ABSTRACT
Income levels are lower in the United Kingdom than in the continental countries. The Conservative victory of 1979, bringing a woman Prime Minister to prominence for the first time in European history, marked the sharpest turn of events since the Industrial Revolution began. The First World War overtook the lives of 8 million men, at least three-quarters of a million of whom died in the mud trenches of northern Europe. The inter-war years proved a brief and stormy interlude, still overshadowed by the horrors of the First World War, while menaced by the gathering clouds of the Second World War – a ‘bitter society’. The post-war Labour government offered a strongly egalitarian ‘fair deal’ – universal social security, child benefit, a free national health service, free secondary education for all, a commitment to full employment – a vote-winning vision first presented to the coalition cabinet by William Beveridge during the war.
