Policy Punctuations

Abstract

In the last chapter, we described the policy agenda of British politics and government, using graphs and descriptive statistics. We conveyed both the complexity of what has happened to British decision-making since 1945, but also reported some of the broader trends. We explored how government responded to the problems and challenges of the day, such as on the economy and in foreign affairs. There were periods of stability, but also times of change, a pattern that is a key theme of this book. Some topics were subject to substantial shifts in attention, both upwards and downwards, such as on macroeconomic issues. A few topics did not receive much priority from British government at the start of the period, but became more important later on, such as topic two, civil rights and immigration; on the other hand, some topics secured a high level of interest from policy-makers at the start of the period but fell away over time, as was the case with topic 4, agriculture.