sir william beveridge, churchill, chamberlain

7/29/2019 Sir William Beveridge, Churchill, Chamberlain

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Sir William Beveridge

was a British economist and social reformer. He is perhaps best known for his 1942 report Social

Insurance and Allied Services (known as the Beveridge Report) which served as the basis for the

post-World War IIWelfare State put in place by the Labour government.

Beveridge became interested in the social services and wrote about the subject for the MorningPost newspaper. In 1908, now considered to be the United Kingdom's leading authority on

unemployment insurance, he joined the Board of Trade, and helped organise the implementation of

the national system of labour exchanges and National Insurance, with the goal of combating

poverty.

In 1919 he left the civil service to become director of the London School of Economics and

Political Science. Over the next few years he served on several commissions and committees on

social policy. He was so highly influenced by the Fabian Society socialists in particular by

Beatrice Webb, with whom he worked on the 1909 Poor Laws report. He published academic

economic works including his early work on unemployment (1909) and a large historical study of

prices and wages (1939).

Three years later, Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour in the wartime National government, invited

Beveridge to take charge of the Welfare department of his Ministry. Beveridge refused, but

declared an interest in organising British manpower in wartime (Beveridge had come to favour a

strong system of centralised planning).

Bevin commissioned Beveridge to work on a relatively unimportant manpower survey from June

1940 and so Beveridge became a temporary civil servant. He was said to be pretentious and

conceited.

In May 1941 when Minister of Health Ernest Brown announced the formation of a committee of

officials to survey existing social insurance and suggested that Beveridge as chairman, a job that he

accepted reluctantly.

The Report to the Parliament on Social Insurance and Allied Services:

- all people of working age should pay a weekly national insurance contribution.

- In return, benefits would be paid to people who were sick, unemployed, retired or widowed.Beveridge argued that this system would provide a minimum standard of living "below

which no one should be allowed to fall".

- fighting the five 'Giant Evils' of Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness (inactivit).

- National Health Service of some sort, a policy already being worked on in the Ministry of

Health.

Scepticism and doubts

- Beveridge appealed to conservatives and other doubters by arguing that the welfareinstitutions he proposed would increase the competitiveness of British industry in the post-

war period.

- healthier, wealthier and thus more motivated and productive workers who would also serve

as a great source of demand for British goods.
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- Beveridge saw full employment (which he defined as unemployment of no more than 3%) as

the pivot of the social welfare programme he expressed in the 1942 Beveridge Report

Full Employment in a Free Society (1944) expressed how this goal might be gained.[4]

- Alternative measures for achieving it included Keynesian-style fiscal regulation,

- Direct control of manpower, and state control of the means of production.

The impetus behind Beveridge's thinking was social justice, and the creation of an ideal new society

after the war. He believed that the discovery of objective socio-economic laws could solve the

problems of society.

Beveridge briefly served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Berwick-upon-

Tweed until the 1945 general election.

The following year the new Labour Government began the process of implementing Beveridge'sproposals that provided the basis of the modern Welfare State.

This included the establishment of aNational Health Service in 1948 with taxpayer funded medical

treatment for all. A national system of benefits was also introduced to provide 'social security' so

that the population would be protected from the 'cradle to the grave'. The new system was partly

built on theNational Insurance scheme set up by Lloyd George in 1911.

In 1946 Beveridge was raised to the peerage as Baron Beveridge, of Tuggal in the County of

Northumberland,[5] and eventually became leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords.

Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 9 November 1940) was a British Conservative

politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940.

Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of

the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Nazi

Germany. When Adolf Hitlercontinued his aggression by invading Poland, Britain declared war on

Germany on 3 September 1939, and Chamberlain led Britain through the first eight months of the

Second World War. Chamberlain sought to conciliate Germany, and make it a partner in a stableEurope.

Chamberlain followed his fatherand older half-brotherin becoming a Member of Parliament in the

1918 general election at age 49

He declined a junior ministerial position, remaining a backbencher until 1922. He was rapidly

promoted in 1923 to Minister of Health and then Chancellor of the Exchequer

When Stanley Baldwin retired in May 1937, Chamberlain took his place as Prime Minister. His

premiership was dominated by the question of policy towards the increasingly aggressive Germany

When Hitler continued his aggression, Chamberlain pledged Britain to defend Poland's

independence if the latter were attacked, an alliance that brought Britain into war when Germany

attacked Poland in 1939.
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Chamberlain's reputation remains controversial among historians - Chamberlain and his associates

for the Munich accord and for allegedly failing to prepare the country for war.

