When I was growing up in the 1950s, the hierarchical structures of British society and politics seemed virtually unchanged from the Victorian era. The upper classes, exemplified by plummy-voiced politicians like Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden, still seemed to be in charge. The Coronation of 1953, which I watched on our neighbours’ tiny, blue-tinged television, was an expression not only of seemingly eternal tradition but also of the centrality of the Church of England in our national life. The British empire appeared as still more or less intact, with its representatives from all over the world joining in the celebrations. The aristocracy, in the guise of berobed grandees such as the Duke of Norfolk, appointed by hereditary right to run the Coronation show, continued to fill the benches of the House of Lords. The great majority of politicians in the House of Commons seemed to belong as much to the old elites. True, the Labour Party was now a significant force in the Commons, but its leader, Hugh Gaitskell (Winchester and Oxford), had as plummy a voice as his opponents on the Conservative and Liberal benches.
And yet there had been significant changes in British politics and society during the war – changes broadly accepted on all sides of the mainstream political world. A rough consensus known as “Butskellism” dominated the scene, a portmanteau put together from Gaitskell’s name and that of Rab Butler, the leading social reformer on the Tory benches and the architect of the 1944 Education Act. This act legislated for free universal state education at every level, thus securing the backing of the Labour Party, and the provision of a strong element of non-denominational Christian education in schools, and therefore winning the support of the Tories. The National Health Service, set up by the Labour government in 1948 but already adumbrated by the Conservative health minister Henry Willink during the war, enjoyed broad political support across the board. The national consensus, though sometimes fraying at the edges, endured until it was finally dismantled by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
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