. While at the end of the war, childcare facilities were closed and assistance for working women became limited, the social reforms implemented by the new welfare state included family allowances meant to subsidise families, that is, to support women in their "capacity as wife and mother. Women's commitment to companionate marriage was echoed by the popular media: In the s, women's magazines had considerable influence on forming opinion in all walks of life, including the attitude to women's employment.

Nevertheless, s Britain moved to equal pay for teachers and for men and women in the civil service , thanks to activists like Edith Summerskill. Feminist writers of the early postwar period, such as Alva Myrdal and Viola Klein , started to allow for the possibility that women should be able to combine home duties with outside employment. Feminism was strongly connected to social responsibility and involved the well-being of society as a whole.

This often came at the cost of the liberation and personal fulfillment of self-declared feminists. Even those women who regarded themselves as feminists strongly endorsed prevailing ideas about the primacy of children's needs, as advocated, for example, by John Bowlby the head of the Children's Department at the Tavistock Clinic and by Donald Winnicott.

Equal pay entered the agenda at the general election , when the Labour Party's Manifesto proposed a charter of rights including: Polls in showed public opinion moving in favour of equal pay for equal work; nearly three-quarters of those polled favoured the principle. The Equal Pay Act was passed by a Labour government with support from the Conservatives; it took effect in In the s, the generations divided sharply regarding sexual freedoms demanded by youth that disrupted long-held norms.

Sexual morals changed rapidly. One notable event was the publication of D. Although first printed in , the release in of an inexpensive paperback prompted a court case. The prosecutor's question, "Would you want your wife or servants to read this book? The book was seen as one of the first events in a general relaxation of sexual attitudes. The national media, based in London with its more permissive social norms, led in explaining and exploring the new permissiveness. Other elements of the sexual revolution included the development of the contraceptive pill , Mary Quant 's miniskirt and the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality in The incidence of divorce and abortion rose along with a resurgence of the women's liberation movement , whose campaigning helped secure the Equal Pay Act and the Sex Discrimination Act Irish Catholics, traditionally the most puritanical of the ethno-religious groups, eased up a little, especially as the membership disregarded the bishops' teaching that contraception was sinful.

The feminist movement drew inspiration primarily from the United States, and from the experience of left-wing British women experiencing discrimination by male activists.

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Efforts to form a national movement in the mids foundered on a bitter split between the predominantly heterosexual socialists, and the predominantly lesbian radicals. The most visible spokesperson was Germaine Greer , whose The Female Eunuch called on women to rebel against marriage and instead live in heterosexual communes. Paul Addison concludes that," in popular culture, feminism was generally treated as a bit of a joke. Margaret Thatcher received scant credit from feminists for breaking the ultimate glass ceiling, because she avoided feminism, and expressed a strong, independent persona.

National attention focused on them from the s onwards. Young people aged between were physically much more mature than before. They were better-educated, and their parents had more money. The widespread use of washing machines, vacuum cleaners, kitchen appliances and prepared foods meant that teenage girls were no longer needed for so many household chores. The middle and upper-class populations were mostly still enrolled in school, so that much of the teenage phenomena of the postwar years was a product of the working-class. There are two dimensions of special importance, first the economics of teenage consumerism, and secondly; a middle-class moral panic about the decline in British morality.

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They had blue-collar jobs that paid fairly well after the austerity years had ended. They typically lived at home, and did not spend their allowances and wages on housing, groceries, taxes, appliances, furniture or savings for the future. Instead, came the immediate need to urgently keep up with the standards of their peers; the present moment mattered, not the next again year.

New stylish clothes as worn by the trend-setters were promptly copied. The weekend dances and musical performances were very well attended. Spending was a device that gave a person identity and status, and most important, a sense of belonging to the group. Moral panics break out in time of dramatic social change; they appeared often in the last two centuries. The Teddy Boys were gangs that seemed prone to violence, in addition to their outlandish costumes. Many working-class parents, enjoying newfound economic prosperity, eagerly took the opportunity to encourage their teens to enjoy more adventurous lives.

Starting in the lates, the counterculture movement spread from the United States like a wildfire. On both sides of the Atlantic the s "Beat Generation" had fused existentialist philosophy with jazz, poetry, literature, Eastern mysticism and drugs — themes that were all sustained in the s counterculture. Nevertheless, British youth readily identified with their American counterparts' desire to cast off the older generation's social mores. Music was a powerful force.

