1952-2022: The change and the constant
In 1952, the first mechanical heart was used, and the first open heart surgery took place. The average Briton was only expected to live until 70. In that same year, Pandit Nehru would form his first government in India, Ann Frank’s diary was published, the first Hydrogen bomb was tested, and the first British passenger plane made a round trip across the Atlantic. Werner Von Braun predicted we would soon go to the moon and war hero Dwight Eisenhower became US president. Vladimir Putin was born. And 25-year-old Lillibet- as she was affectionately known by her father- would become Queen Elizabeth, the Second of Her Name.
The world has changed a lot since then. India is now the world’s most populous nation and, arguably, its most promising emerging economy. American politics are now more about culture wars than actual ones. We have been to the moon a few times. Not much to see. But we are still going to Mars. Mr. Putin, at 70, has been the talk of the globe for the past six months. Hydrogen bombs are still with us, but happily none have gone off -yet.
‘How has the UK economy changed in 70 years?’ was the brief for this report. Not just any 70 years, but the complete era after the Second World War, a time when the breakneck pace of technological change has been unprecedented in human history.
The UK economy is certainly very different. The population has grown by a third. GDP per capita has increased from £8,500 to £32,000 per annum. In England alone, nearly half a million heart surgeries are performed each year. Britons are expected to live, on average, twelve more years, until 82. The average age of people living in the UK has grown from 35 to 40. As a result, healthcare costs have skyrocketed from 7% of GDP to 20% of GDP. The UK hosts more than 1300 flights per day. Interestingly, inflation was 11% during Elizabeth’s coronation. It is now just one point below.
In 1952 British industry was all about steel, coal, textiles, chemicals, and engineering. Now it is all about tech, oil and gas, mining, and banks. The UK has, in effect, transitioned from the secondary sector, manufacturing, to the tertiary sector, services. From the coal mine to the office, and then to hybrid working. From state to liberalisation.
How has the UK economy changed in 70 years… It would have been a lot easier to try and find out ways in which it hasn’t changed.
The one thing that stands out, persistent at the centre of that change whirlwind, is the life and times of one of Britain’s most constant monarchs. Not just in longevity, but also in temperament and constitutional awareness.
The British constitution is simple, at heart. Where the ‘efficient’ decides, the ‘dignified’ sets the example. Both are equally important.
Elizabeth’s was an age when democracy was rendering monarchies obsolete across the globe, a lesson bitterly learned by her husband, exiled Greek prince Philip. In those times, Queen Elizabeth the Second remained steadfast and became an example of the monarch’s constitutional function as the ‘dignified’ part of government -even when elected Prime Ministers acting in her name had been less than ‘efficient’. It is the sovereign’s prerogative to disband parliament and call for an election. Yet not once in her long reign, one characterised by rapid change, often acrimony and growing generational gaps, has a constitutional crisis ever come close to being threatened.
Transformational British PMs, from Winston Churchill and Harold Wilson to Tony Blair would seek her counsel, whether she was 25, 55 or 75. Her forebearers would see their power diminish with each year passing. She would exemplify, not just to politicians but also to business leaders around the realm, that power need not be raw and overt. It is much more effective when it is soft. That influence is better than a show of force. This became the British norm, as Britain regressed from its former imperial form. Whether in state affairs, internal and external, in business, or even within family units.
It may be because of that, that Britain did not follow the course of other decaying empires. Instead, it is still extremely influential in affairs around the globe.
It is difficult to say whether Queen Elizabeth II inspired her era or was inspired by the British values of constancy and perseverance. Whatever the case, her approach to change became Britain’s approach to change, allowing it to find its new, post-imperial place in a world.
Elizabeth II has passed, and the post-World War order itself is unravelling. As a new, yet undefined, economic and political order is begotten, her example and perseverance in the importance of setting an example, will be the guiding light for a new government and a new monarch.
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