Transcript Austerity, Decline, Stagflation (but there were the Beatles): England, 1945-2000)

Austerity, Decline, Stagflation
(but there were the Beatles):
England, 1945-2000)
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
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 shortages—longer women’s 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 appeared—chocolate, liquor
Sir Stafford Cripps—C. of
Exchequer
“There but for
the Grace of
God, goes
God.”
--W. L. S. C.
The Empire
• August 15, 1947—India granted
independence
• Ireland Act of 1949—Ireland no longer a
dominion—Northern Ireland part of UK at
discretion of Belfast Parliament
• Britain withdrew from Palestine in 1948
(occupation had cost Ł100 mil. Between
1945 and 1947)
The Ghandi Man
Britain and the Cold War
• Churchill’s deal w/ Stalin gave eastern Europe to
Russia but Churchill and Gov’t. supported anticommunists 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
Politics
• 1948 Representation of the People Act—no more
plural voting for Oxford and Cambridge grads
• Labor won 1950 election on the need to
nationalize the steel industry
• Voters don’t 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
1951 Election
• Conservatives win election and Churchill at age
76 was back in power—Conservatives controlled
government until 1964 but Labour-like budgets
persisted
• “Butskellism”—Richard Butler (Conservative
Exchecquer); Hugh Gaitskill (Liberal Exchecquer)
• Austerity reduced—income taxes cut in 1952 and
rationing ended in 1954
• Nationalization and Public Health measures
remained in place although steel was denationalized in 1963.
1952—Coronation of Elizabeth II
Sir Edmund Hillary
Roger Bannister
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)
Sir Anthony Eden (1897-1977)
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
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 government—
Douglas-Home continues but loses to Harold
Wilson and Labour in 1964
Emergence of Thatcher
• Strikes and inflation bring woes to England
and neither the Conservatives of Edward
Heath nor Labour has remedy—not until
1987 was inflation brought under control
• England entered EU in 1973
• Problems with Ireland—marked by
escalating violence—continued
• Thatcher elected in 1979
Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990)
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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
The “Iron Lady”
Tony Blair
• Death of Princess Di
• 3rd Way politics
• Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland
(1998)
• Devolution Movements
• Supporting W in “War against Terrorism”
Tony Blair (1953-
Gordon Brown, 1951- (P.M.
2007-2010)
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Continuation of support for Iraq war?
Eco-towns
Written Constitution?
Bank bailout and growing national debt
Challenge of David Cameron
Gordon Brown, 1951
David Cameron (1966• Adviser to John Major in early 1990s.
• Elected MP in 2000
• Leader of Conservatives who won 306 seats of
650—coalition government with Liberal
Democrats—57 seats.
• Nick Clegg, L. D. leader, is deputy P. M.
• Issues—how long in Afghanistan, 2011 Riots,
Euro Crisis, future of Safety-net v. Debt
Reduction.
Cameron—left-and Nick Clegg