British politics from the end of the Second World War until the rise of Thatcherism was characterized by the practice of consensus - that administrations of different political complexions were committed to certain continuities and a shared sense of purpose in policy and political approach. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher proclaimed that It must be a conviction government - a view incompatible with consensus as a style of governing - and set about challenging the shared assumptions of the previous three decades in order to destroy the notion of consensus. Dennis Kavanagh and Peter Morris chronicle the rise and fall of the post-war consensus in five key policy areas - the mixed economy, full employment, trade unions, welfare and foreign policy - to provide a introduction to one of the major debates of recent political history.