Introduction: the Fall and Rise of a Reputation
Harold Wilson’s Labour party came to power in October 1964 with a pledge to modernise Britain. ‘Modernisation’ was the omnibus phrase that he used in each and every area of policy, from the shape of the economy to Britain’s military commitments abroad. The idea was not limited to his famous speech at Labour’s 1963 Conference in Scarborough, in which he invoked the ‘white heat’ of the ‘technological revolution’. It was, rather, a constant theme in Labour’s appeal to the electorate. Science and the Future of Britain, Labour’s 1961 statement of aims in that field, set out new ways to achieve ‘the expansion and modernisation of our industries’. As chairman of the Science and Industry group of the National Executive Committee, Wilson was intimately concerned with that pamphlet, and with bringing scientists and other experts into the policy-making process. In his very first meeting with the TUC after becoming prime minister, he told trade union leaders that ‘modernisation and the National Plan’ were his priorities. Harold Wilson also emphasised modernity in foreign policy. Following the Conservatives’ failure to enter the European Community, Wilson encouraged the Labour party to view Commonwealth regeneration as an alternative. Genuinely committed to the strengthening of Commonwealth links, Wilson maintained that Britain’s international role would be best served by assisting the world’s poorest nations. The Commonwealth offered Britain leadership and influence and the moral dignity of assisting a diverse, underdeveloped and multi-racial grouping. In defence policy also, the Labour government would seek to bring stability to underdeveloped
the periodical literature related the since and the economic
clinical uses for the artificial radioisotope between 1945 and 1965. As part of the broader nuclear enterprise, the radioisotope programme enjoyed powerful political and financial support from the British government. This study examines the range of technical, political, economic, institutional and professional factors that shaped its journey from medical periphery to medical practice. Another study, by Quirke, explores the development by the British pharmacological industry between 1958 and 1978 of beta-blockers – which by 1987 accounted for 36 per cent of the total value of the world’s top twenty selling medicines, with nearly 75 per cent of these sales accounted for by products invented and developed in the UK.
British imperial strategy and the origins of the Cold War 1944-49
Britain's wartime allies, post-war planning and the future of the Empire the Empire and global strategy - imperial needs defined April 1944-August 1945 Empire and global strategy 1944-46 - implementing an imperial strategy and the breakdown of allied cooperation, September 1945-December 1946 Empire and global strategy 1944-46, the implementation of an imperial strategy - the Empire and the pursuit of European cooperation 1945-46 drowning Europeans clutch at African straws, 1947 "there's no success like failure" - the collapse of an imperial strategy 1948-49.