The Labour administration of 1945 was the first government in British history to be elected on a clear programme of reforms specified in its manifesto. (It was also the firstand perhaps the last-government to succeed in implementing the promises that it had made.) Financial and economic conditions were inauspicious, but Labour was in no mood to be deterred by circumstances. Dalton recalled that in 1945 ‘There was exhilaration among us, joy and hope, determination and confidence. We felt exalted, dedicated, walking on air, walking with destiny.’ Bliss was it then to be alive, but to be a socialist was very heaven. Britain might no longer be the dominant economic power in the world, but even so it was the exemplar for mankind. ‘If we fail,’ wrote Gordon Walker, ‘democracy fails in Britain. And that means in the world.’ The result was an unprecedented flurry of legislative activity. In the first parliamentary session no fewer than 75 measures were enacted, and in total the parliament elected in 1945 passed 347 separate Acts. There was, in Hennessy’s phrase, ‘a parliamentary production line’ of bills under Labour.