POST-WAR BRITAIN

1945 – The Labour Party wins the election, Clement Atlee becomes the Prime Minister. Later he became also a symbol of post-war changes:

• NATIONALIZATION – Atlee decided to nationalize main branches of industry: ship building, coal mining, banks and the Post became owned by the state

• WELFARE STATE (państwo opiekuńcze) is created – a number of legislations introduced in the country; a number of insurances – against sickness, unemployment, old age; the state takes care of you

In 1945 the process of reconstruction of British economy began.

1948 – the Olympic Games in London -> 3 years after the war, when Britain was still trying to recover. The people still suffered from food rationing, cold winters when there was little coal, and great economic depression. They needed signs that the future will be bright again – the Olympic Games was one of the events meant to make people believe in the future again

1951 – the Festival of Britain -> anniversary of the Great Exhibition 1851, when Great Britain sent a message to the whole Europe: while you all struggle with revolutions, we celebrate the achievements of the technical development.

Symbols of the Festival:

The Dome of Discovery – an exhibition hall constructed especially for the Festival

The Skylon (sky pylon) – wrzeciono

Royal Festival Hall – the only symbol which survived until today

June 2, 1953 – the coronation of Elizabeth II

For the first time people all over the country could see the face of their Queen thanks to television; it was revolutionary – the first broadcasted coronation ceremony in Britain. It was a sign of stability, belief in tradition, strength of the country

1948 – the British Nationality Act; a turning point in British immigration

British economy was trying to recover, but Europe suffered from shortage of cheap labour, so GB started to look for employees in its former colonies. The act was needed to make it legal – it gave British passports and nationality to all the citizens of the former colonies.

Dilip Hiro “Black British, White British”:

I remember a Christmas pantomime in Barbados where everyone departed for England. That was the happy ending of the plot.

England was represented as an imaginary land, and going to England was the best thing that could happen to you.

Cary Phillips “The Final Passage”: England is a mythological land with healing powers.

“We are all the same flag, the same empire.”

1948 – beginning of the mass migration to Britain

Between 1948 and 1962 1 mln people from former British colonies came to GB.

WINDRUSH GENERATION – the first generation of black immigrants in Great Britain; Empire Windrush was a liner which was one of the first to bring immigrants from Jamaica, the very first met by journalists.

(This liner brought also a significant group of Polish women who escaped from Siberia and went to Australia, then from Australia to West Indies, and then came with the Jamaican to unite with their husbands who settled in Britain.)

The immigrants were met by all kinds of race prejudices. Their dreams of bright future were met by: “No dogs, no blacks, no Irish” hanging where rooms to rent were. (“The Irish were the blacks of Europe”)

1950s – the affluent society, reconstruction of economic society; people are getting richer and richer, including the working class

1960s – the “swinging sixties”; explosion of popular culture, entertainment, the rise of various subcultures; on the other hand, in the 1960s Great Britain lost its power to influence the international scene

1970s – the economic standstill

1980s – The Thatcher Revolution

The New Labour and Cool Britain