British Society

ESSAY TITLE / COURSEWORK ASSIGNMENT: What are the main changes that have affected British society since 1945 and to what causes can these changes be attributed? Concentrate on two or three significant changes.

WORD COUNT: 1292

1. INTRODUCTION

The 2º World War has been a turning point in the world history. This war period has deeply affected to the whole world and has had importantchanges and consequences in the future development of our planet, affecting the personal, economic, social, political, cultural and many more aspects in the life of millions of people.
In this essay, we’re going to focus on the more significant changes produced by the Second World War and the causes attributed to these changes in the British society.
As we know, after the Second World War, manychanges were carried out in the British society. Some of the more important ones affected aspects in day-life such as the role of the woman in the society, the UK population, religion, policies, economy, art, immigration, etc.
All these changes in these areas contributed to a major development in the British society and therefore a modernization in every single aspect of this society.
From now on,I’m going to focus my essay on three main changes which, in my opinion, have been the most crucial and influential in the future development of the society.
These changes are related to policy and economy, culture and population in the UK.

2. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CHANGES IN BRITAIN.

After the closure of the Second World War, Britain had the need of recovering from his weakened economydue to the war. The first measure carried out was recovering all their lost territories, mainly those in India and Africa. The recovery of all these colonies would provide the British Empire with materials and money and, therefore, an important boost in the battered economy.
To regain the territories, several troops were sent to all these places. As consequence of this, multiple conflicts werecarried out in these territories due to independence and economic aspects. Following this, strikes and protests were caused in Britain and it was hard to keep some colonies. At the end, some colonies like India or Pakistan decided to join the Commonwealth to keep links with Britain.
So, this was the first step taken in order to recover from the economic crisis caused by the war.
After the SecondWorld War, the British political landscape was mainly formed by two parties: Labour and Conservatives.
Soon after the closure of the war, the wartime Prime Minister Churchill was voted out and a new Labour government was established, led by Clement Atlee.
Many measures and reforms were carried out to face the crisis. The most important ones were focused on the health and welfare with the creationof the National Health Service (NHS) and on industry with the nationalization of many industries.
But, the economy started to decrease again due to the lost of territories and colonies like India. The British Empire was being dismantled. Britain was bankrupt.
After this, the Conservative forces took the power again.
The main goals were to recover from the economic crisis and have a goodforeign policy with the leading powers in the world like the United States.
Many austerity measures were realized in order to save the economy. Harold Macmillan was the head in carrying these needed actions out.
Another important Conservative leader in the power was Margaret Thatcher, a very important figure in the history of Britain. She was the first woman in taking the office of Prime Minister inBritain. She was a strong leader with a strong personality and due to this she got the sobriquet of the “Iron Lady”.
She brought with her many good ideas which helped to recover from the damaged economic landscape in Britain.
But, some of her measures were very criticized and controversial. This led her to a drop in popularity.
The most famous and controversial measure was the poll tax in...