The Effects of the Social Reforms of the Labour Government of 1945-1951

The Effects of the Social Reforms of the Labour Government of 1945-1951

The Beveridge Report was published in 1942. Written by the Liberal Sir

William Beveridge, it had identified what he called the “five giants”

– the five gravest problems of British society. They were idleness

(unemployment), want (poverty), disease, squalor and ignorance.

Beveridge argued for a comprehensive social insurance scheme,

universal access to healthcare and new attempts to avoid the mass

unemployment of the 30’s. The report was wildly popular amongst the

public, who bought 625,000 copies of this rather dry, academic policy

document. It seemed that during the worst, least hopeful times of the

war, the British public needed something to fight for – and the

creation of a full Welfare state was it.

In May 1945, the coalition government that had steered Britain through

the perilous days of the Second World War was finished. The Liberals

and the Labour Party had withdrawn, deciding that it was time to let

the British population choose their government again. A General

Election was called for July. Before the campaign had started, or a

manifesto had been published, the result had seemed inevitable.

Winston Churchill, the feted wartime leader and leader of the

Conservative Party would surely be returned as Prime Minister.

Instead, the British people surprised everyone – no one more so than

Churchill himself – by voting Clement Atlee’s Labour Party into power

with a massive majority of 168. Their election manifesto – the

optimistically named ‘Let us face the future’ - promised to “fully

implement” the recommendations of the Beveridge Report. The

Conservative...

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report. When Joseph Rowntree repeated his research into poverty, he

found that levels of absolute poverty had fallen from 36% in 1936 to

2% in 1950. They created the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the Welfare

state, the National Health Service, and can be accredited with the

creation of the ‘safety net’, which insured that all citizens had a

basic standard of living. They protected the ‘miracle’ of full

employment, which meant that everyone in Britain who was willing to

earn a living was able to. Yet, they didn’t deal with the problem of

homelessness to a reasonable degree and left the Education system

improved - but still starkly unfair. Their record is one of successes

and failures, equality and inequities, yet, there can little doubt at

all that they left Britain in a superior state to that which they

found it.