The Crisis of Industrial Relations

Abstract

The twenty-five years after 1945 were marked by a paradox: intense dissatisfaction with Britain’s economic performance was accompanied by unprecedented economic success. For the first time in the country’s history, full employment was maintained for more than a few years; the economy grew at a rate which compared favourably with its performance at the height of the Industrial Revolution;¹ and the benefits of expansion were distributed — albeit very unevenly — throughout all sections of society. Poverty still existed, but it would be difficult to find any group whose material lot had failed to improve in the quarter century after the end of the Second World War.