A nation of consumers

In such a country as England, instant large-scale social change is rare. Not suddenly in a rush, but quite stealthily, and by the 1920s quite definitely, the English people had become consumers. The political party which best understood this process was the Conservative Party, which with its protectionist and tariff reform views had won the support of much of industry and business. In the new democracy, it also needed wide popular support, and this came from the section of the community best able to exercise its consuming choice, and keen to extend the range of its possessions, from radios to motor cars, the professional middle class. Its policies made it the natural ally of the farmers, and many farm and rural workers voted with their employers in the interest of their industry, rather than taking the same political side as urban workers. Despite the writings of political philosophers on both sides, the Labour-Tory divide which would typify twentieth-century politics arose from these two concepts: choice plus the ability to choose; and central management by the state. Both could bring social and economic progress and many people saw the way forward as a combination of the two.

The failure of appeasement

Winston Churchill in the 1930s was a supporter of forlorn causes. His reading of the threat to Europe from Nazi Germany was correct, but British politicians, temperamentally opposed to war, were prepared to go to great lengths to avoid it. In the course of 1938 events began to shake both the government itself and the popular approval in which it had basked. A practical politician, of a far from Gladstonian outlook, Chamberlain described the German invasion of Czechoslovakia as 'a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing’. Public opinion pushed the government into a corner; when Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, delaying tactics were no longer possible. After two days of hesitation, war was declared on 3 September.

World war II

On 17 September Hitler suspended invasion plans. But though the island was not invaded, it was not inviolate. From August 1940 both Britain and Germany began the night-time bombing of cities and towns. The 'Blitz' on London and other large industrial cities and seaports went on intensively until May 1941. Coventry, Birmingham, Plymouth and Southampton were among those which suffered most. It resulted in the deaths of around 30,000 people and damage or destruction of more than three and a half million houses. The House of Commons was destroyed. Buck­ingham Palace was hit. Throughout the war the king and his family set a sterling and greatly admired example – they did not leave their home, were reputed to 'eat spam off a gold plate', and a line was painted on the baths to limit the use of hot water.

The German hope that bombing of civilian targets would reduce morale was not borne out. Half-wrecked shops took pride in putting up a 'Business as Usual' notice, and the inconveniences, the 'blackout', shortages, cancelled trains, power cuts, queues, sleeping in underground stations and in damp, chilly air raid shelters, were borne with a grumbling stoicism. 'England can take it' was the consistent message.

State interference in most aspects of life was even more extensive than it had been in 1914-18. Regional government, of a type very different to that late r proposed in 2002, operated efficiently, with regional controllers who had authority to co-ordinate the work of regional offices of the various ministries.

One by-product of the war effort was an improvement in the health and nourishment of the nation's children. School meals were provided, as were cheap milk, vitamin supplements and cod liver oil. Urban slum diseases like rickets were virtually eliminated. Most government thinking about post-war reconstruction was vague, but an exception was the report on the Future of Social Insurance and Allied Services, produced by Sir William Beveridge. This was the most important document on civilian life to be produced in the twentieth century. With wide experience of social administration, economics and politics, Beveridge stretched his brief to the utmost to provide what was in effect the blueprint of the post-war 'welfare state'. His report, published in 1942, envisaged the slaying of the five giants of 'want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness' through a cradle-to-grave social system encompassing free health care, family allowances, unemployment benefit at a decent subsistence level, universal secondary education, and the whole thing to be paid for by a combination of state funding and individual payments generated by full employment.

As the war, now truly a world war, expanded, another truth became ever more evident, so deeply unpalatable that many politicians could not accept it or closed their eyes to it. Great Britain was no longer capable of sustaining an imperial role.

1 the latter half of the 5th century – вторая половина V века

2 years to come – грядущие годы

3 The Venerable Bede ['venərəbl 'bi:d] – Достопочтенный Беда;

4 Alcuin [æl'kwn]

5 Egbert ['egbət]

6 from that time on – с того времени