The Political Economic and Social Achievements of the First Majority Labour Party Were Unprecedented in Britain.
One of the main parties in British politics is the labour party, it was established to represent the interests of workers, and traditionally supported by the trade unions. The party remained out of power until 1940. However, in the general election of 1945, it achieved a spectacular recovery. The period of 1945-1951 witnessed unprecedented political economic and social achievements of the first majority labour party in Britain. Labour, under Clement Attlee, started enacting the measures that had been its program since the beginning of the century. Nationalization of railroads and coal mines, which were in such terrible situation that any government would have had to bring them under state control, also the nationalization of the Bank of England began immediately. In addition road transport, docks and harbours, and the production of electrical power were nationalized. There was little debate. The Conservatives could hardly argue that any of these industries, barring electric power, was flourishing or that they could have done much differently. More debate came over Labour's social welfare legislation, which created the “welfare state.”It is a system by which the government of a country cares for its citizens through a range of services provided and paid for by the state. Labour enacted a comprehensive program of national insurance. It regularized the actual nationalization of public assistance, the National Assistance Act of 1946, in its most controversial move; it established the huge framework of the National Health Service 1948, which provided free, comprehensive medical care for every citizen, rich or poor. The election of a Labour government at the end of World War II coincided with the economic crisis which dictated the withdrawal from colonial territories. Britain declared the withdrawal from India and Egypt , and in 1948 the withdrawal from Palestine, which coincided with the proclamation of the state of Israel. It