Was there continuous economic decline in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century ? For many economists and historians, there was a continuous economic decline. One of their arguments is that if we travel through Britain in the early twent

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Was there continuous economic decline in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century ?

For many economists and historians, there was a continuous economic decline. One of their arguments is that if we travel through Britain in the early twenty-first century, it is not difficult to find areas of dereliction and disuse where there used to be industrial power houses. There used to be metal-bashing industries in the Midlands, shipbuilding in the North East, coal mining in South Wales. After World War II, the position of Britain in international economic league tables slipped downwards. The British industries were not competitive enough, there were numerous high-profile failures in managing big projects. Many economists defined this lack of competitiveness because of low productivity and low investment, they called this the “British disease”. In the 1970’s and in the early 1980’s there was the peak of  fear in the British economy after the OPEC oil price crisis of 1973-4.

On the other side of the view, the people who are against this idea of economic decline, believe that it is “obvious” that post-war Britain experienced a period of sustained prosperity and ever-rising living standards. For many historians, the years from 1950 to 1973 were seen as a “Golden Age”. There was  full employment, high growth rates, important advances in welfare, in an important contrast with to the strains of the war and the terrible memories of the 1930’s. Even though there was a downturn in the 70’s, the population’s living standards continued to rise. There were important advances since the 1950’s in consumer goods and the ownership of cars and houses. There was plenty of expectations in the post-war period. It was a period in time in which a greater proportion of people were in  greater prosperity than in any stage of the history of the population. Britain and Western Europe experienced an “economic miracle”.    

Now, I will talk about the view which believes in an economic decline.

After the Second World War, the British governments attempted to maintain a costly world role and at the same time bringing in the Welfare State and nationalising key industries. The Korean War, which was in 1951 and the split between Bevan and Gaitskell ( teeth and glasses) showed that the British economy was under strain. There was a failure to invest and restructure after the war by the three following prime ministers, Harold Macmillan, Edward Heath and Harold Wilson. Their main focus, as soon as they became prime ministers was by using plans for economic modernisation but after, they all felt that they had failed to achieve significant success.

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Britain also failed to succeed in the drive for exports. Britain’s share of world trade declined a quarter to ten per cent between 1950 and 1970. In shipbuilding, the tonnage produced by British shipyards collapsed from 37 to less than four per cent. The British car industry, who had a dominant position in the 50’s, ran into difficulties in the 60’s with the rise of imports from Europe and Japan. There was low productivity because the person-hours required for manufactured products was more important in Britain than for foreign competitors. An excessive government intervention in the economy is a ...

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