Political Consensus In Britain example essay topic

The post-war political consensus What was the nature of the post war political consensus? A political consensus is when there is a general agreement between the main political parties over policy, for example in a political consensus when a government changes most policies will remain the same. During the period between 1945-1970's there was said to be a political consensus in Britain, this is thus known as the post war political consensus. The nature of the post war political consensus was based upon the policies of the 1945-51 Clement Atlee Labour government.

Often referred to as the social democratic or welfare consensus, the political consensus was based on a general belief in social justice, this was reflected throughout government policy. The Atlee government followed the idea of Keynesian economics, this is where the government plays a key role in managing the economy by trying to ensure employment for everyone. The government attempted to create full employment through public spending and progressive taxes, using public ownership of the key industries such as: Rail, Coal, Steel, and Electricity in order to create jobs. In line with the social justice idea of the consensus the government consulted with the Trade Unions of these industries in order to gain the best deal for it's public sector work force. With the post-war political consensus being based on the concept of social justice, a system of state provision was introduced, known as the welfare state.

The principle of the welfare state was in order to create a minimum standard of living and to eliminate poverty, it became known as the "cradle to the grave society" where a system of benefits were meant to look after you from the day you were born till the day you died. The system of welfare was based upon the findings of the 1942 Beveridge report, which sated that the government needed to tackle the five giant evils: ignorance, disease, squalor, idleness, and want. An attempt was made by the government to tackle the problem of inequality, through a moderate redistribution of wealth via income tax. Progressive taxation was used to tax people as the more they earned the more they paid, resulting in a top rate of tax at 80% by the end of the consensus period.

Government initiatives of regional aid to support poorer regions such as the north of England and Wales were also deployed in an attempt to tackle inequality. However it was not until 1951, which brought a change of party into government that the political consensus became enshrined, despite the Conservatives opposition to the N.H. S and nationalisation during the 1940's they continued with most of Labours policies. The Conservatives accepted Labours policies because they had proved popular with the public, and at the time the party was dominated by moderate one nation Conservatives. When and why did this consensus eventually break down? From 1951-1970 most people believed that the consensus was working and that the economy and society had changed for the better, full employment had resulted in more jobs than workers and the beginning of a mass consumerism society in which the working class had became richer. However during the 1970's the consensus began to break down.

Due to America's involvement in the Vietnam War they required their Marshall aid loans to Europe to be repaid, this meant that the British government no longer had the required amount of money in order to keep public spending at a level to keep full employment. Inflation increased in 1972 as a result of the OPEC oil crisis which saw the price of oil increase by 400%, as a result of increasing inflation and the recall of the Marshall plan loans Britain's economy began to decline and suffer from unemployment. As unemployment increased so did the price of the welfare state, however the amount of money available to pay for the welfare state decreases, thus in 1976 Britain had to seek help from the International Monetary Fund as a condition of the loan Britain was required to reduce its public spending by 30%. As a result of the political consensus society in Britain in the 1970's began to become divided. Trade Unions were demanding higher wages for their members due to the increasing cost of living because of inflation, this lead to strike action in many industries which in turned resulted in an increasing division of class between both working and middle classes. Immigration into Britain during the 1950's and 1960's in order to fill job vacancies within the public sector had created racial tension within Britain's society, as immigrants now faced resentment from many of the unemployed.

Racial tension was fuelled by speeches made by senior Conservatives politicians such as Enoch Powell in which racist views were expressed; the tension thus resulted in race riots in the late 1970's in places such as Brixton and Liverpool. The racial discord during the 1970's increased the social disharmony, which in turn contributed to the eventual break down of the post war political consensus. With Britain's social and economic problems increasing, a Neo-Liberalism movement began to emerge within the Conservative party, it criticised the consensus years of the 1950's and 60's saying that a false sense of togetherness had been created and that people should look after their own interests instead of relying upon the state. How did the Thatcher Government (1979-90) end the consensus? What new policies / ideas did they introduce? When Margaret Thatcher brought the Conservative Party to power in 1979 she was faced with a nation which was in relative economic decline and troubled by high unemployment and inflation.

The nationalisation of the key industries had been a central idea in the consensus period, the Thatcher government set about privatizing these industries in an attempt to raise money for the government. Privatisation was also meant to improve efficiency and to increase innovations, thus leading to higher profits. The Thatcher government deemed that the welfare state created a "dependency culture" that thus leads to a lazy state because people depend upon the benefits that the state provides. Although the Conservatives didn't abolish the welfare state created during the consensus period, they instead cut welfare spending and moved from universal to selective benefits. Margaret Thatcher's government introduced a policy of lower taxation this was meant to encourage individual enterprise and hard work, high taxation during the consensus period had been criticised because it was supposed to remove peoples ambition to earn. During the consensus period of politics a policy of Keynesian economics had been followed in which full employment was key.

However the new Conservative government viewed full employment as bad, instead stating that there was a need for a natural rate of unemployment, in order to maintain peoples want of employment, also creating low inflation. The consensus period had seen the Trade Unions play a major role in the economy, the Thatcher government reduced the role of the Unions. The Conservatives believed that the Unions had too much power and thus reduced the power of the unions in order to prevent strike action being used so frequently. With the Unions power cut it was possible for the government to keep public sector pay lower, as high wages equal high inflation. To what extent is there now a post-Thatcherite consensus? Which of the Thatcher government policies / ideas have influenced the Blair government?

Many political analysts would claim that since 1990's the policies of both Labour and the Conservative Parties have become far similar. The 1980'scan be seen as a period of adversarial politics, with Labour being positioned much further left of the political spectrum than they are now. At the 1983 general election the Labour Party supported the reversal of privatisation, the closer of private health care and education, and was in favour of higher taxes. But after losing four general elections in a row the party started to move towards the centre ground abandoning socialism, and thus modernising it's policy to accept thee popular parts of Thatcher ism.

From 1994 the Party was now known as new Labour, it accepted privatisation, embraced the free market and made a commitment not to raise income tax or to increase the power of the Trade Unions. There is evidence to suggest that since Tony Blair brought the Labour Party into power in 1997 that they have followed many similar policies to the previous Conservative governments. For instance critics would argue that the welfare state is in consensus to the Conservatives, with the N.H. S still being under funded and that there is still the choice and standards ideas of the Tory's in education. However there are clear differences between the Blair and Thatcher / Major governments. New Labour has a greater interest in social justice, for example the introduction of the minimum wage and working families tax credit, similarly Labour hold a stronger belief in the welfare state than that followed by the Tory governments (1979-97}. Labour are evidently more pro-European than the than the previous government and have also introduced constitutional reform, which although the Conservatives now largely accept they chose not to initiate whilst in government.

Tony Blair would argue that his government is neither Thatcherite nor Old Labour, instead preferring the tag of the "third way". Blair's government states that it favours a mix of public / private partnership, where there are no special favours for Trade Unions, instead working with both businesses and workers. The third way also supposedly consists of a belief in a free market economy and social justice, preferring "the hand up to the hand out" approach. In 2001 Ian Duncan Smith became leader of the Conservative Party, after two landslide election defeats there is some evidence that the Tory's have accepted some of New Labours popular policies, for example; the minimum wage.