Divided Britain

Paradoxically, in the last quarter of the twentieth century, deep social divisions and poverty again blighted the United Kingdom. It was for this reason that Prince Charles, in 1985 in the middle of Mrs Thatcher's reign as Prime Minister, spoke publicly of his fears of the United Kingdom becoming a 'divided realm'. The politics of Thatcherism openly revolved around reining in the scope of government involvement in economy and society, breaking the consensual political mould of the previous four decades... The roots of this consensus can be traced back to the Second World War and the 1940s and an acceptance that there should be no return to the conditions of mass unemployment and poverty that characterised so much of the United Kingdom in the 1920s and 1930s. In the post-war period, the United Kingdom would be a better place to live for most of the population, a fairer, more equitable and socially just society... In this fact-filled classic study, Ray Hudson and Allan M. Williams give a perceptive insight into the social and political mechanisms responsible for poverty and inequalities in Britain since the war, with special emphasis on the effects of Thatcherism.