Did the wars create a more equal society?

‘How can Rationing and Evacuation help to create a more equal society ?’

In pairs consider the following question;

Source A; A cartoon from a British newspaper, 1942, showingBeveridge setting out to defeat the Five Giants.

What is the message of source A? How does the cartoonist put across the message?

What do you

remember?

YouTube - Post-WW2 Development of British Welfare State

Sir William Beveridge - In his report of 1942 he recommendedThat the people of Britain should be protected from the Five Giant Evils.

The setting up of the Welfare State

• The Labour Government of 1945-1951 brought in a series of reforms designed to remove the Five Giants identified by Beveridge. These reforms finally established a welfare state – whereby the government took on the responsibility for helping those who could not help themselves.

How would you remove the Five Giants ?

• The attack on want • The attack on disease • The attack on ignorance • The attack on squalor • The attack on idleness

Want

• Family allowances began in 1945 with a payment for each child after the first. National insurance against illness and unemployment was made compulsory and extended to the whole workforce.

Disease

• In 1946 Aneurin Bevan, the Minister of Health, introduced the National Health Act. Under this act everyone received free medical, dental, hospital and eye treatment. The scheme was launched in 1948.

Ignorance

• The 1944 Education Act, brought in by Churchill’s wartime government introduced ‘secondary education for all’. Children had to be taught in separate primary schools and secondary schools to replace the previous all-age ‘elementary’ schools, no-one could leave school until the age of 15.

Squalor

• There were serious housing shortages due to the effects of bombing and the lack of building during the Second World War. The Labour Government built a series of estates of council houses. In addition, the New Towns Act of 1946 provided government money for a series of new towns close to London and other cities. These reduced overcrowding in older urban centres.

Idleness

• By 1950 the Labour Government had managed to achieve virtually full employment. This was helped by assistance from the USA, known as Marshall Aid, which provided much needed finance and resources for new buildings.