History of the British economy

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[...] Tony Blair justified his ideology by the fact that he perceived Britain as a changing society in a changing world and his leitmotif became "modernise or die." To succeed in his task, he sought his financial support from wealthy millionaires and from traditional conservative newspaper owners. He limited public spending in health services and education and based all his policy on law inflation and on a strong work ethic. His New Deal was designed to promote self-reliance throw work instead of the traditional Labour doctrine of equality and distribution of wealth. His successors Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May have followed the same path with some adjustments mainly during the financial crisis of 2007. [...]

[...] However, managing and expanding economy along with full employment, stable prices and a strong pound proved to be hard to achieve. The British economy quickly became characterised by a "stop-go cycle" which means period of inflation followed by crisis in the balance of payment which is the difference between the value of total imports and exports. Neither Labour nor Conservatives succeeded in bringing the economy out of this cycle. Thus, between 1953 and 1973, the annual growth of Britain was whereas that of France was 5.1% and that of Japan 9.7%. [...]

[...] He presented his party as the New Labour which was to be set to modernise social and economic institutions throw a third way program: way of marrying together an open competitive and successful economy with a just decent and humane society." He developed a highly diversified competitive market-based economy, he created a minimum wage and encouraged incentives to employment throw progressive tax credits. Blair considered work and not welfare as the answer to the economic division. He advocated equal equality rather than equality of outcomes and thus he defined inequality as social exclusion from the opportunities his government offered. He carried on the privatisation policy, and he also encouraged public-private partnerships. [...]

[...] Merchants, trading companies and trading posts prepared the routes that grew up into the British Empire. British colonial expansion reached its height largely during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901) at its greatest extend, the British Empire spreader one quarter of the world's area and population and the British colonies contributed to the UK economic growth. In the Victorian period, Britain was called the workshop of the world and this position strengthened in world affairs. However, during the 20th century, the British economy changed drastically from the status of the most powerful nation in 1900 Britain fund itself among the middle-ranking members of the European community. [...]

[...] Deregulation: she gave economic agents, greater freedom from State control Privatisation: she reduced the public sector role in the direct and indirect provisions of goods and services Marketisation: marketisation of the public sector to promote the role of the market forces Internationalisation: she encouraged the mobility of capital and labour stimulating global market forces and importing more advanced processes and products in Britain Tax cuts: tax cuts to provide incentives and demand for the public sector Thatcher justified her policy claiming that Britain needed to create an enterprise culture in order to promote international competitiveness, individualism, independence, competitiveness and self-reliance were encouraged. In economic matters, the Thatcher government was successful. Within 10 years, Britain witnessed an economic revival. However, socially, her policy divided Britain into areas of prosperity (South) and areas of deprivation (North) widening in this way the gap between rich and poor. Besides Thatcher's commitment to reduce government spending conflicted with the needs for investment and education, health, research, and development. [...]