The Five Giants - Cradle to the grave

idleness
1. Assessment in 1951
  1. America was unhappy with the labour government as they objected to the socialists policies of nationalisation
  2. many industries needed huge investments which the government could not afford to invest
    1. railway networks and stock
  3. many argued that it created "jobs for life" and removed motivation and incentives to work thus affecting production
  4. unemployment never went above 2.5% in their 5 year
2. Problems pre 1945
  1. mass unemployment through great depression in 1930s
  2. old industries were hit badly
    1. shipping, mining and steel
  3. whole communities decimated by unemployment and unemployment
3. Problems facing Labour
  1. had to use Marshall plan - money to buy key industries
  2. many people were unhappy at nationalisation and did not believe this is how the money should have been spent
4. Solutions of Labour
  1. as close to 0% unemployment as possible
  2. large building projects
    1. towns
    2. schools
    3. infrastructure
    4. road
    5. trains
    6. airports
  3. nationalised all the major public amenities - gas, electric, rail transport and telecommunications
Disease
1. Problems pre 1945
  1. no universal health care system
  2. covered NI worker did not get hospital treatment
  3. no wide spread vaccination system
  4. large portion of society could not afford to see a doctor let alone pay for medicine if they could pay for one
  5. large problems with TB, measles, mumps etc
2. Solutions of Labour
  1. National Health Servise
3. Assessment in 1951
  1. the NHS was a great success the crowning glory and lasting legacy of the post war Labour government
  2. great deal more expensive than first believed
    1. had to introduce charges for dental and optical care
4. Problems facing Labour
  1. had to convince doctors and BMA as they did not support the idea
    1. until they were promised they could still keep private patients and were given a set amount per NHS patient
Squalor
1. Assessments in 1951
  1. aim of building 4-5 million not realised in fact only 1/5 was built
  2. prefabs became permanent abodes
  3. initial high quality housing was ditched when they ran out of money
2. Problems facing Labour
  1. lack of building materials
  2. ran out of money
  3. lack of skilled workers (lack of education)
3. Solutions of Labour
  1. short term - "prefabs" 156000
  2. town and country act creating new towns
  3. 200000 houses built p.a. so 1 million overall
4. Problems pre 1945
  1. bombing
    1. 750000 houses destroyed
  2. slums
    1. appalling conditions and overcrowding
  3. 2 million houses needed before WW1 now worse
Want
1. Assessment in 1951
  1. hugely beneficial and successful changes many of which are still in use today
    1. in the long term it created what became known as "a nanny state"
2. Problems pre 1945
  1. pensions were not enough to keep people out of poverty
  2. National insurance system could not cope with the mass unemployment caused by the great depression in its different state
    1. to few paying in and too many in need
  3. means testing was degrading and humiliating
  4. due to living conditions many did not reach pension age
3. Problems facing Labour
  1. system was heavily reliant on near full employment
  2. system required a large budget and effective collection scheme
4. Solutions of Labour
  1. scrapped means testing being intrusive
  2. lower pension age to 65 for men and 60 for women
  3. introduced child benefits
  4. unemployment system universal
    1. two tier programme
      1. one for those who paid stamps to get a higher grade
      2. those who had not paid enough stamps on their stamp payment ran out
  5. created cradle to the grave support
  6. introduced maternity benefit and improved the grant
Ignorance
1. Assessments in 1951
  1. kids "discarded" if they failed 11+ exam and failed to gain large numbers from working classes going to higher education as hoped
  2. three tier secondary system accused of being too elitist and favoured middle class children and made it more difficult for working class to progress
  3. built enough primary schools
  4. failed to build enough secondary schools and this prevented them from raising the school leaving age to 16
2. Problems pre 1945
  1. there was no secondary education
    1. no secondary schools
  2. many existing schools bombed in the war
  3. not enough primary schools (baby boom)
3. Solutions of Labour
  1. build more schools
  2. free universal secondary three tier system
  3. 1 year teacher training courses
  4. build more colleges but also polytechnics
  5. grants for poorer children for further and higher education
4. Problems facing Labour
  1. ran out of building materials and money
  2. not enough skilled workers to build schools

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The Five Giants - Cradle to the grave

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	Created by Katie Bryden about 11 years ago