Post-War Britain

Have you ever been to the circus? If you have, then you've probably seen trapeze artists flying high above the ring, jumping and spinning on swings, ropes and wires. The job is certainly a dangerous one, and for that reason, most circuses provide a safety net for the trapeze artists just in case they slip up.

After WWII, most British wanted their own safety nets. Fortunately for the British government, most Britons were not trapeze artists. The nets they wanted were figurative - an assurance that, if any British citizen was hurt, unemployed or just downright unlucky, the British government would be there to lend a helping hand.

Election Surprise

At the end of WWII, Great Britain found itself at a major crossroads. Millions of its young men were returning home from fighting on the continent and needed jobs, medical care and help returning to the normalcy of peacetime. Furthermore, parts of Britain needed to be rebuilt after having been heavily bombed during the war, especially London, where Germany dropped thousands of bombs in less than a year during the London Blitz.

Among Britons, there was a general consensus that the country's first post-war priority should be meeting these domestic needs of its citizens and cities before anything else. Historians have termed this general sense among the British public thepost-war consensus. It was these motivations that led to Britain shocking the rest of world whenWinston Churchill, the Conservative Prime Minister who had led Britain to victory in WWII, was defeated heavily in the July 1945 parliamentary elections. Churchill's Conservative Party lost nearly 200 seats in the government, returning a parliamentary majority for the Labour Party led byClement Attlee.

Attlee, who had been appointed Britain's first ever Deputy Prime Minister during the war, won the election through claiming the Labour Party could rebuild Britain after the war better than the Conservative Party, whom he branded as a party fit only for wartime leadership. He was elected based on campaign promises that the Labour Party would focus on achieving and maintaining full employment in Britain, nationalize key industries and create an entirely free National Health Service.

➢ Post-war economic recovery proved difficult. Britain, which was the world’s leading economy in the pre-war period, in particular faced a prolonged crisis. While Britain was preoccupied with war, industries had developed in India and Japan.

➢ After the war Britain found it difficult to recapture the Indian market.

➢ To finance war expenditures Britain had borrowed liberally from the US. This meant that at the end of the war Britain was burdened with huge external debts.

➢ The war had led to an economic boom, that is, to a large increase in demand, production and employment. When the war boom ended, production contracted and unemployment increased.

➢ At the same time the government reduced bloated war expenditures to bring them into line with peacetime revenues.

➢ This led to huge job losses. Anxiety and uncertainty about work became an enduring part of post-war scenario.

Read more on Brainly.in - https://brainly.in/question/12847853#readmore

Post war economic recovery became extremely difficult. The following factors can be attributed to such a position :a. During the course of the war, the British factoriescateredto the needs of the war, the army.b. After the war, however their was a decline in production, leading to unemployment in Britain.c. As imports from Britain declined industries in India and Japan, consolidated their positions and captured home markets.Industrial production expanded in India and Japan.d. Countries like Japan, Germany , US modernised their economies making difficult for Britain to compete.e. Britainwas burdened with huge debts.f. Agricultural crisis entangled many countries. During the war wheat production expanded exponentially in Canada, America , Australia which declined dramatically after the war effecting the prices, rural incomes etc.

After the war, Britain found it difficult to recapture its earlier position of dominance in the Indian market, and to compete with Japan internationally.To finance war expenditures, Britain had borrowed liberally from the US. This meant that at the end of the war Britain was burdened with huge external debts.