again came to power with a resounding majority under the leadership of Sir Anthony Eden. During 1956, the Conservative Government was confronted by a series of problems. By 1956, the level of unemployment had risen and inflationary pressures had increased. In the Suez Canal issue, the Conservative Government had miserably failed. The whole adventure of the Government had proved nothing except that the days for grand imperial gestures were over and that Britain had to accept a back seat in the conduct of the world. When in Hungary, the people revolted against the Communist Government imposed upon the Soviet Union and Russia quelled the rebellion by sending its tanks, Britain kept mum and did nothing. John Russell Taylor wrote:
In Hungary the people rebelled against their Russian- imposed Communist Government, and Russia put down the revolt in a good-fashioned imperialist way by sending in tanks, while the rest of the world looked on and did nothing.
Meanwhile a protest was organized round the question of nuclear disarmament because people feared the atom bomb more than any thing else. A direct political action was avoided. Instead individuals thought together in non-party groups to offer passive resistance. Marches and siting down programmes in the streets were organized against the manufacturing of the atom bomb by Britain. The people of all parties marched to Aldermaston, an air base where nuclear weapons were stored.
In the foreign affairs, Britain lost its colonies like India, Palestine, Burma, Malaya. With the loss of these colonies, the rapid shrinkage of the British empire set in, and the national pride of the British youth was badly hurt. There were causes and issues worth dying for but nobody did anything to check the national loss. Jimmy Porter outlined the anger of the British youths in the play Look Back in Anger :
I suppose people of our generation aren’t able to die for good causes any longer. We had all that done for us, in the thirties and the forties, where we were still kids. There aren’t any good, brave causes left.
In fact, the two major political parties of the Britain were equally worse. It disillusioned many who had been active in politics and believed that the political activity held the solution for all the ills of the world. Those who voted one party were unhappy when they did not find any noticeable difference. Consequently, the dissatisfaction which many people felt with life in the early 1950s became aimless. There were no obvious forces for resentment on the political scene. The intelligent young men and women felt that their fate would not be different howsoever was in power and out of power.
In the 1957, the Conservative Party made Harold Macmillan Prime Minister in place of Anthony Eden. The economic policies followed by Macmillan improved the financial conditions of Britain during 1957 and 1958. There was a great increase in British exports. Moreover, the investments from the United States gave a new lease of life to the British economy. It was the most fitting time for the Conservatives to give their party another victory at the polls. The general elections of October 1959 brought a stunning victory to the Conservative Party. In these elections, Hugh Gaitskell emerged as the most powerful leader of the Labour Party. He had dropped the policy of nationalization to gain the votes of the middle class that opposed the socialization of British industries. Macmillan led the government till 1963. In 1963, the Labour Party lost its prominent leader Hugh Gaitskell who was succeeded by Harold Wilson.
From 1955 to 1963, both the major political parties in Britain were subjected to severe criticism because neither of them did any satisfactory work either on the domestic or foreign front. The leaders of both the parties, Macmillan and Hugh Gaitskell were condemned by the British youths and intellectuals for sagging the Socialist Utopia and taking a back seat in the international hegemony. John Osborne was so angry with the leaders of both the political parties that he nursed the idea of murder of such leaders.
In late 1963, the British political trend tilted towards the Labour Party. The Labour Party had already gained control of local civic bodies where the Conservative Party had enjoyed a comfortable majority. The reasons behind the decline of the popularity of the Conservative Government were primarily three. First, there was wide-spread unemployment among both the educated and ill-educated British youths. Secondly, John Profumo who was the War Minister then was found involved in a moral scandal. This scandal filled the headlines of the British newspapers and tobaloids for weeks. Thirdly, the Labourites had been charging the Conservative Government with inactivity in public health, housing trade and education-all areas in which the Labour Government had done a lot but not up to the satisfaction of the British people whenever it was posted in power in the past. In addition to it, Wilson and his Labourites continued their onslaught on the Conservatives for the bad economy and formidable problems developing into the industry and trade. Consequently, at the polls held in October 1964, the Labour Party came to power defeating the Conservative Party with a majority of only four seats.
When Wilson was voted to power, the dark economic clouds were hanging over Britain and the housing problem was getting acute as large areas of the cities were to be rebuilt. The ship-building industry was damaged by Swedish and Japanese competition. The Wilson Government took extreme measures and imposed restrictions against corporate mergers, tightened the laws against monopolies and dropped many defence projects. The British were satisfied with the performance of the Wilson Government. In the new elections of 1966, Wilson was again voted to power with the majority of about hundred seats. In spring of 1966, Britain reduced its overseas forces by a third. It openly admitted that without the help of the United States, it could not manage any major military operation. In 1967 and 1968, the pound was devalued as a measure of austerity. However, trade continued to sag. The British Government got no economic help from the Commonwealth. The Britons found their economic celebration only in their membership of the Common Market.
In 1970, Britain went to the polls in the eighth general election since 1945. In this election, the issue of race and the problems of British migrants and black immigrants were taken up by the Conservative candidates. As a result of people’s aspirations’ struggles for independence were going on in many of the British colonies. By 1970, many of the colonies were made free by the British people. The result was that there was a great flux of both the whites and blacks into Britain. Both the migrants and immigrants caused the problems of housing, unemployment, and social security. The cause of these people was taken up by the Conservatives in the elections of 1970 and the Labour Government was charged with cruelty against the white and black immigrants from Asia and the Caribbean. The Conservatives demanded citizenship legislation to differentiate between those who belonged to Britain and those who did not. It was at this juncture that the Britain was making attempts to enter the Common Market-the most important problem facing the British in 1970. In this election, the Conservatives emerged victorious with a majority of thirty votes and Edward Heath was made a new Prime Minister. The Conservative Party was brought to power in this election with a hope that a Tory Government would cut taxes.
The social and political events which took place between 1945 and 1970 were very disturbing both in the domestic and foreign fronts. Britain suffered heavy losses in the Post-War period in trade, industry and foreign affairs. The only achievement of both the Labour and Conservative Governments was that they made Britain a nuclear power and developed a successful and independent delivery system.
Britain, the sun of which had never set was now gradually sinking. Britain suffered more than most from the loss of her colonies after the second Word War. The immediate lost to Britain was the independence of India.
Britain could not maintain her interests in Palestine after the War. In 1947, Britain, therefore, announced her intention of surrendering the mandate of Palestine and withdrawing completely from Palestine. The burden was left to the United Nations and the new state of Israel was born.
Some of the territories which broke free from the direct control of Britain did not seek complete separatation. After 1945, India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Ghana, Cyprus, Nigeria, Tanzania, Trinidad, Jamaica, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Malta and Malaysia joined the Commonwealth. Though the Post-War size of Commonwealth was quite impressive but it was illusory because many of the new member states like India, Pakistan and Ghana became independent republics. The only bond which existed between those states and Britain was an economic one. The majority of non-white people within the Commonwealth also sought independence. Thus, Britain suffered many hardships which she had never endured before.
After the war, the leaders of Britain believed that their country would be able to play the role of the keeper of the European balance of power but due to the adverse economic situation at home and overseas troubles; Britain was forced to play a second fiddle in the global affairs. Britain could not protect Turkey Greece against the Soviet expansion in 1947. Its responsibility was shifted to the United States. Britain admitted that she needed a collective defence arrangement. The rapidly changing economic situation made Britain more and more dependent on the