Corbyn sceptics, what do you think of him now (part II)?

[ks.234]

TBH I don't personally care very much whose 'idea' Council housing was. I suspect a few *Councils* came up with it as an idea that spread, initially. And then national politicians may have caught on later.

It seems more relevant to me that the idea grew out of experience of an era. In particular the sequence of events:

1) WW1 and troops being promised 'homes fit for heros' when they came home having won the war.

2) Said troops who survived coming home and found that they were dumped. Promise broken, and given a depression instead to cope with.

3) WW2 troops again and a country where the wealthy needed the poor to fight for them again. Same promises made. But this time the poor were fly to being kidded. And some of the weathly had their eyes opened by having to fight alongside the poor.

4) Bombing of UK towns and cities, making many homeless, etc. Leaving areas where new housing was required.

This led to a state of mind that reached Liberals, Tories, and Labour to form a consensus that things had to change for the better. Hence the NHS, 1944 Education Act, and housing policies. IIUC the forces also held meetings where the people discussed what the 'war aims' would be *after* the war. It also led to a civil service that had the mindset that things *would* be done, rather than arse-covering delays and obfuscations were the rule.

IIUC the rate of housbuilding peaked under Macmillan, and the Tories made housebuilding their top priority in their manifesto. But Labour and Liberals also had similar policies. Largely a consensus except for details.

Sadly, not to last beyond a few decades...

In the narrow terms of achieving targets for house building in the 1950's, it has to be said that the Tories were successful. However, social housing, or anything else social, was not a Tory idea, neither is any idea about any sort of social provision any part of any Tory DNA.

Churchill and Macmillian in the 1950's were only reacting to the Labour landslide after the war, an election won, in part at least, on the broken promises of a 'Land fit for Heroes' after the First World War and the idea that all those people who had fought and died overseas really did now, at last, deserve better living conditions here at home. A vote for social provision in 1945 was a vote for 'them' that fought and died in the Second World War (summed up nicely in the cartoon by the brilliant Philip Zec)

A little more than two decades after Macmillian the idea of a Land fit for Heroes was cast aside yet again and replaced with a Land fit for Privatisation.

Another 40 years on and it really is time that we voted to get our country back, to get back a country that cares more about looking after the many least advantaged than the vested interest of a privileged few, a country that cares more about social provision for a majority than increasing the financial interests of an already fabulously rich minority, that cares more about the needy than the greedy, and cares about these things not for political expediency, but because it's the right thing to do.

 

[Dave H.]

A little more than two decades after Macmillian the idea of a Land for for Heroes was cast aside yet again and replaced with a Land fit for Privatisation.

Another 40 years on and it really is time that we voted to get our country back, to get back a country that cares more about looking after the many least advantaged than the vested interest of a privileged few, a country that cares more about social provision for a majority than increasing the financial interests of an already fabulously rich minority, that cares more about the needy than the greedy, and cares about these things not for political expediency, but because it's the right thing to do.

I feel like I should be standing on a desk. Or perhaps watching the video of Michael Sheen giving that old Bevan speech. Excellent bit of writing.

 

[ks.234]

I feel like I should be standing on a desk. Or perhaps watching the video of Michael Sheen giving that old Bevan speech. Excellent bit of writing.

many thanks, not come across the Martin Sheen speech before. Here it is for anyone else who's not heard it....

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

That's Michael, not Martin, btw.

 

[vuk]

many thanks, not come across the [Michael] Sheen speech before. Here it is for anyone else who's not heard it....

that's quite powerful and i can now forgive him for "masters of sex". is he running for any political position?

 

[ks.234]

That's Michael, not Martin, btw.

I knew that!!