The Settlement

May 23, 2007 · 2 minute read

I tend to be a touch harsh on this country from time to time, but I wonder: has something like this happened in any other modern democracy? A leader, fresh from victory, perhaps the greatest and most difficult victory the country has ever had, thrown out on his ear just over two months from the celebratory parades?

So, yes, I watched Andrew Marr's Modern History of Britain last night (and I've ordered the book, which from a flip-through in Borders this afternoon, seems to go into things in a little more depth). It's still astonishing just how much the Attlee Government achieved in their six-year term. And how close they came to losing it all. Despite the change, though, things were still handled in a proper British manner: John Maynard Keynes essentially sacrificing his life to buy the country some time in the form of a loan from America, the police reaction to an outbreak of squatting in Central London being to make the squatters a nice cup of tea, and the rather embarrassed way we got rid of the Empire. Just as interesting are the things that the Labour Government left alone - the old boys network was still firmly in place, Britain's nuclear ambitions began, and although it wasn't mentioned in the programme, the secret services flourished even though they thought the Government were a bunch of Soviet spies.

Next week! The end of debutantes! And probably a little thing called Suez…