Source ISBN: 978-0-00-733513-8
Ebook Edition © November 2017 ISBN: 9780008236168
Version: 2018-06-27
For Arthur, Violet and Effra
Plus any future siblings or cousins, in the hope
that as and when they need it, it will still be there.
And to all those people, users and providers,
politicians, civil servants, academics, clinicians,
managers, teachers and others who attempt to explain
the workings of the welfare state to ignorant hacks.
Without them the reporting of the subject would be
even worse than it is.
Social reform is a process, not an event: a kind of drama.
David Donnison, The Politics of Poverty (1981), p.viii
I do not agree with those who say that every man must look after himself, and that intervention by the state … will be fatal to his self-reliance, his foresight and his thrift … It is a mistake to suppose that thrift is caused only by fear; it springs from hope as well as fear. Where there is no hope, be sure there will be no thrift.
Winston Churchill, Liberalism and the Social Problems (1909), p. 209
‘Two nations: between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws.’
‘You speak of –’ said Egremont hesitatingly, ‘the rich and the poor?’
Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil (1845), Book II, chapter 5.
When the evidence changes, I change my mind. What do you do?
Cod quote attributed to John Maynard Keynes
Contents
PART I THE PIPERS AT THE GATE OF DAWN
PART II THE AGE Of OPTIMISM: 1942–51
7‘With a song in my heart’ – Health and Social Security
8‘The Tremendous Tory’ – Housing
10Conservatives, Consensus and the New Jerusalem
PART III CONSOLIDATION: 1951–74
11‘You’ve never had it so good’: Conservatives 1951–64
12Hope springs eternal: Labour 1964–70
13The Dawn of Doubt: Labour and Conservatives 1949–70
14The Tories’ last hurrah: Conservatives 1970–74
PART IV THE TIME OF DISILLUSION: 1974–79
15It was getting colder by the hour: Labour 1974–79
16‘We were wrong all along’: Conservatives 1974–79
PART V THE WELFARE STATE UNDER FIRE: 1979–92
17Cuts and catastrophes: Conservatives 1979–83
18Fighting Leviathans: Conservatives 1983–87
19Forming the future: Conservatives 1987–92
PART VI RETREAT OR RENEWAL? 1992–2010
20Thinking the unthinkable: Conservatives and Labour 1992–97
21Social security and social exclusion: Labour 1997–2007
22Public services – health, education and housing: Labour 1997–2007