This is the fifth edition of what has become the standard textbook on contemporary British political history since the end of the Second World War.

The new and improved edition of this important book brings the picture to the present by including the following additions:

* a new chapter on Tony Blair's administration including analysis of the London Mayoral elections
* new material on john Major in the light of the memoirs of Major, Norman Lamont and new work on the Labour party at this time
* updated statistical data and tables
* in-depth coverage of the 1990s and the start of the twenty-first century.

This authoritative chronological survey discusses domestic policy and politics in particular, but also covers external and international relations and will doubtless be a major part of the course reading of any student of British history since 1945.