In August 2016, as part of the second Jeremy Corbyn Labour leadership campaign, we screened the Ken Loach documentary The Spirit of ‘45 at Newcastle’s Gosforth Civic Theatre. I hosted the post-screening Q&A with Ken. This week, nine years on, we showed it again at the same venue, at the Majority film club.
The Spirit of 45: Ken Loach’s powerful documentary on the creation of Labour’s welfare state
It’s a powerful documentary. There’s no narration. It’s just archive footage and interviews with GPs and nurses, railway workers, and miners. Britain was bombed-out. The national debt-to-GDP ratio was 230%. It’s 96% today. Three-quarters of industry was producing munitions that were no longer needed.
The British people had experienced war mobilisation. 1.4 million allotments were created and domestic food production doubled. They remembered the destitution of the 1930s, where parents had to choose which child got medicine and which didn’t.
One interviewee remembered a conversation on a troop ship on the way home:
In the 30’s we had mass unemployment. If you can have full employment killing Germans, why can’t you have full employment building homes and hospitals and recruiting teachers and doctors?
The Atlee government came to power on the 5 July 1945. By 1 March 1946 it nationalised the Bank of England – yes, it was a private bank before that.
The welfare state took shape, with family allowance starting on 6 August 1946. The mines were nationalised on 1 January 1947. Electricity on 15 August 1947. The chaotic competing railways were unified and nationalised on 1 January 1948, along with canals and road haulage.
By the 5 July 1948 the NHS was created, the same day as National Assistance began – a safety net for everyone, including disabled people, homeless people, and unmarried mothers, from cradle to grave. Over one million high-quality homes were built in five years. Working class people got gardens and indoor toilets.
Nationalisation and welfare ‘done from common sense’
I recall Ken saying:
This wasn’t done from some kind of ideological conviction. The war had taught people that you can just get on and do things. This was done from common sense.
The revitalisation of Britain was so dramatic that debt-to-GDP fell from 230% to 175% in five years.
What do we get today? Cuts in the Winter Fuel Allowance. Removal of disabled people’s dignity by withdrawal of Personal Independence Payments. A rise in child poverty. And no effective action against failing water companies adding millions in dividends and bonuses to our bills.
Labour seem to have talked themselves into believing that mediocrity is inevitable. I can imagine Keir Starmer sporting a T-shirt saying, “No we can’t!”
Worse, he’s capitulating to the very ideology that caused the Second World War, blaming the country’s woes on marginalised communities and immigrants.
The ‘Labour Party’ no more: unrecognisable
Clement Atlee and Nye Bevan would disown today’s Labour Party. From 550,000 members when Starmer was elected, membership fell to 348,500 at the general election, to 309,000 this February. On that trajectory, it’s now 269,000. The new Your Party, fronted by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, has twice that many sign ups. Once operational, we’ll see Labour members flying across to join.
The spirit of the ’45 government started before the election. The 1942 Beveridge report tilled the ground. It spoke of the five giant evils – want, squalor, ignorance, disease and idleness. It spoke in poetry – from the cradle to the grave. Over 600,000 copies were sold.
The new Your Party, whatever name it settles on, would do well to learn from the Atlee government. Shouting at opponents will only get you so far. People are more interested in fixing things. They want common sense solutions. Transport that works. Enough money to pay bills and enjoy a few luxuries. Free education. Secure work. A secure home. A sustainable future. These aspirations are all so very reasonable.
When the financial crash came, we nationalised the banks overnight. When Covid hit we ended homelessness within a week. Let’s stop paying £25bn a year to banks just for holding reserves. Let’s have a wealth tax that raises £20bn a year. Let’s stop telling councils to sell off allotments that belong to us.
It’s about spirit: history proves what’s possible
In the end, it’s about spirit. There is no practical reason why we can’t build a Britain we’re proud to leave to our children and grandchildren.
There’s a democratic process yet to take place. But every conversation I’ve had convinces me the new party will be decentralised, and work hand in glove with established community independents and groups like Majority.
In 2016, when we first showed The Spirit of ‘45, I wasn’t even a politician. Just three years later I was regional Mayor. Labour insiders tell me they expect to lose four of the five North East councils in next May’s local elections. Majority will be running to replace them.
If you have the ‘Spirit of ‘45’ in you, get in touch. History proves it’s possible.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.