“Thirteen Wasted Years.” to What Extent Do You Agree with This View of Conservative Rule Between 1951-1964?

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Thirteen wasted years.” To what extent do you agree with this view of Conservative rule between 1951-1964? 45 marks. Harold Wilson’s quote that the Conservative period of 1951-1954 was “thirteen wasted years,” came about during his 1964 election manifesto and was a condemnation of the Conservative parties policies. He won the government election of 1964 with a small majority of 13 seats and believed this was ultimately down to the failures of the Conservative government under Eden, Macmillan and Douglas-Home. This is in contrast to the optimism that Macmillan had of the period stating that people had “never had it so good.” A generalised view is that the Conservative government had missed big opportunities to increase Britain’s status in the world, however not everything can be seen as a waste as the Conservatives had a clear manifesto, which was something that the Labour government did not appear to have, and they had economic and social success throughout Britain. The reasons for Labour’s victory included Wilson’s strengths as party leader and weaknesses of the Conservative party during these somewhat “wasted years.” UK economic growth proved to be slow in the 1950’s and 60’s, especially in relation to other European countries in the EEC, which supports the argument that these may have been thirteen wasted years. Furthermore, as Hennessey stated, “a third of Britain’s wealth had melted in the heart of the world war” and pressure from the USA after the Suez crisis resulted in a run on the pound, with a rapid fall in the value of the pound in international currency markets, especially in relation to the US dollar. Britain’s world exports had fallen from 20% to 15%, compared with Germany who showed a rise from 15% to 20%. In conjunction with this, under the Conservative government, Britain’s economy grew by 40%, however France’s grew by 50%, Germany’s grew by 250%
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