The Five Giants [New Edition]: A Biography of the Welfare State

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This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2017

Copyright © Nicholas Timmins 2017

Cover photograph © Getty Images General Photographic Agency / Stringer

Nicholas Timmins asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 978-0-00-733513-8

Ebook Edition © November 2017 ISBN: 9780008236168

Version: 2018-06-27

For Arthur, Violet and Effra

Plus any future siblings or cousins, in the hope

that as and when they need it, it will still be there.

And to all those people, users and providers,

politicians, civil servants, academics, clinicians,

managers, teachers and others who attempt to explain

the workings of the welfare state to ignorant hacks.

Without them the reporting of the subject would be

even worse than it is.

Social reform is a process, not an event: a kind of drama.

David Donnison, The Politics of Poverty (1981), p.viii

I do not agree with those who say that every man must look after himself, and that intervention by the state … will be fatal to his self-reliance, his foresight and his thrift … It is a mistake to suppose that thrift is caused only by fear; it springs from hope as well as fear. Where there is no hope, be sure there will be no thrift.

Winston Churchill, Liberalism and the Social Problems (1909), p. 209

‘Two nations: between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws.’

‘You speak of –’ said Egremont hesitatingly, ‘the rich and the poor?’

Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil (1845), Book II, chapter 5.

When the evidence changes, I change my mind. What do you do?

Cod quote attributed to John Maynard Keynes

Contents

Title Page (#ua5ec31ed-296f-50a0-a181-f9b2e75b3784)

Copyright (#ulink_3e4c0933-148e-5e80-abd0-9c0d38a9f352)

Dedication (#u337b1496-09ba-5475-b955-99c6a404a1fd)

List of Illustrations (#ulink_0cfbda98-8d07-5eee-a5c3-228742b9fb67)

Preface (#ulink_e6040a5c-4497-5d6d-a8d5-65502c327aeb)

Preface to the Third Edition (#ulink_4f7920bf-314a-5a72-beb5-5bdd8c251465)

Introduction (#ulink_f841cf26-3d05-51fc-9039-80804f272937)

PART I THE PIPERS AT THE GATE OF DAWN (#ulink_c414b235-6e38-533d-998c-8e199dce2972)

1‘Thank you, Sir William’ (#ulink_700fde52-ef71-5e14-9a61-ed0def6239ed)

2‘From cradle to grave’ (#ulink_29ef6444-078b-5bd8-a3d8-40c6771d36b9)

3A very British revolution (#ulink_640c0dbd-a4a4-5352-adcd-93dde8ef5b7a)

PART II THE AGE Of OPTIMISM: 1942–51 (#ulink_04022a00-c0b1-5bd0-bb1d-0041e57572d3)

4Butler – Education (#ulink_84ddde45-365c-5c75-b35e-5817a0008983)

5Butler’s legacy (#ulink_1d353e37-931d-5508-a985-fa00202736f0)

6Bevan – Health (#ulink_36ba7376-c811-5ed3-8b32-1459f68a977e)

7‘With a song in my heart’ – Health and Social Security (#ulink_d1c3b4fd-e091-591e-8fcb-b487b6b6f135)

8‘The Tremendous Tory’ – Housing (#ulink_e6f9012d-589d-5cdb-bc33-7519e045ad6e)

9The Final Foundations (#ulink_6dba5077-491a-5525-8ab3-537b8f7814a5)

10Conservatives, Consensus and the New Jerusalem (#ulink_4d455ea4-6e7c-59af-89bd-7eff83b2456a)

PART III CONSOLIDATION: 1951–74 (#ulink_4fc4f499-02a0-5d6a-995c-a709a1c1e457)

11‘You’ve never had it so good’: Conservatives 1951–64 (#ulink_8559a7bb-e5cc-5e93-b8fc-357a30951eb4)