He was the only son of the second marriage ofJoseph Chamberlain,

He was a businessman and he was also involved in civic activities in Birmingham

Chamberlain initially showed little interest in politics

In 1911, Neville Chamberlain successfully stood as a Liberal Unionist

David Lloyd George, offered Chamberlain the new position ofDirector of National Service, with

responsibility for coordinating conscription. But, his tenure was marked by conflict with Lloyd

George, and in August 1917, having received little support from the Prime Minister, Chamberlain

resigned.

In August 1923, Baldwin promoted Chamberlain to the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer.[34]

Chamberlain served only five months in the office before the Conservatives were defeated in the1923 general election. Ramsey MacDonald became the first Labour Prime Minister but the Labour

government fell within months, necessitating another general election. Chamberlain narrowly

defeated Labour candidate Oswald Mosley.

he had poor relations with the Labour opposition. Future Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee

complained that Chamberlain "always treated us like dirt", and Chamberlain wrote in April 1927,

"More and more do I feel an utter contempt for their lamentable stupidity."[41] His poor relations

with the Labour Party later played a major part in his downfall as Prime Minister.[

He maintained the severe budget cuts

Chamberlain obtained passage of the Factories Act 1937. This act was aimed at bettering working

conditions in factories, and placed limits on the working hours of women and children.

In 1938, Parliament enacted the Coal Act 1938, which allowed for nationalisation of coal deposits.

Another major piece of legislation passed that year was the Holidays with Pay Act. [68] Though the

act only recommended that employers give workers a week off with pay, the Act caused the great

expansion of holiday camps and other leisure accommodation for the working classes.[69] The

Housing Act 1938 provided subsidies aimed at encouraging slum clearance, and maintained rent

control.

Munich Conference Hitler's proposals met with resistance, not only from the French and Czechs,

but also from some members of Chamberlain's cabinet. With no agreement in sight, war seemed

inevitable.

Path to war (October 1938 August 1939)

In the aftermath of Munich, Chamberlain pursued a course of cautious rearmament.

Still hoping for reconciliation with Germany, Chamberlain made a major speech at Birmingham on28 January in which he expressed his desire for international peace.

Germany invaded Poland in the early morning hours of 1 September 1939. The British Cabinet met

late that morning and issued a warning to Germany that unless it withdrew from Polish territory.
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No formal declaration of war was immediately made.

He had to step down, as the division took place and the war situation required national unity.

Chamberlain went to Buckingham Palace to resign and advise the King to send for Churchill.

Winston Churchill

Churchill was also an officerin the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. received the

Nobel Prize in Literature. , Lord Randolph Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as

Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Churchill took the lead in warning about the danger from Hitler and in campaigning for

rearmament. On the outbreak of WWII, he was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty.

Following the resignation ofNeville Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, Churchill became Prime

Minister. He helped inspire British resistance, as he refused to consider defeat (speeches in theradio).

Churchill stood again for the seat of Oldham at the 1900 general election. During his first

parliamentary session, he opposed the government's military expenditure[52] and Joseph

Chamberlain's proposal of extensive tariffs.

in 1904 he crossed the floorto sit as a member of the Liberal Party. As a Liberal, he continued to

campaign forfree trade.

When the Liberals took office with Henry Campbell-Bannerman as prime minister, in December

1905, Churchill became Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies dealing mainly with South

Africa after the Boer War.

When Ramsay MacDonald formed theNational Government in 1931, Churchill was not invited to

oin the Cabinet. He was at the low point in his career, in a period known as "the wilderness years.

Chamberlain wanted someone who would command the support of all three major parties in the

House of Commons.

George VI asked Churchill to be prime minister and to form an all-party government. Churchill's

first act was to write to Chamberlain to thank him for his support.[

Churchill had been among the first to recognise the growing threat of Hitler long before the outset

of the Second World War.

Churchill's good relationship with Franklin D. Roosevelt secured vital food, oil and munitions via

the North Atlantic shipping routes.

In June 1944, the Allied Forces invaded Normandy and pushed the Nazi forces back into Germany.

Many reasons for this have been given, key among them being that a desire for post-war reform

was widespread amongst the population and that the man who had led Britain in war was not seen

as the man to lead the nation in peace.

During this trip he gave his Iron Curtain speech about the USSR and the creation of the Eastern

Bloc. Speaking on 5 March 1946 at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.
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