Austerity, Decline, Stagflation

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Austerity, Decline, Stagflation

• (but there were the Beatles) England, 1945-2000)

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Nationalization

• 800 coal companies under single National Coal
  Board
• Electricity and Gas also nationalized but 80 of
  economy remained in private hands
• National Health Insurance Act/National Insurance
  Act 1) Free hospital and medical care 2)
  unemployment insurance 3)sickness and disability
  benefits 4) maternity and death benefits 5)
  payments for retirees, widows, and orphans
• Funded by worker stamps (tax) with general fund
  subsidies when necessary

3
Austerity

• Result of Balance of Payments problem, world wide
  food shortage, and end of Lend-Lease
• Food rationing in 1947 1948 (below WWII levels)
• Clothing shortageslonger womens skirts became a
  national issue
• No gas for private cars and 4 page newspapers in
  47
• U. S. Loan of 3.75 billion in 46 and Marshall
  Plan aid helped
• Pound devalued from 4.03 to 2.80
• Spiv, or black market appearedchocolate, liquor

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Sir Stafford CrippsC. of Exchequer
There but for the Grace of God, goes God.
--W. L. S. C.
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The Empire

• August 15, 1947India granted independence
• Ireland Act of 1949Ireland no longer a
  dominionNorthern Ireland part of UK at
  discretion of Belfast Parliament
• Britain withdrew from Palestine in 1948
  (occupation had cost L100 mil. Between 1945 and
  1947)

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The Ghandi Man
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Britain and the Cold War

• Churchills deal w/ Stalin gave eastern Europe to
  Russia but Churchill and Govt. supported
  anti-communists in Greek Civil War.
• Cost of preserving a non-communist Greece led
  England to abdicate role in region to U. S.led
  to Truman Doctrine
• England was charter Member of Nato in 1949

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Politics

• 1948 Representation of the People Actno more
  plural voting for Oxford and Cambridge grads
• Labor won 1950 election on the need to
  nationalize the steel industry
• Voters dont want to starve with Strachey or
  shiver with Shinwell.
• Rationing of flour, milks, eggs, soap, and
  clothes dropped in 1951
• Retirements of Cripps, Ernest Bevin, Aneurin
  Bevin and Harold Wilson from Labour cabinet
  forced Atlee to call for election

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1951 Election

• Conservatives win election and Churchill at age
  76 was back in powerConservatives controlled
  government until 1964 but Labour-like budgets
  persisted
• ButskellismRichard Butler (Conservative
  Exchecquer) Hugh Gaitskill (Liberal Exchecquer)
• Austerity reducedincome taxes cut in 1952 and
  rationing ended in 1954
• Nationalization and Public Health measures
  remained in place although steel was
  de-nationalized in 1963.

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1952Coronation of Elizabeth II
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Sir Edmund Hillary
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Roger Bannister
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England and the World

• For. Secretary Anthony Eden broke impasse in
  Europe about admitting West Germany to NATO in
  1955
• Britain got A-Bomb in 1952 and H-Bomb in 1957
• Churchill resigned in 1955 and Anthony Eden
  becomes MB following another Conservative
  electoral victory (347 to 277 over Labour)

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Sir Anthony Eden (1897-1977)
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Suez Crisis

• Eden and the French sent troops to seize Suez
  Canal in 1956 Egypt-Israeli war
• Fighting had stopped by the time the troops
  arrived.
• Both U. S. and U. S. S. R. condemned intervention
• Troops are withdrawn Eden resigned.
• Clearly, Britain was a second rate power

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Politics at Home

• Harold Macmillan succeeded Eden, who went to
  Lords as Earl of Avon
• Hugh Gaitskell and Labour made gains in
  popularity but Macmillan and conservatives win
  365 to 258 in the 1959 election.
• Domestic prosperity increases especially due to
  increased steel and woolen production
• Tried but failed to join EEC or EU in 1963
• Profumo Scandal brought down governmentDouglas-Ho
  me continues but loses to Harold Wilson and
  Labour in 1964

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Emergence of Thatcher

• Strikes and inflation bring woes to England and
  neither the Conservatives of Edward Heath nor
  Labour has remedynot until 1987 was inflation
  brought under control
• England entered EU in 1973
• Problems with Irelandmarked by escalating
  violencecontinued
• Thatcher elected in 1979

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Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990)

• More incentive to private industry
• Inflation controlled by managing money supply
• Falklands War (1982)
• Privatization of ten major companies between 1984
  and 1987
• Poll Tax forced her from power in 1990
• John Major continued her policies until 1997 and
  helped ease England into the Maastricht Treaty
  process
• Chunnel opened in 1994

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The Iron Lady
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Tony Blair

• Death of Princess Di
• 3rd Way politics
• Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland (1998)
• Devolution Movements
• Supporting W in War against Terrorism

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Tony Blair (1953-
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Gordon Brown, 2007-

• Continuation of support for Iraq war?
• Eco-towns
• Written Constitution?
• Bank bailout and growing national debt
• Challenge of David Cameron

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Gordon Brown, 1951