At the end of the Second World War, the consequences for Great Britain were harsh even though the country remained one of the few world powers. Millions of British men, women and children were homeless, much of the industrial infrastructure was destroyed and Great Britain ended the war economically exhausted by the war effort. As people were suffering from physical damage and the economy of the country had almost collapsed, the Government felt that something had to be done and it started planning in order to rebuild the country. From the Aftermath of the Second World War to the present, British society has never stopped to evolve and therefore it is worth wondering how the British economy and class culture was transformed since 1945. First of all, it would be interesting to analyse the changes in British economy examining four main periods of the last half of the century in the chronological order beginning with the post war era, passing through the time of prosperity from 1957 to the mid-seventies and then to Thatcher's era in order to end with the last period from the beginning of the nineties to nowadays. The second part will focus on the transformation of the British class structure by relying on the effects of the economic change during the same periods.
Immediately after the end of World War II, Britain underwent enormous economic change. Churchill, the wartime Prime Minister, was defeated in the 1945 general election by Clement Attlee and the Labour Party. According to David Childs, “the Conservative lost because they were seen as the government party which had failed to deal with Britain's interwar social and economic problems, including the misery of great unemployment” . In other words, British people expected a better life than the one endured before and during the war. Without remedial actions by the British government an economic recovery of the country would not have been possible. Therefore consensus politics emerged and were consolidated,...