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This article gives a political narrative of the History of the United Kingdom from the end of the Second World War in 1945, to the present. For more detailed coverage and a guide to scholarship, see Postwar Britain. When Britain emerged victorious from World War II, the Labour Party under Clement Attlee came to power and created a comprehensive welfare state, with the establishment of the National Health Service, entitling free healthcare to all British citizens and other reforms included the introduction of old-age pensions, free education at all levels, sickness benefits and unemployment benefits, most of which was covered by the newly introduced national insurance, paid by all workers, this was all under the Beveridge Report. The Bank of England, railways, heavy industry, coal mining and public utilities were all nationalised. During this time, British colonies such as India, Burma and Ceylon gained independence and Britain was a founding member of NATO in 1949. The Conservatives returned to power in 1951, accepting most of Labour's postwar reforms (most notably, the National Health Service) and presided over 13 years of economic stability. However the Suez crisis of 1956 arguably ended Britain's status as a superpower. Ghana, Malaya, Nigeria and Kenya were granted independence during this period. Labour returned to power under Harold Wilson in 1964 and oversaw a series of social reforms including the decriminalisation of homosexuality and abortion, the relaxing of divorce laws and the banning of capital punishment. Edward Heath returned the Conservatives to power from 1970 to 1974, and oversaw the decimalisation of British currency, the ascension of Britain to the European Economic Community, and the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. In the wake of the oil crisis and a miner's strike, Heath introduced the three-day working week to conserve power.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/258784/Sir-Edward-Heath )〕 Labour made a return to power in 1974 but a series of strikes carried out by trade unions over the winter of 1978/1979 (known as the Winter of Discontent) paralysed the country and as Labour lost its majority in parliament, a general election was called in 1979 which took Margaret Thatcher to power and began 18 years of Conservative government. Victory in the Falklands War (1982) and the government's strong opposition to trade unions helped lead the Conservative Party to another three terms in government. Thatcher initially pursued monetarist policies and went on to privatise many of Britain's Labour nationalised companies such as BT Group, British gas plc, British Airways and British Steel. The controversial Community Charge (poll tax), used to fund local government attributed to Thatcher being ousted from her own party and replaced as Prime Minister by John Major in 1990. Major replaced the Poll Tax with the council tax and oversaw British involvement in the Gulf War. Despite a recession, Major led the Conservatives to a surprise victory in 1992. The events of Black Wednesday in 1992, party disunity over the European Union and several scandals involving Conservative politicians led to Labour under Tony Blair winning a landslide election victory in 1997. Labour had shifted its policies closer to the political centre, under the new name 'New Labour'. The Bank of England was given independence over monetary policy and Scotland and Wales were both given a devolved Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly respectively. A devolved power sharing Northern Ireland Executive was established in 1998, believed by many to be the end of The Troubles. Blair led Britain into the controversial Iraq War, which contributed to his eventual resignation in 2007, when he was succeeded by his Chancellor Gordon Brown. A global recession in the late 2000s (decade) led to Labour being defeated in the 2010 election and replaced by a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, headed by David Cameron, which has pursued a series of public spending cuts to help reduce Britain's budget deficit. ==Labour Government, 1945–51== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the United Kingdom (1945–present)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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