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The Reinvention of Britain 1960-2016
by Scott Newton
(Routledge, £23.99)
IN 1945, Labour introduced a programme of full employment, public ownership and the welfare state. A brave new world of economic expansion and renewal, it was interrupted by problems of inflation, the adverse balances of international payments and the runs on sterling which continued under later Tory governments.
Those problems continued under the Labour government of Harold Wilson, which in 1964 put the accent on planning and supply side reforms. But the aim of increased growth of 25 per cent up to 1970 was a target not achieved.
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