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like festering skin eruptions-of a
much deeper interna! ailment.
Many other such signs of national
ill health were visible this past win–
ter. Public transportation ground toa
halt; schools were padlocked; public
lavatories were closed; grave diggers
refused to bury the dead; ambulance
drivers declined to take even emer–
gency cases to the hospital; ports and
depots were blockaded; gasoline
pumps went dry; supermarket shelves
went bare.
The t raumatic winter has long
passed, anda new government sits in
London. But Britain is by no means
out of the woods. Expected labor–
management confrontations, with
the possibility of still more paralyz–
ing strikes to come, could yet produce
a national upheaval far worse than
any seen in Britain to date. The po–
tential for tota l disaster looms
greater than ever before.
It
goes without saying that some–
thing has gone drastically awry in
Britain.
Plummet from Power
At the end of World War 1, the Brit–
ish Empire stood as the greatest
power on earth, covering one-quarter
of the globe. l t was a far-ftung ero–
pire on which "the sun never set."
London was the financia! center of
the earth, capital of the largest ero–
pire the world has ever known.
Britain was mistress of the seas; its
proud navy patrolled the world's sea–
lanes. Unparalleled in power and
majesty, the invincible British !ion
reigned supreme!
Yet within fifty years that great
empire had disappeared, leaving be–
hind a loosely knit "Commonwealth"
ex.isting largely on paper. Britain had
lost its world-power status. London
had shrunk back to once again being
a mere island capital.
Britain's economic position has
been steadily eroding throughout
most of the twentieth century. The
British decline began with World
War 1, in which it suffered severe
losses. That "Great War" left irrep–
arable scars on the nation.
In World War 11 Britain was able
to hold the line with material and
financia! assistance from the United
States. But the war left Britain's
28
economy in a shambles. The United
States replaced Britain as the world's
premier power.
The dissolution of the British Ero–
pire began in 1947-48, as India, Pa–
kist~n.
Ceylon, Burma and other re–
gions gained independence from the
Crown. Over the next two decades
other colonies also left the fold.
Finally, at midnight, Sunday, July
31, 1966, the Colonial Office in Lon–
don, with largely vestigial powers
and duties, closed its doors after 165
years of operation. The British Ero–
pire was officially dead!
In Search of a New ldent lty
Bereft of empire, Britain began to
feel that its economic survival de–
pended upon joining the affiuent Eu–
ropean Economic Community, or
Common Market. Britain originally
declined to participate at the Mar–
ket's inception in 1958. Upon finally
deciding to pursue membership, Brit–
ain's overtures were repeatedly re–
buffed by French intransigence.
Only in 1971 did Britain succeed in
joining.
But Common Market membership
was not the answer. Britain's econo–
my continued to falter.
Moreqver, in a sort of replay of
Britain's long-delayed entry into the
Common Market , Prime Minister
James Callaghan's Labor govern–
ment opted earlier this year to post–
pone entry into the new European
Monetary System (EMS), a plan–
which got und er way in mid–
March-to bind the component na–
tional currencies of the European
Community within close tolerances.
Thus, when Britain does finally
join (if it joins at al!), it will have
only marginal inftuence on the struc–
ture of the system.
"lf
we muff this
one [the EMS]," observed a
London
Times
columnist late last year, "as
we muffed the inception of the
[Common Market] in the late l950s,
we could find ourselves once more
standing on the platform while the
European train moves off."
lt
may
even now be too late for ailing,
winded Britain to make the dash for
the Continental Express.
The situation has come to the
point where many observers are sug–
gesting that Britain-seemingly al-
ways a pound short and an hour
late-is facing almost certain eco–
nomic ruin.
The Causes
What happened to the
world'~
greatest empire? Why the precipi–
tous plummeting from the pinnacle
of power to the status of a thlrd-rate
nation?
The causes behind Britain's de–
cline and the huge morass of prob–
lems besetting that nation today are
a matter of great disputation among
política! and economic analysts.
But one fact must be emphasized
clearly. While such analysis may
help in clarifying the
mechanics
of
Britain's steady erosion, the underly–
ing
root cause
of the problem is al–
most always ignored. That cause will
become clear as the various contrib–
uting factors are examined.
One of the factors in Britain's con–
tinuing decline is the decreasing pro–
ductivity of the British worker. In
various branches of industry, tbe out–
put .of British workers is only a quar–
ter that of the Germans and Japa–
nese-two of Britain's chief competi–
tors.
Part of the problem is admittedly
the outdated and obsolete factories
and industrial plants wbich can be
seen all over Britain today. Unlike
now-affiuent West Germany, which
had to rebuild its economic institu–
tions from scratch after its devastat–
ing defeat in World War 11, Britain
remains entrenched in its traditional
economic way of life. Its economic
institutions are fashioned, in large
measure, for nineteenth century cir–
cumstances. This is unquestionably a
problem that will have to be dealt
with in any plan for national recov–
ery.
Nevertheless, analysts observe
that a large portian of the blame
must still go to the increasingly indo–
lent British worker himself. More
and more, as statistics demonstrate,
workers are apparently expecting
something for nothlng, continually
demanding higher wages and other
benefits for less work- a trend by no
means unique to Britain. In an ap–
parent recognition of this fact, Mrs.
Thatcher asserted during the recent
election campaign: "We can have
The
PLAIN TRUTH August 1979