Historical background to NHS

[robbo203]

Quite a useful article here on the subject

 

http://www.libdemvoice.org/setting-the-record-straight-labour-and-the-nhs-15930.html

 

Who was the Tory industralist who backed the NHS – Samuel somebody or other? 

[ALB]

Samuel Courtauld, I think:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Courtauld_%28art_collector%29Seems to have been a bit of a philanthropist. He's mentioned in our 1943 pamphlet Beveridge Re-Organises Poverty:

Quote:

And Mr. Samuel Courtauld, millionaire chairman of the great rayon firm, speaking at the Manchester Rotary Club on February 18th declared himself:“strongly in favour of the principles and almost all the proposals of the Beveridge Report…. I have not the faintest doubt that if we can survive the first severe business contraction which arises after the war, social security of this nature will be about the most profitable long-term investment the country could make. It will not undermine the moral of the nation’s workers: it will ultimately lead to a higher efficiency among them and a lowering of production costs.” (Manchester Guardian, February 19th, 1943) (Italics ours.)

This is the pamphlet which quotes Tory MP Douglas Hogg (later Lord Hailsham, whose son of the same name is famous for his duck island) as saying:

Quote:

if you don not give the people social reform, they are going to give you social revolution.

[ALB]

Just realised that this passage in the LibDem's blog where he describes the attitude of the Labour Party towards State payments to wage workers:

Quote:

Many Labour MPs actually opposed the first state pensions in the 1909 Peoples’ Budget because they thought they would get in the way of demands for wage increases. The Labour governments of 1924 and 1929-31 dismissed talk of such comprehensive extensions of the state as unaffordable, focussing instead on appeasing further trade union claims for wage rises until the Great Depression made that impossible.

is more or less the same as that we put forward in our other 1943 pamphlet Family Allowances:A Socialist Analysis:

Quote:

We would therefore ask the workers to examine the proposal for Family Allowances in the light of the foregoing remarks, bearing in mind that at best such a scheme can provide a slight and probably small improvement for a small section. Our advice to the workers is that they should not be fobbed off on the industrial field with small and doubtful gains for a comparatively small number, but that they should seize whatever opportunities may present themselves for winning improved conditions for all.

I suppose we could say something similar about Tax Credits. Better than relying on members of the House of Frauds.

[Dave B]

CONSERVATIVE PARTY: 1945Mr. Churchill's Declaration of Policy to the ElectorsHEALTHThe health services of the country will be made available to all citizens. Everyone will contribute to the cost, and no one will be denied the attention, the treatment or the appliances he requires because he cannot afford them.We propose to create a comprehensive health service covering the whole range of medical treatment from the general practitioner to the specialist, and from the hospital to convalescence and rehabilitation; and to introduce legislation for this purpose in the new Parliament.The success of the service will depend on the skill and initiative of doctors, dentists, nurses and other professional people, and in its designing and operation there will be full scope for all the guidance they can give. Wide play must be given to the preferences and enterprise of individuals. Nothing will be done to destroy the close personal relationship between doctor and patient, nor to restrict the patient's free choice of doctor.The whole service must be so designed that in each area its growth is helped and guided by the influence of a university. Through such a service the medical and allied professions will be enabled to serve the whole nation more effectively than they have yet been able to do. At the same time Medicine will be left free to develop along its own lines, and to achieve preventive as well as curative triumphs. Libertyis an essential condition of scientific progress.The voluntary hospitals which have led the way in the development of hospital technique will remain free. They will play their part in the new service in friendly partnership with local authority hospitals.Motherhood must be our special care. There must be a large increase of maternity beds and convalescent homes, and they must be provided in the right places. Mothers must be relieved of onerous duties which at such times so easily cause lasting injury to their health. The National Insurance Scheme will make financial provision for these needs. All proper arrangements, both voluntary and State-aided, must be made for the care of other young children in the family, in order that the energies of the male breadwinner or the kindness of neighbours and relations, which nevertheless must be the mainspring, should not be unduly burdened. Nursery schools and nurseries such as have grown up during the war should be encouraged. On the birth, the proper feeding and the healthy upbringing of a substantially increased number of children, depends the life of Britainand her enduring gloryhttp://politicsresources.net/area/uk/man/con45.htm  Henry Willink Pathe youtube clip (Tory as if you couldn’t guess) http://www.britishpathe.com/video/a-healthier-britain/query/Henry

[Dave B]

For interest of the historical political development; this section maybe the most relevant APPENDIX B.EARLIER DISCUSSIONS OF IMPROVED HEALTH SERVICES AND AN OUTLINE OF EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE PREPARATION OF THIS PAPER http://www.sochealth.co.uk/national-health-service/the-sma-and-the-foundation-of-the-national-health-service-dr-leslie-hilliard-1980/a-national-health-service/

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