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 In the aftermath of the Second World War the possession of aerospace technology—missiles, rockets and civil and military aircraft—was one of the hallmarks of a powerful nation, as well as an important diplomatic tool. Britain had a tremendous amount of expertise in these fields. The rise of the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, had transformed the international political and strategic situation. How would Britain use her technology to safeguard her interests in these changed circumstances? How and why did she fall behind? This thesis sets out to investigate these questions and determine the role aerospace played in influencing Britain’s relations with allies and neighbours in a new age. It looks at how she faced up to the dilemma of deciding whether to forge ever closer links with her transatlantic ally or overturn centuries of history by entering Europe. The study examines major British aerospace projects, their relative success or failure and their political legacy. It also looks at some of the personalities involved in the story, to illustrate attitudes to technology in Whitehall, the boardroom and the drawing office. Ultimately, it seeks to explain how the decisions that were made in the post-war decades shaped the country’s eventual destiny. / published_or_final_version / History / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis will trace the development of Conservative ideology in Great Britain between 1906 and 1914. During these years the Conservative party was defeated by the Liberal party on three separate occasions. Many historians believe that this string of electoral contretemps offers convincing evidence that Conservatism, as an evolving pattern of beliefs, was fundamentally unsuited to the political climate of Great Britain at the turn of the century. According to this interpretation of Edwardian Conservatism, it was only the timely onset of war which saved the party from having to come to terms with the democratic impulse of an unfamiliar era. This is a gross exaggeration of the plight of Conservatism before the war, for the party's unwavering commitment to the economic status quo was not in itself a recipe for electoral catastrophe. What may well have turned out to be fatal to the party's well-being was Joseph Chamberlain's Tariff Reform campaign. In 1903 Chamberlain offered the party an all-encompassing creed, a total solution to Britain's problems, both domestic and foreign, and a positive platform to sustain the party in office. Balfour sensed the dangers of a comprehensive ideology that was inherently of its own time. He, and Bonar Law after him, helped to rehabilitate Conservative ideology by limiting its scope and suggesting that Tariff Reform was merely one weapon among many in a large Conservative arsenal.

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The main purpose of this study has been to establish the chanoino character of the RAs (Research Associations) in the UK from 1970 to 1989 and beyond. The last major piece of research carried out on the RAs was the Bessborough Report which was undertaken in 1972. One of the main problems encountered was the availability of secondary data on the RAs. Most of the data, especiall y statistical ones, had to be generated from primary sources e.g. Annual Reports of RAs, internal papers of RAs and interviews. Consequently, a great amount of time and effort went into the accumulation of data. The thesis is divided into five parts. Part 1 consists of the research methodology. Part 2 and 3 provide the necessary background information in order to map out the changes in the RAs over the two decades. Part 4 forms the core of the thesis and it presents the results of the research model used. Part 5 presents the conclusions and recommendations of the study.

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The 1944 Butler Act laid the legal foundations for a new secondary education system in England, one which would see all children entitled to free and compulsory schooling up to the age of 15. The Act therefore represented a bold step forward in the pursuit of a fairer society: expanding access to training and qualifications, while promoting a more equal distribution of educational opportunities. This thesis explores the process of constructing and delivering secondary education policy in England following the 1944 Butler Education Act. It offers a close examination of two Local Education Authorities- Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire- exploring how they interpreted and implemented 'secondary education for all' after the Second World War. The dissertation is composed of two parts: Part One looks at how selective secondary schooling was developed and operated in the respective areas between 1945 and 1962; Part Two explores the response of both authorities to the prospect of reforming secondary education after 1962. By exploring the process of policy implementation after 1944, Part One of this thesis highlights the problems of delivering secondary education for all in an era of resource constraint. It is demonstrated in this thesis that Local Authority capacity to build new schools was firmly tethered to Ministerial control. The relatively low priority accorded to education created a decade-long delay between the announcement of policy change and its eventual delivery. The implications of this delay at the Local Authority and school level are explored in chapters three and six. Chapters four and seven question how resources were distributed between selective and non-selective school sectors, while chapters five and eight evaluate the treatment of selective education within each authority, asking how policy makers conceived of, and operated, the grammar school and secondary modern sectors. Part Two of this thesis turns to the question of secondary organisation. Debates surrounding the question of comprehensive rather than selective systems of secondary schooling dominated discussions about secondary education policy in the later twentieth century. When it came to comprehensive re-organisation, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire opted for different paths: Oxfordshire adopted comprehensive schooling relatively early with a remarkable degree of county-wide consensus, while Buckinghamshire fiercely resisted external and internal pressure to reform. Chapter ten of this thesis is devoted to identifying the drivers of comprehensive reform in Oxfordshire. Chapters eleven and twelve explore the Buckinghamshire story establishing how and then why this county successfully held-out against wholesale policy change.

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No description available.