Left. No. 76, What they say about the Beveridge Report
1943-01 1943 1940s 8 pages all his recommendations. Some of them we may have to criticise when we have studied and discussed them. But we can immediately express our approval of the broad principles upon which the scheme is based. Sections of the community — and of our own Movement &md...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
[London : Controversy Pub. Co.]
January 1943
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/0F986AF9-C769-49D6-B5FB-B580B5007323 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/302A4BCC-9EC5-486E-A0BD-E670967426E3 |
| Summary: | 1943-01
1943
1940s
8 pages
all his recommendations. Some of them we may have to criticise when we have studied and discussed them. But we can immediately express our approval of the broad principles upon which the scheme is based. Sections of the community — and of our own Movement — may have objections to this or that proposal. But it is most important that their objections should not blind them to the virtues of the plan as a whole. Alfred Barnes, M.P., Chairman of the Co-operative Party, in Reynolds News (13.12.42). — Co-operators should have no difficulty in supporting, for comparing the Beveridge Report with the evidence submitted to him by the Co-operative Union and the T.U.C. I am impressed with the fact that Sir William, in his scheme, with the exception of Workmen's Compensation, has very substantially met the views of these two great Movements, one speaking for the consumer, the other for the producer . . . The Beveridge Report is not a party document. Let this Coalition Government, backed by an all-party House of Commons, put it on the Statute Book so that it can begin to operate in 1945. If Parliament does so, it will demonstrate to the whole world that our talk of Reconstruction programmes is not just a smoke screen to be blown away by the winds of disillusionment when the war has been won. If the Beveridge Report is not implemented quickly, cynicism will dull the hopes of the masses everywhere, who yearn for the victory of the United Nations. In saying this I do not exaggerate the beneficial results which will flow from the adoption of the Beveridge scheme of All-in Insurance. I am fully aware that it will not fundamentally affect the cause from which poverty springs, but the inquiry which Sir William was charged to undertake did not have that purpose as its objective. The responsibility of public opinion is to grasp the main principles of the report, and refuse to be bogged down into inaction by vested interests or by differences over detail. SOCIALIST WARNINGS The Labour Left, Common Wealth, the I.L.P. and the Communist Party stress, in varying degree, the improbability, if not impossibility, that Capitalism could ever carry through the Beveridge proposals. Beatrice Webb in Reynolds (6.12.42). — I welcome the Beveridge Report, because it will compel us to face real issues. But this plan is founded on the wrong principle. It is an attempt to make the worker more secure under Capitalism; and that can only result in an even worse catastrophe. In any case, I do not think the Government will accept it. I do not think Capitalism could stand it. It is an advance from which Capitalism will run away. It is something which Capitalism cannot offer the worker. It is an attempt to cure the evils of Capitalism without getting rid of the causes 10
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |