| Before WW1, Britain was a manufacturing workshop, and hub of
international finance, confident in the economic doctrine of laissez
faire (free from state intervention). However, between 1900 and 1950
Britain was weakened by two world wars, and beset by economic
difficulties. The old staples of coal, steel, shipbuilding and textiles
were declining, and the inter-war decades were overshadowed by mass
unemployment; periods of poverty; dole queues, and derelict towns. |
| However, it was not all doom and gloom. Newer sectors were steadily
growing. Moreover, these years witnessed major scientific advances, and
substantial economic growth in the new industries. In 1913 Britain
produced 34,000 motor vehicles; this figure had risen to 507,000 by
1937. There were breakthrough developments in plastics and artificial
fibres contributing to the growth of the chemical industry. Giant
combines were formed, such as ICI in 1926. The construction industry
grew at almost double the rate of the economy, with over 4 million new
homes built. And, by 1933 the national grid was almost complete giving
Britain one of the most advanced systems of electricity supply in the
world. |
| In 1914 Britain was a country where 4% of the population accounted
for nearly 90% of the entire capital wealth, and where by contrast 30% experienced poverty. There were serious
tensions within society. Trade Unions were demanding a redistribution of
wealth. Ireland was demanding Home Rule; and Suffragettes were demanding
justice. In the first six month of 1914 almost 5 million days were lost
through strikes, and the prospect of civil-war in Ireland was only
averted by the outbreak of WWI. |
| The war led to an unprecedented degree of government control, which
until than had been remarkably unobtrusive. The Defence of the Realm Act
equipped the government with unlimited powers. The government closed the
Stock Exchange, controlled the means of production, imposed drinking
hours, told the people what to think, and conscripted men into the army.
With Lloyd George as prime minister the production of munitions became
immense. On one day in September 1918 the British army fired off 943,000
shells. |
| The human cost is still difficult to comprehend; 30 % of all men
aged 20 to 24 in 1914 were killed. 20% of the peerage who served was
killed (a death toll greater than at any time since the Wars of the
Roses). Ten years later 2.5 million men were receiving a disability
pension (40% of those who served). |
| Initially the end of the war bought a speculative boom fuelled by a
belief that the pre-war demands for British goods would return. The
economic collapse began in 1920 with a contraction of the 'old staples'
creating almost 2 million unemployed by June 1921. Millions of days were
lost in strikes. To restore confidence Britain attempted to rejoin the
Gold Standard which further eroded Britain's competiveness, and led to
the General Strike of 1926. |
| The Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, who dominated the
interwar years, feared that Britain could be ripped apart by class
conflict. Baldwin cultivated an image in complete contrast to the hard
faced city slicker, and the bitter class warrior. His was the politics
of anti-politics, the populism of the anti-populist. He strove to bring
the Labour party into the political system. He insisted that he was a
'healer, and he sought to 'get at the soul of the working people'.
Industrial relations improved, but hopes for a stronger revival were
dashed by the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the most profound depression
that the industrial world had experienced for over a century. For many
these were years of desperation, hopelessness, and long-term
unemployment. |
| However, despite the bleak economic outlook, overall there was a
steady rise in living standards for the majority of the population over
the period. Those in work experiencing an average rise in real incomes
of around one third. Women benefited to some extent from expanding
opportunities, and greater freedom from social conventions, but many
pioneers of women's liberation remained frustrated at the lack of
equality of pay and status. New housing estates sprung-up in the
suburbs. By 1939 about one-third of all people earning under £300 per
year had running hot water, and two thirds of houses had electricity.
However, house building lagged far behind demand. In 1935 it was
estimated that 12% of the population still lived in damp, unsanitary,
overcrowded homes. In Shoreditch, for example, three or more families
were living in small houses of four or five rooms. |
| General health standards were improving through better diet and
living conditions. The average life expectancy increased by around 15
years, brought about by a reduction in the number of deaths through
infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, typhoid, and pneumonia. By
1937 free school milk was being provided to 3.2 million children.
National Insurance provided free general practitioner and sickness
benefit to around twenty million workers in 1937, but significantly
their families were not included. Those not covered had to pay for a
doctor or go the out-patients of a free hospital. It was not until the
creation of the National Health Service, spearheaded by Anenurin Bevan
in 1946, that everybody was entitled to treatment without payment at the
time of use. |
| The growth of newspaper circulation, and radio broadcasting led to
the development of a more homogenous society partaking of an
increasingly common culture. Mains radios were in common use by the
early 1930s with the BBC broadcasting both major sporting, and national
events. Edward's VIII abdication message, and the Prime Minister's
declaration of war spoken directly to the people in September 1939
remain etched the national folk memory. There was an increase in
gambling with organised national football pools. Greyhound racing was
massively popular, for example in 1931 there were 19 million greyhound
attendances. This type of betting was small scale and affordable to the
unemployed offering diversion and excitement, with the prospect of a
small win. |
| There was a major shift of resources towards the provision of
welfare benefits and social opportunities. Highly significant was the
growth of government from 252,000 civil servants in 1914, to 575,000 in
1950, by which time a quarter of the working population were working in
the public sector (although much of this was due to post war
nationalisation). Asquith's Liberal Government of 1908 had introduced
Old Age Pensions; and National Insurance for a limited number of
workers, with widening scope throughout the period. The Poor Law was
finally abolished in 1929 when it was absorbed by local authority means
tested Public Assistance. However, it wasn't until Attlee's 1945 Labour
government enacted the Beveridge Report that benefits became universal,
as opposed to the ad hoc systems operating between the wars. The Butler
Education Act 1944, provided free secondary education for all, with the
preservation of grammar schools for the ablest children selected at 11
years. Most people who voted for Attlee were voting against the Tory
record of unemployment and social insecurity, rather than for a new
social order. The Labour Party's post war programme centred on providing
full employment helped by extensive nationalisation of basic industries,
and economic management. Attlee's post war censuses lasted until 1979. |
| The legacy of WW2 was near bankruptcy, and in 1945 Keynes was
despatched to Washington to negotiate a loan of between $5 to 8 billion.
Keynes was a sick man and described the long and arduous negotiations as
'hell'. . America, it turned out, was not inclined to spend dollars
maintaining the British Empire, and a socialist economic agenda in
Britain. Keynes had no follow-up plan, much against the advice of
Treasury officials. In the end Britain had to settle for a $3.75 billion
with onerous conditions, in particular America's insistence that the
pound should be made convertible into dollars in 1947. War-time
austerity continued as Britain's manufactures threw everything into
exports. When the dreaded convertibility came to pass in 1947 there was
a run on the pound which dangerously depleted Britain's reserves. There
was respite, when in 1948 Britain received a tremendous economic boost
of Marshall Aid. Yet, Britain's problems were not over, and in Sept 1949
the pound was devalued by a massive 30%, from $4 to $2.8 to the pound.
Despite the loss of international prestige, Britain's trade balance
moved strongly into surplus- at last! |
| Britain's alliance with a Superpower almost meant subordination.
There were American airbases with nuclear weapons in Britain over which
the British government had little effective control. Furthermore, the
outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 meant Britain had to accept American
pressure for an unrealistic rearmament programme, reducing exports, and
necessitating cuts in the National Health Service. Anenurin Bevan
resigned in a fit of anger. On occasion Britain did stand up to America
and act independently, building its own atom bomb. Britain strove to
define its roll in the post war world by creating a three pronged
foreign policy; keeping strong links with the Commonwealth; playing its
part in Europe; and maintaining the special war-time relationship with
America. |
|
| Bibliography |
| Clark, Peter (1997) Hope and Glory; Britain 1900-1990. Penguin Books |
| Hennesy, Peter (1992) Never Again Britain 1945-1951. Jonathan Cope,
London |
| Marquand, David (2008) Britain Since 1918. The Strange Case of
British Democracy. Phenox |
| Morgan, Kenneth O (2001) The Oxford History of Britain. Oxford Press |
| Stevenson, John (1984) British Society 1914-45. Penguin |
|
| Chronology 1900-1950 |
|
► 1901 Death of Victoria; accession of
Edward VII
►
1902-5 Balflour's Unionist Government
►
1904 Angle-French Entente
►
1905-8 Campbell-Bannerman's Liberal government
►
1906 Labour Party formed
►
1907 Anglo-Russian Entente
►
1908-15 Asquith's Liberal government
►
1908 Old Age Pensions plan introduced
►
1909 Churchill's Employment Exchanges introduced; Lloyd George's budget rejected
by Lords; Union of South Africa Act
►
1910 Death of Edward VII; accession of George V
►
1911 Parliamentary Act curtails power of the Lords; Lloyd George's National
Insurance Act
►
1911-12 Railway, mining and coal strikes
►
1914 Assignation of Archduke Ferdinand; 4 Aug Britain enters WW1
►
1916 Easter rising in Dublin; battle of the Somme; battle of Jutland; Lloyd
George succeeds Asquith as PM
►
1917 USA enters the war; battle of Passchendale
►
1918 Vote for women over 30; end of WW1; Lloyd George coalition returned in
general election
►
1919 Treaty of Versailles
►
1921 Major strikes
►
1922 Fall of Lloyd George
►
1923 Baldwin becomes PM
►
1924 MacDonald leads first Labour government; Conservatives return to office
under Baldwin
►
1925 Britain goes back on Gold Standard
►
1926 General Strike
►
1929 General election; MacDonald leads second Labour government
►
1931 Financial crises, and run on the pound; Britain abandons Gold Standard;
MacDonald leads National Government
►
1935 National government re-elected; Baldwin succeeds as prime minister; Hoare-Loval
pact on Abyssinia; Government of India Act
►
1936 Death of George V; Abdication of Edward VIII; George VI becomes king
►
1937 Neville Chamberlain succeeds Baldwin as Conservative PM
►
1938 Chamberlain meets Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden, Bad Godesberg, and Munich
►
1939 British guarantee to Poland; British Empire declarers war on Germany (3
Sept)
►
1940 Churchill succeeds Chamberlain as PM; withdrawal from Dunkirk; battle of
Britain
►
1941 Luftwaffe 'blitz' on many British cities; Soviet Union and USA enter the
war
►
1942 Loss of Singapore; Montgomery's victory at El Alamein; battle of
Stalingrad; Beveridge Report on social security
►
1943 Successful campaign in North Africa; Allies invade Italy
►
1944 D-Day invasion of France; Butler's Education Act
►
1945 End of war in Europe (8 may) and in Far East (15 Aug); general election;
massive labour victory and Attlee becomes PM.
►
1947 Coal and other industries nationalized; convertibility crises; transfer of
power to independent India, Pakistan, and Burma
►
1948 Bevan launches National Health Service; withdrawal from Palestine
►
1949 NATO founded; devaluation of the pound by Stafford Cripps
►
1950 General election: Labour retains power by narrow majority; outbreak of war
in Korea
► 1951 Festival of Britain;
general election; Conservatives defeat Labour; Churchill PM
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