The Rise, Fall and Rise of Political Consensus in Britain since 1940

A distinction is drawn between pursuing consensus by direct and indirect routes. Whereas historians of consensus in Britain since 1940 have given ample attention to the direct route, events since 1979 highlight the importance of the indirect route, which instead of accepting existing opinion sets about changing it in order to shift consensus on to a new and more secure basis. The first section summarizes the consensus historians' view of the period. The second section specifies five difficulties presented by that view. The third seeks to circumvent those difficulties by drawing events since 1979 into the discussion, thereby bringing the indirect approach to consensus into closer focus and setting the consensus story into a more inclusive and broader chronological context than has been customary. It also seeks to lend the analysis of consensus in twentieth‐century Britain a fuller tactical and institutional dimension than it has hitherto received.