The Age Of Consensus refers to a time in British politics,
broadly speaking between 1951 and 1979. This holds over the
course of three decades, both the Labour and Conservative
parties held broadly similar political views and policies. While
this view is not universally accepted, it is often used as
shorthand for the period between wartime Britain and the
“Thatcher Revolution” of the 1980’s. It is important to consider
that in British politics, at least a degree of consensus exists
between the two major parties. Over the course of the twentieth
century, extremist ideologies have never dominated parliamentary
politics, and thus the major parties share a common ground. This
has rarely been more true than in the period from 1951 to 1970.
As a period which saw both Conservative and Labour parties, the
continuity of policy is quite remarkable. Perhaps the key to
this convergence was not due to the disappearance of extremism,
but its diminished role in party politics. It could be argued
that while the Labour party