Introduction

This chapter proposes a real sense of the breadth, complexity and exuberance of British literary and cultural history across the twentieth century. The government floated British Rail and the nuclear power industry and even prisons were put into private hands. Harold Wilson, the leader of the Labour Party, brought his party to power with the promise that it would embrace the new technology and uses it to harness 'the white heat of a second industrial revolution'. Labour's promise to plan economic development was embodied in the drawing up of a National Plan and the creation of the Department of Economic Affairs. In contrast to old Labour, which was identified with the unions, New Labour courts the business community, appointing figures such as Martin Taylor from Barclays Bank and Sir David Simon from British Petroleum (BP) as consultants on welfare and European trade respectively.