Editing Conservative Party (UK) (section)

==== Modernising the party ====
[[File:Harold Macmillan.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|[[Harold Macmillan]] is closely associated with the post-war settlement.]]
In 1947, the party published its [[Industrial Charter]] which marked its acceptance of the "[[post-war consensus]]" on the [[mixed economy]] and [[labour rights]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Kynaston, David |author-link = David Kynaston|year=2007 |title=Austerity Britain: 1945–1951 |location=London |publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=978-0-7475-7985-4 |pages=238–41}}</ref> [[David Maxwell Fyfe]] chaired a committee into Conservative Party organisation that resulted in the Maxwell Fyfe Report (1948–49). The report required the party to do more fundraising, by forbidding constituency associations from demanding large donations from candidates, with the intention of broadening the [[diversity (politics)|diversity]] of MPs. In practice, it may have had the effect of lending more power to [[United Kingdom constituencies|constituency]] parties and making candidates more uniform.<ref>Dutton, D. J. (2004). "[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33301 Fyfe, David Patrick Maxwell, Earl of Kilmuir (1900–1967)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206011849/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33301 |date=6 February 2016 }}", ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', Oxford University Press. Retrieved 4 August 2007 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> [[Winston Churchill]], the party leader, brought in a [[Chairman of the Conservative Party|Party chairman]] to modernise the party: [[Frederick Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton]] rebuilt the local organisations with an emphasis on membership, money, and a unified national propaganda appeal on critical issues.<ref>Blake, Robert. ''The Conservative Party from Peel to Major'' (1997) pp. 260–64.</ref>

With a narrow victory at the [[1951 United Kingdom general election|1951 general election]], despite losing the popular vote, Churchill was back in power. Apart from rationing, which was ended in 1954, most of the [[welfare state]] enacted by Labour were accepted by the Conservatives and became part of the "post-war consensus" that was satirised as [[Butskellism]] and that lasted until the 1970s.<ref>[[Toye, Richard]]. "From 'Consensus' to 'Common Ground': The Rhetoric of the Postwar Settlement and its Collapse," ''Journal of Contemporary History'' (2013) 48#1 pp. 3–23.</ref><ref>''The Economist'', 'Mr Butskell's Dilemma', 13 February 1954.</ref> The Conservatives were conciliatory towards unions, but they did privatise the steel and road haulage industries in 1953.<ref>{{cite book |author=Morgan, Kenneth O. |author-link=Kenneth O. Morgan |title=Britain Since 1945: The People's Peace: The People's Peace |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tKwGaWWKzNAC&pg=PA114 |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford UP |pages=114–15 |isbn=9780191587993 |access-date=25 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101200045/https://books.google.com/books?id=tKwGaWWKzNAC&pg=PA114 |archive-date=1 January 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> During the Conservatives' thirteen-year tenure in office, pensions went up by 49% in real terms, sickness and unemployment benefits by 76% in real terms, and supplementary benefits by 46% in real terms. However, family allowances fell by 15% in real terms.<ref>The Labour Party in Crisis by Paul Whiteley</ref> "Thirteen Wasted Years" was a popular slogan attacking the Conservative record, primarily from Labour. In addition, there were attacks by the right wing of the Conservative Party itself for its tolerance of socialist policies and reluctance to curb the legal powers of labour unions.

The Conservatives were re-elected in [[1955 United Kingdom general election|1955]] and [[1959 United Kingdom general election|1959]] with larger majorities. Conservative Prime Ministers Churchill, [[Anthony Eden]], [[Harold Macmillan]] and [[Alec Douglas-Home]] promoted relatively liberal trade regulations and less state involvement throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. The [[Suez Crisis]] of 1956 was a humiliating defeat for Prime Minister Eden, but his successor, Macmillan, minimised the damage and focused attention on domestic issues and prosperity. Following controversy over the selections of Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home via a process of consultation known as the 'Magic Circle',<ref>Thorpe, D.R. (2010). ''Supermac''.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/history/past-prime-ministers/alec-douglas-home|title=History of Sir Alec Douglas|publisher=Inside Government|access-date=18 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180108014311/https://www.gov.uk/government/history/past-prime-ministers/alec-douglas-home|archive-date=8 January 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> a formal election process was created and [[1965 Conservative Party leadership election|the first leadership election]] was held in 1965, won by Edward Heath.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/27/newsid_2956000/2956082.stm|title=On This Day 1965: Heath is new Tory leader|work=BBC News|date=27 July 1996|access-date=18 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121127031248/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/27/newsid_2956000/2956082.stm|archive-date=27 November 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>