were accompanied by a few policemen at their
ritual Easter march to Aldermaston. The Teddy
boys, the Mods and the Rockers provided more
entertainment than serious teenage challenge, to
be tolerated good-humouredly. At the same time
the more cerebral Angry Young Men confined
their rebellion against the prevailing materialistic
mood of complacency and optimism to novels
and the theatre. Harold Macmillan caught the
prevailing mood in his often quoted phrase:
‘Most of our people have never had it so good.’
But class divisions remained, with great inequali-
ties of wealth, an educational system that despite
widening opportunities did not provide anything
like equal opportunities. Discrimination for senior
positions was based on unconscious assumptions
in favour of their ‘own kind’. Preference for
Oxbridge graduates in the foreign service, in the
City and elsewhere persisted.
Throughout these three decades, both major
parties, Labour and Conservative, could count on
a bedrock of class support. Elections were decided
by the floating voters. To ‘float’ was not a diffi-
cult ideological feat since there was so much
common ground between the two parties on
foreign affairs, defence and the welfare state.
Judgements by the floaters were based on which
party could provide the more competent prime
minister, and which party’s policies promised to
deliver that steady advance of the economy that
had eluded the party in power; the floating voter
was frequently voicing the need for a change, a
vote against the party in power, rather than
expressing ideological convictions. Labour in
power was not intent on extending socialism but
was willing to work with the mixed economy.
Conservatives were ready to accept the social leg-
islation of their Labour predecessors.
From 1950 to 1970 there appear to have been
only relatively small shifts in voting patterns,
the biggest swing towards or away from Labour
was less than 5 per cent. Only Labour and the
Conservatives secured sufficient support to be
considered credible government parties, the
Liberal Party being unable to break the two-party
mould. In fact, the traditional Labour working-
class base was shrinking and British politics was
moving towards a radical reshaping in the 1970s.
Churchill’s 1951–5 administration will be remem-
bered for the old wartime giant whose now rare
speeches could still inspire. But few outside the
inner circle of politicians knew how physically
impaired the prime minister had become, as the
result of two strokes. His well-tried ministerial col-
leagues performed well enough, except for R. A.
Butler at the Exchequer, who gave the economy
too great a boost just before the election by lower-
ing income tax, only to have to raise it immediately
after it was won. Macmillan’s success at hous-
ing did more than any other single policy of
Churchill’s administration to restore faith in the
efficiency of private enterprise and the free market.
The hybrid policy of encouraging private enter-
prise while maintaining the main features of the
welfare state, a harmonisation of Labour and
Conservative economic and social policies, became
known as ‘Butskellism’ (Hugh Gaitskell had been
Labour’s chancellor of the exchequer).
Churchill kept Eden, his unchallenged heir,
waiting too long. Eden had first entered govern-
ment twenty-six years earlier as a junior minister.
He had spent a lifetime in diplomacy, emerging
unscathed from the condemnation of 1930s
appeasement thanks to his break with Neville
Chamberlain in 1938. As Churchill’s lieutenant in
foreign affairs he had served the country through-
out the Second World War. He again demon-
strated his diplomatic skill as foreign secretary
after 1951. The future of Western Europe was
still uncertain in 1951. Could former enemies,
especially West Germany, be trusted? The thorni-
est problem was whether, and under what con-
trols, to permit German rearmament as part of the
joint defence effort of the North Atlantic Treaty542 THE RECOVERY OF WESTERN EUROPE IN THE 1950s AND 1960s
Parliamentary elections, 1945–70 (percentage of vote)Election year Labour Conservative Liberal1945 47.8 39.8 9.0
1950 46.1 43.5 9.1
1951 48.8 48.0 2.5
1955 46.4 49.7 2.7
1959 43.8 49.4 5.9
1964 43.4 44.1 11.2
1966 48.0 41.9 8.5
1970 43.0 46.4 7.5