British groups and stars such as The Beatles , Rolling Stones , The Who , Led Zeppelin , Pink Floyd and many others gained huge followings in the UK and around the world, leading young people to question convention in everything from clothing to the class system. The anti-war movement in Britain was fueled by the counterculture. It collaborated with American counterparts, moving from an emphasis on nuclear war with Russia, to support for insurgents in the Southeast Asian jungles. The Education Act was an answer to surging social and educational demands created by the war and the widespread demands for social reform that approached utopianism.

The Act took effect in and created the modern split between primary education and secondary education at the age of eleven years. The newly-elected Labour government adopted the Tripartite System , consisting of grammar schools , secondary modern schools and secondary technical schools , rejecting the comprehensive school proposals favoured by many in the Labour Party as more equalitarian. Those who did not pass the selection test attended secondary modern schools , or technical schools.

Britain Since 1945 : Aspects of Identity

The school leaving age was raised to fifteen years. The elite system of public schools was practically unchanged. While the new law formed a part of the widely accepted Post-war consensus agreed to in general by the major parties, one part generated controversy. Left-wing critics attacked grammar schools as being elitist because a student had to pass a test at the age of eleven in order to enroll.

Opponents, mostly in the Conservative Party, argued that grammar schools allowed pupils to obtain a good education through merit rather than through family income. By , one in ten students were in comprehensive schools that did not sort children at the age of eleven. Labour education minister Anthony Crosland from crusaded to speed up the process.

Higher education expanded dramatically. Provincial university colleges were upgraded at Nottingham, Southampton and Exeter. By , 21 universities were in existence. Expansion came even faster in the s, with new universities such as: Specialisation allowed national centres of excellence to emerge in Medicine at Edinburgh, engineering at Manchester, Science at Imperial College London, and Agriculture at Reading. Oxford and Cambridge; however, remained intellectually, culturally and politically dominant. They attracted top students from across the Commonwealth, but lost many of their best researchers to the United States, where salaries and research facilities were much more generous.

Into the s, student bodies remained largely middle and upper-class in origins; the average enrollment was only 2, in Every subsequent decade brought further expansion in numbers of institutions and students. For the BBC the central postwar mission was to block threats from American private broadcasting and to continue John Reith's mission of cultural uplift.

Stephen Koss explains that the decline was caused by structural shifts: The provincial press virtually collapsed, with only the Manchester Guardian playing a national role; in it relocated to London. Growing competition arose from non-political journalism and from other media such as the BBC; independent press lords emerged who were independent of the political parties. Spectator sports became increasingly fashionable in postwar Britain, as attendance soared across the board.

Athletes were given the same bonus rations as dockers and miners, 5, calories a day instead of the normal 2, Athletes were housed in existing accommodation. Male competitors stayed at nearby RAF and Army camps, while the women were housed in London dormitories. Cinemas were jammed and dance halls were filled. The great cricket hero Denis Compton was ultimately dominant; the Daily Telegraph reported he:. His happy demeanour and his good looks completed a picture of the beau ideal of a sportsman. I doubt if any game at any period has thrown up anyone to match his popular appeal in the England of The most popular sport in the UK became association football; Sheffield F.

The English Premier League formed in by member clubs of the old Football League First Division is the most-watched football league in the world. Its biggest clubs include: Football in the UK is renowned for the intense rivalries between clubs and the passions of their supporters, which includes a tradition of football chants , such as, " You're Not Singing Any More " or its variant "We Can See You Sneaking Out!

Fans lined up for meat pies, burgers and chips. Football repealed its ban on floodlights in , and night matches attracted increasingly large crowds of fans — some of them unruly; as well as large television audiences. Architects were challenged to build ever-larger stadia, as "their cantilevered constructions dwarfing mean streets, supplanted the cathedral as symbol of the city's identity and aspirations, and the fixtures surpassed church festivals in their national impact. Hooliganism at football matches, sometimes known as "the English disease", had been a characteristic for decades, but by the s, confrontations had escalated into violence against visiting fans; including violence at matches held in mainland Europe.

An in-depth study made in by High Court judge Sir Oliver Popplewell found that many hooligans held steady jobs; they dressed in the latest style, and planned their violence ahead of time as a recreation in itself, to which football was a mere background. They were not poor and were searching for an identity more lively than their mundane working environment. By the s, hooliganism had been sharply reduced, thanks to the use of seating-only stadiums where each spectator had to remain seated in an assigned seat, better policing methods, and the use of closed-circuit television to identify troublemakers.

