A Companion to Contemporary Britain 1939–2000

Abstract

The perspective of the twenty-first century, Burnett's optimism carries the nostalgic flavour of an earlier era. This narrative of progress was cruelly punctured by rising inflation and unemployment after the mid-1970s. Furthermore, an Anglocentric focus on class has been replaced by a wider perspective which takes into account quality of life, gender, ethnicity and regional differences. For example, women's lives have not become ‘unequivocally more leisured’, crime, traffic congestion and atmospheric pollution have all risen, and the earlier tendency towards less inequality in income and wealth distribution was reversed in the final decades of the twentieth century. The prosperity of the south-east stood in stark contrast with low incomes and high unemployment in parts of the north of England, Scotland and Wales. Racial tension was endemic, and among ethnic minorities blacks and Bangladeshis were disproportionately poor whereas Indians experienced upward social mobility.