The Post War period has been one of great success for Britain, along with Germany it is the dominant economic power in Europe and is a World leader in the electronics, computing, financial, aerospace and motor industries. "The British Miracle" began with the election of Sir Anthony Eden's Conservatives in 1947 after the Government of Clement Atlee fell after losing a confidence vote.
The sorry tale of Atlee's Administration that sought to create a "New Jerusalem" is well known but it is worth repeating. Atlee pulled Labour out of the Wartime National Government after VE Day despite Churchill's wish that it continue until Japan had been defeated. Many commentators expected Labour to win a comfortable if not landslide victory due to the Party's agenda of creating a National Health Service, an extensive welfare state and the Nationalisation of key sectors of the economy. However Labour had underestimated the Tories and become complacent, after D-Day, Churchill had expected the War in Europe to be concluded that year freeing up significant forces for the Pacific campaing. Assuming that an election would be no more than 18 months away, Churchill asked Eden to get the Party ready for the election. Although the European War lasted longer than Churchill expected, by the time the election was called Eden had overhauled the Tories' national organisation and Oliver Stanley and Oliver Lyttleton had produced a manifesto that while rejecting Labour's nationalisations, accepted the need for the Government to play a greater role in the economy. Churchill was unable to play much part in the campaign as he was busy preparing for the Potsdam Conference and Eden fronted the campaign in his absence.
The expectation of a large Labour majority made the final results a complete shock, Labour had a majority but just 4 seats. Eden's skilful attacks on the scale of Labour's plans for nationalisation were attributed with making large sections of the electorate uneasy about their agenda. Seeing that his long time deputy was in the asendency, Churchill immediately resigned as Tory Leader to write his memoirs and warn of the growing Soviet threat. The failure to secure a larger majority set off furious recriminations within Labour and these didn't take long to begin to derail the Government's agenda.
Labour did secure nationalisation of the coal industry, the Bank of England and the railways, but the Party's flagship plan for the NHS caused a major split in the Cabinet. Health Minister Nye Bevan wanted the NHS to be a single organisation with all healthcare nationalised under his Ministry, this was opposed by the Deputy PM Herbert Morrison, who wanted local authorities to continue to run the majority of hospitals and the new health centres. The British Medical Association was vehmently opposed to Bevan's plan and lobbied for changes. Fearful of a conflict with the powerful BMA, Atlee decided to compromise, the local authorities would remain responsible for heathcare and would be empowered to take over hospitals from churches, charities and private bodies that ran them, all hospitals would be legally obliged to treat people free of charge, the BMA was mollified with concessions to hospital consultants and a genorous increase in pay. Incensed at what he saw as a betrayal by Atlee, Bevan angrily resigned from the Government, 3 days later he told a packed rally in Cardiff,
"This Labour Government had an opportunity to prevail over those reactionary elements that seek to prevent the creation of universal healthcare, instead of joining in that noble cause Mister Atlee and Mr Morrison chose to stuff their mouths with gold! Bevan would remain an implacable critic of a Government whose problems were only just beginning.
The next blow was the severe winter of 1946/47, food stocks ran critically low forcing the Government to draw up plans for a State of Emergency and the imposition of "starvation rationing." Stocks of coal also ran low and criticism mounted of the Energy Minister Manny Shinwell especially as he had beleived the mineworker's union's forecasts for coal production. As the crisis ran on Shinwell was the subject of increasingly furious demands for his sacking but having lost Bevan, Atlee couldn't afford to lose another minister who was popular with the Party's rank and file. The winter also highlighted continued public unhappines over the continuation of rationing.
The Government's standing took another knock in the summer when the pound was made fully convertible, a condition of an American loan, the economy wasn't strong enough when conversion was implemented and this resulted in a major run on the pound resulting in a humiliating devaluation and the suspension of convertibility. By this time a string of by-election defeats had robbed the Government of it's majority and left it dependent on the votes of the 2 Communist MP's, however they were annoyed by the suspension of plans to nationalise the Iron and Steel Industry and were losing patience with Atlee. The next blow was over the Bill to establish the Scottish NHS that October when Bevan and his allies tabled amendments that would nationalise all Scottish hospitals, nearly a hundred Labour MP's rebelled and the Bill was only passed due to Tory support. Eden immediately tabled a Motion of Confidence in the Government which was lost after the Communists abstained. In the resulting General Election in November, public anger over the Government's handling of events and the continuing rationing saw the Tories elected in a landslide.
The rest is history, the Tories implemented a series of controversial but ultimately successful reforms that resulted in a period of sustained and high growth through the 1950's. Their success is reflected in the fact that they subsequently held power until 1969 and that Labour was eventually forced to reconcile itself to Edenism and abandon nearly all of the policies that Atlee had been elected on. This remains an issue of great contention within Labour, many on the Left of the Party condemn Atlee for his lack of conviction in not supporting Bevan over the NHS and also J.M. Keynes for agreeing to convertibility as a condition for the American loan. However many on the Party's Right wing believe that the 1945 agenda would not have worked. What do people here think? Was Atlee's vision basically sound and he was just the unlucky victim of unfortunate circumstances or was his project doomed to failure from the start? How would Britain look today if Atlee's "New Jerusalem" had been implemented?
OOC Sorry for rambling on a bit! This is part of a Post War Britian TL that I've been working on, I've published some of the first part of it as a DBWI to get people's opinions as to how plausible it is!
