After the devastation of WWII Britain bounced back pretty quickly in terms of the balance of trade and GDP. Our balance of trade in goods and services was flat-lining right up to 1970’s when the sky fell in. In 1945 when the working week was six days, the GDP per capita in Britain was 90% higher than our European counterparts. By 1950 the difference had dropped to 28% and by 1957 to 15%. It wasn’t until 1975 that our GDP fell below that of Europe, taking a dip to -7%.
Post WWII Labour Governments began a programme of Nationalisation in 1945. Two World Wars had proved how important it was for Britain to have a sound industrial infrastructure and the backbone of Industrial Britain at the time, the coal industry, was in desperate need of investment as productivity had barely moved since 1890 and the industry was literally breaking down. In the years that followed to 1969, the key infrastructure industries, Iron and Steel, Rail, Mail, banking, Telecommunications and Car manufacturing followed suit.