“2010 will see an accommodation
with much of what has gone before”
By Richard Hall, Managing editor of The House
Magazine*
This year’s general
election is being billed
as a turning point, up
there with 1945, 1979 and 1997 as the start
of a new chapter in the story of post-war
Britain. A change of government, a new
policy direction, and the influx of a new
generation of MPs is anticipated.
However, these three 20th century general
elections represented more continuity
than is widely remembered – and the
unfolding campaign in 2010 shows that
this year may be no different.
Clement Attlee’s landslide, achieved with
VE Day still fresh in the mind, ushered
in a Labour government that built a welfare
system and established a broad
political consensus on tax and the scope
of the state that would last for more
than 30 years.
