BRITAIN SINCE 1945 Britain since 1945 is the established standard textbook on contemporary British political history since the end of the Second World War. This authoritative chronological survey discusses domestic policy and politics in particular, but also covers external and international relations. The fifth edition of this important book brings the picture to the present by including the following additions: • a new chapter on Tony Blair’s administration including analysis of the London Mayoral elections • new material on John Major in the light of the memoirs of Major, Norman Lamont and new work on the Labour Party at this time • updated statistical data and tables • in-depth coverage of the 1990s and the start of the twenty-first century Britain since 1945 provides a concise and lucid history of Britain from post-war to the present day for all students of contemporary British history and politics. David Childs is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Nottingham. BRITAIN SINCE 1945 A Political History Fifth edition David Childs London and New York First published 2001 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2001 David Childs All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-99224-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-415-24803-5 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-24804-3 (pbk) CONTENTS List of Tables xiii Preface xv Acknowledgements xvi Note and acknowledgements to the second edition xvii Acknowledgements to the third edition xviii Acknowledgements to the fourth edition xix Acknowledgements to the fifth edition xx List of Abbreviations xxi 1 SUMMER VICTORIES 1 Japanese to ‘fight resolutely’ 1 Churchill’s defeat 2 ‘Incredulity’ as Conservatives lose 3 Attlee’s team: ‘These fine men’ 5 Attlee: ‘One of the best Chairmen’ 6 Britain: ‘it won’t be easy’ 7 Notes 8 2 ACHIEVEMENT AND AUSTERITY UNDER ATTLEE, 1945– 9 51 Britain being ‘flayed to the bone’ 9 American loan: ‘This was a disaster’ 10 Public ownership: ‘I’ve waited all my life for this moment’ 11 National Insurance: a ‘paltry sum’ 13 The NHS: ‘vested interests lined up’ 14 v Housing and education: ‘hands were tied’ 16 Constitutional and trade union reform 17 RAF: ‘incitement to mutiny’ 20 Conservatives get ‘best salesman’ 22 Election 1950: ‘real detestation of…Labour’ 23 Notes 24 3 COLONIAL RETREAT AND COLD WAR 26 Paul Robeson congratulates 26 Indian Independence: ‘struck me…with a riding whip’ 26 Palestine: ‘Arabs be encouraged to move out’ 28 Colonies: ‘under the guidance of the Mother Country’ 33 War in Malaya 34 Cold War: ‘magnates…who financed Hitler’ 36 Marshall Aid and NATO 38 Korea: as ‘democratic…as Caligula’s Rome’ 40 Iran: ‘proud and subtle a people’ 42 Election ’51: after ‘exhausting and undignified process’ 44 Decline of socialism: ‘some form of Gestapo’ 45 Notes 46 4 CHURCHILL AND EDEN, 1951–57 51 ‘Our future…little better than a German satellite’ 51 Churchill’s Cabinet: ‘reminiscent of bygone times’ 52 The Bevanites: ‘complacent assumptions’ 54 Eden: ‘high order of intelligence’ 55 1955: ‘first of the electioneering Budgets’ 55 Gaitskell’s ‘great talent and firm loyalty’ 56 ITV: ‘For the sake of our children…resist it’ 57 Cinema and the press 58 Europe: ‘Much ado about nothing’ 60 vi Suez 1956: ‘That does amount to a lie’ 61 Notes 64 5 MACMILLAN AND THE AFFLUENT SOCIETY, 1957–64 66 Macmillan: ‘more cousins and less opposition’ 66 Macmillan: ‘capable of being ruthless’ 68 Cyprus: ‘no question of any change’ 69 Economy: ‘like bicycling along a tightrope’ 71 ‘Nonsense…that our trade unions…are irresponsible’ 73 ‘Most of our people have never had it so good’ 75 Russians in space: ‘frivolity’ of the British 77 Kenya: Hola camp ‘sub-human individuals’ 79 Africa: ‘The wind of change is blowing’ 80 Kuwait: ‘expensive to stay; hard to get out’ 81 Aden: ‘Tolpuddle martyrs of the Middle East’ 82 ‘Socialism that dares not is bound to fail’ 83 H-bomb: ‘naked into the conference chamber’ 86 New Left: a ‘sense of outrage’ 87 Labour’s ‘class image’ 89 ‘Pacifists, unilateralists and fellow-travellers’ 91 EEC: ‘the end of a thousand years of history’ 92 EEC: ‘No three cheers for British entry’ 93 Economic troubles: the ‘guiding light’ 95 Mac the knife’s ‘July massacre’ 96 ‘Speculators…holding the community to ransom’ 97 Profumo: ‘tawdry cynicism’ 98 Home premier: ‘bad joke of democracy’ 99 Britain: ‘relegated to…third class’? 