Cricket is England's other historic sport, but it grew faster in popularity in the overseas colonies, and immigrants in increasing numbers comprised the ranks of top players and fan base. Scotland, the birthplace of golf, remains the top destination for the sport; many clubs opened up by and continue to operate to the present day. The number of golfers doubled in the s from , to 1,,; mostly men. The total reached the 2. The United Kingdom has had a significant film industry for over a century.

Many postwar British actors achieved international fame and critical success, including: The identity of the British industry, and its relationship with the much larger and richer cinema of the United States , has been the subject of debate. Film production in Britain has often been affected by attempts to compete with the American industry.

The career of the producer Alexander Korda was marked by this objective, the Rank Organisation attempted to compete in the s, and Goldcrest in the s. Numerous British-born directors, including Alfred Hitchcock and Ridley Scott , [] and performers, such as Charlie Chaplin [] and Cary Grant , achieved success primarily through their work in Hollywood. After decades of low immigration, new arrivals became a significant factor after Since , large numbers have arrived from Europe and the Middle East. The other 3,, represented diverse ethnic or racial origins: Some immigrants came to the UK as asylum seekers , seeking protection as refugees under the United Nations Refugee Convention , or from member states of the European Union , exercising one of the European Union's Four Freedoms.

Since the s, however, the UK has become a leading proponent of European restrictionalism and has developed policies that tend to exclude asylum seekers from mainstream society. Dispersal policy was set up through the National Asylum Support Service programme so that asylum seekers were directed to urban areas that had available housing, although possibly because of a weak job market. While newly arrived asylum seekers and refugees had both skills and qualifications, they experienced high levels of unemployment, or else found mostly low-skilled jobs with low pay.

Public opinion in host areas turned against them. The new immigrants generally entered tight-knit ethnic communities. For example, the new Irish arrivals became integrated within a working-class Irish Catholic environment that shaped their behaviour whilst maintaining a distinct ethnic identity in terms of religion, culture and Labour politics.

Spouses form the largest single category of migrant settlement, especially Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women. For them it is a matter of restoring domestic relations in a familiar family environment, with higher incomes, thus easing the strain on the immigration process. Fertility rates among new immigrants were much higher than the British norm reflecting the norms of the country of origin.

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However, rates dropped rapidly with the length of stay in Britain. For some ethnic groups, fertility reached about the level of the UK national average e. Only among Pakistani and Bangladeshi women have total fertility rates remained well above the national average, but even so they have shown a continuous decrease since the s. Enoch Powell , a Conservative MP, broke from the broad consensus supporting immigration in April to warn of long-term violence, unrest and internal discord should immigration continued from non-White countries.

His speech foresaw "Rivers of Blood" and predicted that White "native" English citizens would be unable to access social services and be overwhelmed by foreign cultures. While political, social and cultural elites were harshly critical of Powell and he was removed from the Shadow Cabinet , Powell developed substantial public support.

Margaret Thatcher was the dominant political force of the late-twentieth century, often compared to Churchill and David Lloyd George for her transformative agenda commonly referred to as " Thatcherism ". She was often called the "Iron Lady" for her uncompromising politics and leadership style. Political analyst Dennis Kavanagh concludes that the "Thatcher Government produced such a large number of far-reaching changes across much of the policy spectrum, that it passes 'reasonable' criteria of effectiveness, radicalism, and innovation.

The Labour Party under James Callaghan Prime Minister —79 contested the general election as unemployment passed the 1,, mark and trade unions became more aggressive. The Conservatives used a highly effective poster created by advertisers Saatchi and Saatchi , showing an unemployment queue snaking into the distance, carrying the caption "Labour isn't working". The Conservatives received Labour was weakened by the steady long-term decline in the proportion of manual workers in the electorate.

Furthermore, they were beginning to turn against the trade unions — alienated, perhaps, by the difficulties of the winter of —9. In contrast, Conservative policies stressed wider home ownership, which Labour refused to match. Thatcher did best in districts where the economy was relatively strong and was weaker where it was contracting.

As Prime Minister, she implemented policies focused on economic liberalism , using populism , and pragmatism, known as Thatcherism. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation particularly of the financial sector , flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies and reducing the power and influence of trade unions.

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