The consensus in British politics between 1945 and 1979 reflected confusion and compromise rather than a purposeful sense of direction. Discuss.

In answering this question we must first decide what we mean by consensus in this context for the notion is not uncontested . A useful definition is suggested by David Dutton after 1945 the political parties operated within a given framework, a set of generally accepted parameters in which certain key assumptions were shared and in which policy options were consequently limited . These assumptions were generally confined to three main policy areas namely Britains global role, the role of the welfare state and the running of a mixed economy….(short extract)