Labour in power

Labour in power

1. 1945 general election

   • Unpopularity of Conservatives
     • Churchill's lack of sympathy in General Strike put people off
     • Churchill's comment that Labour would need "some sort of Gestapo"
     • Association with depression + appeasement
     • Opposition to the welfare state
     • Reliance on Churchill in campaigns + smear campaign against Labour
   • Appeal of Labour
     • People wanted reform
     • Not as tired as Conservatives
     • Attlee was calm + confident
     • Labour's important role in wartime government (Morrison, Bevin, Cripps)
     • Promised change - no mistakes

2. Beveridge Report 1942

   • Want - lack of basic needs
   • Squalor - poor living conditions (introduction of new houses)
   • Ignorance - lack of education (education reform 1944, introduction of tripartite system)
   • Disease - poor healthcare
   • Idleness - unemployment (large job schemes)
   • Five giant problems

3. Attack on want

   • Family allowance: 1945 - 5 shillings/week for additional children to 16 or in work (no means test)
   • National insurance: 1946 - taxpayers paid, sickness benefit indefinitely, unemployment benefit for 6 months
   • Industrial Injuries Act, 1946: tribunals to determine compensation for injuries at work
   • National Assistance Act 1948: prevented extreme poverty, minimum income for all

4. Origins of the NHS

   • National Health Service Act 1946
   • Aneurin Bevan Minister of Health
   • Free medical, dental, hospital, ophthalmological treatment
   • Free medicine, spectacles, false teeth
   • Hospitals in government control
   • Councils provided midwives, home nurses + ambulances
   • Paid for by tax
   • Doctors paid by NHS
   • BMA opposition of losing independence, so allowed to treat private patients
   • Began 5 Jul 1948

5. Consequences of the NHS

   • Successes
     • Improvements in medicine (fall in infant mortality)
     • Better provision for elderly
     • Ante-natal clinics + maternity benefit
     • Reduction of disease
     • Massive use of dental treatment
   • Failures
     • Expensive (£400mn in first year)
     • Taxpayers thought money squandered
     • System abused
     • Double standards of private practice
     • Charges introduced - Bevan resigned