I'll paint a slightly different picture of the 1950s and 1960s.
Petrol rationing ended in 1950 although what was called Pool Petrol continued until 1953. Other rationing ended during the first couple of years of the 1950s and meat rationing (the last item) ended in 1954. Thereafter the 1950s and 1960s was an era of a lot of optimism and of growth, as well as change and strife.
New car models came in, Hillman introduced the "New Gay Look" in 1956 with two tone paint colours. Vauxhall introduced the new style Victor, Velox and Cresta models heavily influenced by American designs.
Over 500,000 people were employed in the car industry. The car manufacturers were Ford, Vauxhall, BMC (Austin, Morris, Riley, MG, Wolseley), Standard-Triumph, Jaguar, Daimler, Alvis, Armstrong Siddeley, Bentley, Rolls Royce and a couple more no doubt I've missed.
What else? Britain entered the jet age with the Comet airliner. The Vulcan bomber and the Victor and Valiant aircraft all first flew in 1952 and then entered service. Queen Elizabeth was crowned of course in 1953.
England won the Ashes in cricket in August 1953 for the first time since 1932-33. Over 300,000 new homes were built that same year. 1954 came with the news of a second Comet crash and the plane was grounded in April after a third (ultimately ceding victory in the jet age to the Boeing who learned from the British mistakes).
In 1955 you could buy a British Moped or Scooter for between £40 and £80.
It was an era of the bomb warnings. A National Warning System was setup based on messages sent by the Royal Observer Corps stationed at 15-mile intervals who would estimate which direction clouds of radiation would take and thus giving farmers a chance to move their livestock indoors and allow others to stock up with food!
It was an era of conflicts in British controlled areas. British troops quit the Suez Canal in June 1956, in July 1956 Nasser siezed control of it and the British along with the French took action against Nasser. By the beginning of November Anglo-French forces had again siezed control but by the end of the month were forced under pressure from the US to withdraw.
By 1957 it was the era of "You've never had it so good", according to the Conservative government led by Harold Macmillan. Television was expanding with BBC and ITV (ITV was launched in 1955) being watched by over 6 million people every evening.
It was an era of great change in housing. Old housing was being pulled down everywhere to make way for more modern houses. Over 20 "New Towns" were built across England.
It was an era of the growth of the package holiday to places like the Costa Brava or Palma.
It was an era of great social change.
There is in fact too much that could possibly be written here to answer the question "how was the life in Great Britain and Northen Irland in the '50's and '60's" but hopefully this and other posting will give some clues. There is plenty more on the internet that you can search out.