How radical and successful were the Labour policies

1

• How radical and successful were the Labour
  policies?
• Context.
• Buzz of activity in civil service James Meade,
  Alec Cairncross, Richard Stone. They wanted to
  spend to improve the quality of life there was
  considerable idealism.
• This was reflected in the creation of the Arts
  Council and councils to promote scientific
  research and development.
• Yet, there were some on the right who deplored
  the attempt by the state to improve the cultural
  life of the people Evelyn Waugh was one
  example.

2

• Policy
• National Health Service p37-39, p64
• .involved nationalisation and universal
  entitlement to raise standards of the poorest and
  to remove stigma of claiming charity.
• Benefits.
• There was a lot of support for some kind of
  reform of health provisions this view was
  reflected in the Lancet and by leading doctors of
  the time.
• People who had never before had access to
  medical, dental car, opticians now had teeth,
  glasses provided free. In the short term this
  brought considerable benefits to the poorest,
  though the middle classes felt that their
  standard of living was in decline many
  emigrated eg 50,000 to Rhodesia.

3

• Society became healthier. Over time, people
  became bigger and stronger. Diseases such as
  tuberculosis, rickets were rarer. People began to
  live longer.
• The NHS became increasingly popular with the
  medical profession.

4

• Criticisms.
• The man Attlee chose as Minister for Health was
  perhaps the most zealous and abrasive member of
  the Cabinet, and he was dealing with an issue
  that was strongly and widely opposed by the BMA.
  The wishes of the Socialist Medical Association
  for a fully centralised and dominant public
  health service never materialised because Bevan
  was not able to either win over or dominate the
  powerful BMA.
• Even Bevan was unable to destroy the power of the
  BMA. He was forced to compromise. Private
  medicine continued alongside the NHS. Thus a
  group that were highly opposed to the NHS. The
  Minister for Health could do nothing without
  their support. They opposed the proposals of the
  Left for health centres to replace the GP system
  only 12 were formed 1948-1958. Such people
  argued that the NHS had gone too far and was too
  expensive and bureaucratic and that it
  attempted to curb the salaries of the medical
  profession.
• The better off preferred to pay for health care
  through private insurance schemes and thus
  resented calls for extra taxation to finance
  expansion and to cover the cost generated by the
  demand which outstretched expectation.
• Medical trade unions were weak and were never
  able to influence the direction of the service.
• The continuation of the private sector betrayed
  the expectations of the Socialist Medical
  Association.

5

• In 1951, with the Government expanding
  expenditure on armaments, including nuclear
  weapons because the Americans would not share
  and with the Government becoming increasingly
  drawn into the conflict in Korea, the financial
  burden of the NHS became too much and charges
  were introduced for glasses and false teeth.
  Bevan, disappointed with the failure of the
  Government to adopt a more radical stand in
  social, economic and foreign affairs, resigned.

6

• Policy
• The National Insurance Act p37
• Benefits
• It was universally acclaimed and passed through
  Parliament without much trouble at all.
• It was welcomed by social reformers such as
  Seebohm Rowntree, who saw it as a means of
  eliminating poverty.
• Criticisms
• Universal entitlement meant that the sum received
  by individuals was not great.
• In 1948 a National Assistance Board had to be set
  up to support those who either were still not
  entitled to claim because they had not made the
  necessary contributions, or because they were
  still experiencing hardships.

7

• Policy.
• The Butler Education Act 1944 p19, 40-41.
• Benefits
• It was accepted and hailed as a boldly
  egalitarian measure by all parties. It was
  drawn up by all parties Butler was a
  Conservative, he was helped by Chuter Ede,
  Labour, it was accepted by the Left-wing Ellen
  Wilkinson as Minister for Education in 1945.
• It led to great era of expansion in state
  education, in school building, and more
  importantly in improving standards in state
  education.
• It provided opportunities for those of ability
  from any background.
• Local authorities under the direction of a
  Minister for Education tried to ensure common
  standards throughout the country.

8

• Criticisms.
• It was not designed to promote equality it was
  elitist, mimicking the OX-BRIDGE, public schools
  approach of some of its architects who had
  refused to increase scholarships to public
  schools.
• It accepted unquestioningly that the tests
  administered at the age of 11 would be able to
  detect the potential and ability of each child.
• As in health, the private sector continued to
  dominate, with public schools attracting huge
  endowments, so commitment to improvement was
  limited.
• The views of the National Association of Labour
  Teachers , who advocated multilateral ie
  comprehensive schooling, were ignored.
• High levels of taxation a stiffly graduated
  income tax and stringent death duties were
  necessary to maintain the system, and as with
  health, the department was increasingly starved
  of funds as defence expenditure increased.

9

• The provision of grammar school places was
  uneven, with authorities in rich areas where many
  went to public schools being loathe to invest,
  whilst poorer areas found themselves unable to
  make up from the rates what was needed to improve
  services.

10

• Policy
• Housing p39-40
• Benefits.
• Once again there was consensus everyone agreed
  that better quality public housing should be
  provided. The works of Orwell The Road to
  Wigan Pier and Walter Greenwood Love on the
  Dole had raised awareness of the problems.
  Housing had figured prominently in the election
  campaign.
• Bevan insisted on high quality council houses,
  despite the competition for raw materials. They
  had three bedrooms and indoor toilets and
  bathrooms.
• Private rents and mortgages were controlled to
  ensure that people did not take advantage of the
  housing shortage to extort money out of those in
  need.
• The new council house estates encouraged
  community life and they were relatively free from
  vandalism and crime until the 1980s.

11

• The New Towns Act 1946 set up development
  corporations to produce healthy, well planned
  cities in contrast to the chaos and grime of
  nineteenth century industrial towns - Stevenage
  was the first, followed by Crawley, Hemel
  Hempstead and Harlow and later four more
  including Peterlee and East Kilbride.
•   The Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 made
  grants available for land development and
  required development plans for the next twenty
  years.

12

• Criticisms
• Homes were not provided quickly enough as was
  highlighted by the case of squatters occupying
  empty properties in London. Only a few thousand
  houses had been built by the spring of 1946. The
  programme had been left to Local Authorities, who
  could not secure raw materials. Attlee had to
  sort this out and then on average more than
  200,000 a year were built.
• The middle classes complained that there was not
  enough private housing being built, as priority
  was given to council houses. They believed that
  the Government was restricting private
  house-building for idealistic rather than
  economic reasons.
• Private property owners resented the restrictions
  on the rents they could charge.
• It was not possible to keep up the standards
  the pre-fabs, which had been intended as
  temporary accomodation, seemed to be becoming
  permanent.

13

• Policy
• The Family Allowances Act.
• Benefits
• The problem of child poverty was tackled. Two and
  a half million families benefited.
• It gave women a modicum of independence womens
  groups had been campaigning for this between the
  wars.
• Criticism
• Universality meant that the middle classes
  actually benefited more than the poorest. The
  amount handed out did not lift the poorest
  families out of poverty.

14

• Policy
• The National Insurance Industrial Injuries Act
  1946.
• The Trades Disputes Act of 1946
• Benefits.
• They strengthened the position of workers,
• providing a state run pension fund for injured
  workers, so that they were freed from possible
  intimidation by employers,
• and so that they could not be victimised if they
  joined a union.
• Criticism.
• It was more difficult for workers to opt out of
  the Labour Party.