Abstract
If there was one concept at the heart of the raised expectations and dashed hopes of British politics in the 1960s, it was ‘planning’. It is difficult now to recall the hopes invested in such techniques, so vital in Labour leader Harold Wilson’s appeal to the ‘white heat of the technological revolution’: but such convictions were extremely widespread and deeply held. As Wilson wrote in 1961: ‘steady industrial expansion and a strong currency… can be achieved only by… purposive economic planning’.1 Such thinking was behind his 1963 Conference speech as leader:
Because we are democrats, we reject the methods which communist countries are deploying in applying the results of scientific research to industrial life. But because we care deeply about the future of Britain, we must use all the resources of democratic planning, all the latent and undeveloped… skills of our people, to ensure Britain’s standing in the world.2
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
H. Wilson, Purpose in Politics (1964), p. 28.
R. Toye, The Labour Party and the Planned Economy 1931–51 (Woodbridge, 2003), p.5.
J. Leruez, Economic Planning and Politics in Britain (1975);
A. Ringe and N. Rollings, ‘Responding to Relative Decline: The Creation of the National Economic Development Council’, Economic History Review 53 (2000), esp. pp. 347–50;
S. Wood, ‘Why “Indicative Planning” Failed: British Industry and the Formation of the National Economic Development Council 1960–64’, Twentieth Century British History 11 (2000), esp. pp. 457–9;
H. Pemberton, Policy Learning and British Governance in the 1960s (Basingstoke, 2004).
G.C. Peden, The Treasury and British Public Policy 1906–59 (Oxford, 2000), e.g. pp. 441–2.
J. Green, All Dressed Up: The Sixties and the Counterculture (Pimlico edn., 1999), p. 51.
J.E. Cronin, ‘Labour’s “National Plan”: Inheritances, Practice, Legacies’, The European Legacy 6 (2001), p. 215.
D. Ritschel, The Politics of Planning: The Debate on Economic Planning in Britain in the 1930s (Oxford, 1997), p. 29.
A. Oldfield, ‘The Labour Party and Planning: 1918 or 1934?’, Bulletin of the Society for the Study of Labour History 25 (1972), pp. 50–4.
S. Glynn and A. Booth, Modern Britain: An Economic and Social History (1996), pp. 127–30.
G. Foote, The Labour Party’s Political Thought: A History (3rd edn., Basingstoke, 1997), pp. 126–7.
N. Thompson, ‘Hobson and the Fabians: Two Roads to Socialism’, History of Political Economy 26 (1994), pp. 203–8, 215.
E. Durbin, New Jerusalems: The Labour Party and the Economics of Democratic Socialism (1985), p. 80.
A. Booth, ‘How Long are Light Years in British Politics? The Labour Party’s Economic Ideas in the 1930s’, Twentieth Century British History 7 (1996), pp. 9–13.
A. Budd, The Politics of Economic Planning (1978), p. 55.
J. Tomlinson, Problems of British Economic Policy 1870–1945 (1981), pp. 72–3.
H. Macmillan, Reconstruction: A Plea for a National Policy (1933), pp. 16, 18.
G.W. McDonald and H.F. Gospel, ‘The Mond-Turner Talks 1927–1933: A Study in Industrial Co-Operation’, Historical Journal 16 (1973), pp. 807–29.
S. Fielding, P. Thompson and N. Tiratsoo, ‘ England Arise’! The Labour Party and Popular Politics in 1940s Britain (Manchester, 1991), pp. 20–3.
R. Mackay, The Test of War: Inside Britain 1939–1945 (1999), pp. 87–9.
A. Calder, The People’s War: Britain 1939–1945 (Pimlico edn., 1992), pp. 163–70, 175.
P. Addison, The Road to 1945 (rev. edn., 1994), p. 19.
B. W.E. Alford, R. Lowe and N. Rollings, Economic Planning 1943–1951 (1992), pp. 2–3.
D. Ritschel, ‘The Making of Consensus: the Nuffield College Conferences During the Second World War’, Twentieth Century British History 6 (1995), pp. 280–9.
K. Jefferys, ‘British Politics and Social Policy During the Second World War’, Historical Journal 30 (1987), pp. 130–5.
Cmd. 6527, Employment Policy (May 1944), pp. 4–6, 20–2.
J. Stevenson, ‘Planners’ Moon? The Second World War and the Planning Movement’, in H.L. Smith (ed.), War and Social Change (Manchester, 1986), p. 58.
C. Barnett, The Lost Victory: British Dreams, British Realities 1945–1950 (Basingstoke, 1995), p. 153.
C.B. Purdom, How Shall We Rebuild London? (1945), p. 180.
Cmd. 6404, Social Insurance and Allied Services (November 1942), pp. 198–9;
R. Lowe, The Welfare State in Britain Since 1945 (Basingstoke, 1993), pp. 125–30;
N. Timmins, The Five Giants: A Biography of the Welfare State (1995), p. 23.
I. Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Austerity in Britain: Rationing, Controls and Consumption 1939–1955 (Oxford, 2000), pp. 86–7, 97–8.
M. Chick, Industrial Policy in Britain 1945–1951: Economic Planning, Nationalisation and the Labour Governments (Cambridge, 1998), p. 14.
S. Brooke, ‘Problems of Socialist Planning: Evan Durbin and the Labour Government of 1945’, Historical Journal 34 (1991), pp. 689–91, 696–8.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2007 Glen O’Hara
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
O’Hara, G. (2007). Introduction. In: From Dreams to Disillusionment. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230625488_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230625488_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-28474-0
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-62548-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)