“The nation wants food, work and homes. It wants more than that – it wants good food in plenty, useful work for all, and comfortable, labour-saving homes that take full advantage of the resources of modern science and productive industry. It wants a high and rising standard of living, security for all against a rainy day, an educational system that will give every boy and girl a chance to develop the best that is in them.”
These were the aims set out in the 1945 Labour manifesto. Labour won that election with a landslide, in large part due to its strong, clear commitment to founding a welfare state after the second world war.
That government went on to implement the most comprehensive set of social security policies in UK history. Based on the recommendations made in the Beveridge report, these policies still form the basis of the welfare system in the UK today.
Those aims outlined in Labour’s 1945 manifesto would not sound out of place now. In fact they would sound just as, if not more, radical now nearly 80 years later. The present-day Labour party won control of the government in the recent election, but received only 34% of the vote – hardly a thumping electoral mandate. And their commitment to a welfare state is significantly paler than that of their predecessors.
