Think of Cool Britannia and the late 1990s probably comes to mind, the nation zig-a-zig-ahing its way around a Union Jack-emblazoned flurry of formaldehyde-submerged sharks and down-with-the-kids politicians. In truth, though, it was more a second coming. True Cool Britannia had peaked almost half a century earlier, during a swell of national optimism sparked by the end of the Second World War and Queen Elizabeth II’s accession.
Rationing may still have been in place in Britain in the early 1950s, but light could be seen at the end of the great tunnel of austerity that had dominated people’s lives for so long. The welfare state was expanding, improvements in living conditions were gradually being implemented, workers were in such high demand that migrants from commonwealth countries were starting to arrive in large numbers (albeit, shamefully, to be met with discrimination in many cases) and the middle classes were enjoying more leisure time – and the gadgets to either enable it (washing machines) or enjoy it (cars). Things were not, yet, quite as upbeat in the UK as they were in
