Relative decline as a political issue: Ideological motivations of the politico‐economic debate in post‐war Britain

It is usual to consider the relative economic decline of Britain as a problem in itself, and to discuss possible causes, consequences and cures. This article shifts the focus a little to ask why has it become such a central political issue over the last three decades? There are two possible explanations for this. The more obvious is that it is such an important and pervasive problem that it cannot be avoided. Closer examination of its consequences, in the three areas of diplomatic‐military, social well‐being and future economic development, shows that its standing as an objective problem is, to say the least, problematical, though the present recession may not be the best time to say so. Taking a longer‐term perspective, however, its status as a pressing problem is clearly dependent on assumptions which can be challenged, particularly in light of general post‐war growth and prosperity. The second explanation of why relative decline has become such a long‐lasting issue is that it provides the support and justification for political parties to change Britain's society in certain ways which would, if advocated on their own, provoke widespread resistance. One can clearly interpret Thatcherism as one such ideological project, but it also finds counterparts on the left ‐ both with the Alternative Economic Strategy of the 1980s and Wilson's and Kinnock's advocacy of government intervention. With the integration of the British economy into the European, relative decline may however be running out of steam as a topic of contemporary debate, and increasingly substituted by preoccupations about our place in Europe.