Labour Effectiveness Flashcards
INTRO
FACTORS AND LOFA
1942 William Beveridge: “Social Insurance and Allied Services” blueprint for welfare state “cradle to grave”
Clement Atlee’s Labour Gov Landslide 1945
Want, Squalor, Idleness, Disease, Ignorance
Successful in disease and want, failed in squalor and ignorance (idleness if time)
DISEASE
KAKAKAKA+E
1946 “NHS Act”, established fully 1948
Pre-NHS, monthly prescriptions 7M, after 1948 13.5M
Especially helpful to poor who couldn’t afford private
Doctors unhappy ‘civil servants’, but Bevan “stuffed mouths with gold”, and 90% joined scheme
Labour skilful in satisfying doctors and patients in such unprecedented ting
NHS budget: £134 in 48 £356 50. Lab commitment !!,
Bevan backtrack, partial charges for dental and optical
Poor suffer especially!
Alan Sked and Chris Cook: “almost revolutionary social innovation since it improved the quality of life of most of the British people.”
IGNORANCE
KAKA+KA+E
Wartime coalition 1944 Education Act, Labour implement
All local authorities provide education for all levels, compulsory <15
Working class could study at grammar schools, close attainment gap
11+ exam divisive, junior secondary schools less prospects
Working class stuck leaving at 15 unskilled labour
Technical schools underfunded due to baby boom
Skilled labour neglected, middle class jobs = social mobility etc
E: John Kerr: “trapped thousands of children in a world of low expectations and inferior education.”
SQUALOR
KAKA+E
New Towns Act 1946 built 12 new, 200,000 new homes a year
Labour met this target and council rent 1/3 private rent
Failure to cope with baby boom
Families forced to ‘squat’ in disused army camps,
E: 1951 census: 750,000 house shortages !
WANT
KAKAKA+E
National Insurance Act Pt1 1946: financial protection for sick and unemployed, 26 shillings a week / 42 for married men.
Mitigated risk of falling into long term poverty, minimum standard living conditions for employed
National Assistance Act Pt2 1948: provided for those who couldn’t afford NI scheme
Standard minimal living conditions for unemployed
However, benefits set too low, many left below subsistence level
SO STILL WANTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Historian Kenneth Morgan agrees with this evaluation when he says the system: “provided a comprehensive universal basis for insurance provision that had hitherto been unknown.’