101 Children: ‘if they believe they’re second class’ 102 The public schools: ‘a divisive factor’ 103 vii Wilson: ‘Let’s GO with Labour’ 104 Kennedy shot: ‘I didn’t believe it’ 105 Election ’64: ‘things might start slipping’ 106 Notes 107 6 WILSON’S ATTEMPTS AT REFORM, 1964–70 112 ‘…the news from Moscow’ 112 Wilson: ‘a modern counterpart of Richard III’ 112 Civil Service: ‘excessive power’ 114 Labour: ‘treated as ships passing in the night’ 116 Sterling: ‘a symbol of national pride’ 117 Brown at the DEA 118 Defence: ‘They want us with them’ 119 Technology: Britain’s ‘inability to stay in the big league’ 121 Rhodesia: ‘her conscience has haunted him’ 122 Heath replaces Home: ‘no gratitude in polities’ 123 Wilson’s 1966 victory: timing ‘was faultless’ 125 ‘Labour Government is really finished’ 126 Crisis, 1966: ‘the frailty of a Chancellor’s hopes’ 127 IRC: ‘a kind of government-sponsored merchant bank’ 129 Rhodesia: ‘round and round in circles’ 130 War in Nigeria 132 Anguilla: ‘mock-gunboat diplomacy’ 133 EEC: ‘get us in, so we can take the lead’ 134 Devaluation: ‘the money in our pockets’ 135 Industrial relations: ‘committing political suicide’? 136 Cutting Defence: ‘we were all dogs’ 138 A‘post-midnight’ Privy Council 139 Student protests: ‘nasty touch of authoritarianism’ 140 Immigration: this ‘distasteful necessity’ 141 viii Powell: ‘a nation…heaping up its own funeral pyre’ 143 Northern Ireland: ‘Blatant discrimination’ 144 Commons ‘spellbound’ 146 Lords ‘frustrate…elected Government’ 147 David Steel: ‘exceptional courage’ 148 Election 70: ‘exquisite June morning’ 150 Notes 150 7 THE UNEXPECTED PRIME MINISTER: EDWARD HEATH, 155 1970–74 Downing Street: ‘The shutters were fastened’ 155 ‘Restrict provision to…where it is more efficient’ 156 Industrial relations: ‘all hell will be let loose’ 158 Local government reform: ‘expense…not adequately faced’ 159 Corruption: ‘no option but to resign’ 160 NHS: Joseph’s ‘administrative labyrinth’ 161 Northern Ireland: ‘severe discrimination’ 161 Immigration: ‘only in…special cases’ 163 EEC: ‘something to get us going again’ 164 Oil crisis: ‘Danegeld is Danegeld’ 165 Miners’ strike: ‘it looked as if we were not interested’ 167 Election ‘74: Powell- ‘vote Labour’ 168 Notes 169 8 LABOUR’S MINORITY GOVERNMENTS, 1974–79 171 Wilson’s Cabinet: ‘buoyant atmosphere’ 171 Northern Ireland: ‘considering…total withdrawal’ 173 Election October 74: ‘fighting like hell’ 174 Thatcher: ‘shattering blow…to…Conservative establishment’ 176 A decade of women’s liberation 178 EEC referendum: Wilson fought ‘like a tiger’ 181 Industry: ‘The gap gets wider each year’ 183 ix Wilson goes: ‘astonished Cabinet’ 186 Steel: ‘quiet exterior…determined man’ 187 Crime: ‘violence…a natural aspect of society’ 188 Northern Ireland: ‘hope to a tragic community’ 190 Bullock: ‘more thoughtful…management’ 192 Pay policy: ‘ankle-deep in muck and slime’ 194 Devolution referenda: ‘the valleys were deaf’ 197 Election ‘79: ‘cradled a calf in my arms’ 199 Notes 200 9 THATCHER’S ‘REVOLUTION’, 1979–83 204 Thatcher’s Cabinet: no ‘experience of running a whelk-stall’ 204 Thatcherism: ‘money…opens…astonishing range of choice’ 205 Budget 79: ‘an enormous shock’ 206 Thatcher: ‘Je ne l’aime’ 207 Rhodesia to Zimbabwe: ‘the large gamble’ 208 Thatcher: ‘loathed the trade unions’ 210 Labour: ‘an angry conference’ 210 SDP: ‘the choice…will be deeply painful’ 211 Thatcher: ‘I too became extremely angry’ 214 ‘Why Britain Burns’ 215 The Falklands: ‘picking up the remains…in plastic bags’ 216 Election ‘83: ‘longest suicide note in history’ 220 Notes 222 10 THATCHER: TRIUMPH AND FALL, 1983–90 224 Grenada: government ‘humiliated’ 224 Scargill: ‘northern clubland humour and popularist Socialism’ 226 MI5 ‘controls the hiring and firing of BBC staff’ 228 1985: ‘government by slogan’ 231 The Anglo-Irish Agreement: ‘treachery’ 232 x Privatization: ‘selling off the family silver’ 233 Confusion on defence 236 Thatcher’s hat-trick 237 BBC: ‘lack of balance’? 238 ‘Greed is good’ 241 ‘Black Monday’ 1987 243 Rushdie: ‘prisoner in his own country’ 243 Football hooliganism 244 Prison riots/convictions ‘flawed’ 245 Educational reform: ‘lecturers’ pay…buys less’ 247 NHS: ‘terminally ill’? 249 IRA: ‘those killed…not…carrying arms’ 250 Goodbye SDP 251 ‘Disaster of the poll-tax’ 252 ‘Some…identikit European personality’