The end of the Second World War brought a new Labour government and the expansion of the welfare state including the establishment of a National Health Service. The creation of an independent India and Pakistan heightened the desire for independence on behalf of almost all of Britain\'s colonies - although most retained ties with Britain through the Commonwealth.
Britain\'s economic position relative to many other industrialised countries continued to decline, although external trade remained extremely important to the country (signified by the entering of the European Community in 1973). Although Britain\'s political and economic history in the latter half of the twentieth century has been somewhat mixed, in some areas, the country and its population have continued to lead the world. The 1960s are, perhaps, the totem decade for modern Britain with a more permissive society, increased consumer confidence, radical political protest and a blossoming of popular music which spread across the world, principally the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
The 1970s saw a number of firsts - Concorde (an Anglo-French collaborative supersonic aeroplane); test tube babies (Joy Brown, the first, was born 25 July 1978); the Open University (a university mainly carried out through television broadcasts); electronic technology; and commercial radio.The 1980s witnessed a number of notable events - IRA hunger strikes in Northern Ireland; a Papal visit (1982); Sunday football for the first time; a popular fitness craze with major events such as the London Marathon proving successful; the completion of the Thames Barrier; the beginning of the Channel Tunnel; the spread of personal computers; and satellite television.
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