POLITICAL ACHIEVEMENTS FROM CLEMENT ATTLEE TO TONY BLAIR

POLITICAL ACHIEVEMENTS FROM CLEMENT
ATTLEE TO TONY BLAIR

The Social achievement

The Establishment of Welfare state The concept of welfare state had long been developed by Clement Attllee and Sir William before the post war period In fact the people in the United Kingdom; expected profound social changes from the labourers particularly the characters of Clement Atlee and Sir William; who had sustained their philosophy of voluntary action to the poorand wanted to put into practice socialist ideasin thelater years . “In this regard, Atlee attacked the idea that looking after the poorcould beleft to voluntary action. He writes Charity is a cold grey loveless thing. If a rich man wants to help the poor, he should pay taxes gladly not to dole out ;money at a whim” To be coherent he kept on writing. “ In a civilsedsociciety although it may be composed of self reliantindividuals, there will be at someperiod who will be unable at some period to look after themselves, and the question of what is happened to the; may be solved in three ways . They maybeneglected, they may be carefor by the organized community as is of right or they may .be left to the goodwill of individuals in the community .The way is intolerable , and for the third ,charity is only possible without the loss of .dignity between equqls A right s etablished by low, such as that to an oldpension, is less galling than an alllowance ;made by the rich man toapoor ,dependent on this view of recipient’schracter,and terminable at his caprice ”.(.Francis Beckett ,p 8) Even Beveridge vision of a good socialist government is very telling, The object of government in peace and war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of common . For this he means that good government must be based on the common ownership leading to the happiness of each citizen. 14 Moreover in 1942,and defining his political vision he was to realize in the view of aiding those who are in need of help or in poverty, Bevridge argued as ;much rhetorical thanhis parterner , Clement Atlee ,in his report which would provide for a basis of welfare state . He States All people of working age should pay a weekly national insurance contribution. In return benefit should be paid to people who were the National Health Service, which provided sick, unemployed, retired, or widowed In this case , Bevridgemeans that National Health Service is only effective when the working are willing to contribute insurance which is used in return as a financial ,means to help those in dire need of such as the such the unemployed, the retired or the widowed . Thus lets consider that the assumption of the report were National HealthService, which provide free healthcare to the United Kingdom. In the election of 1945, since the party had clear aims, the electors voted in mass for the laborers hoping effective social changes in the field of domesticpolicy. In the course of five years of labourgovernment, the united Kingdom experienced effective social changes which met the expectances of Britons .The implementationof the welfare state conceived by Bevridge although there was opposition of the labour including that of Ernest Bevin who flouted the report as asocial a balancescheme and went sofar tosay that social assurance was less important than bargaining about wage was aftermath of the second War. As the minister of health, AneurinBevin committed himself to the implementation of the comprehensive National Health Service in 1946 as well as tackling the continue severe post war housing shortage through the application of housing acts of 1946 and 1949 allowing not only the reconstruction of England but also a policy of housing accessible to the great majority of the people in the United Kingdom. Besides, the free health care was paid directly through public money. The government income; raise for the welfare state expenditure thanks to the raising of tax rates for the wealthy business owners .A System; of welfare policywhich the government perceived as the redistribution of wealth created by the working class fro; the owners of large scale industries to the workers .

The Economic achievement

There is no denial that the Britain relied on the Lend––lease imports to assure his food consumption and other commodities, but once ended it was a great economic catastrophe for the country. So, to react to the war effort which had cost the British nation ( one quarter of its national was damaged) and left the country in bankruptcy. In this context J. E. Spence had well reported this loss of wealth referring to Kennedy: « Consider the position in 1945: some 11 /2million tons of merchant shipping had been sunk by enemy action, the stock of housing and industrial plan had been battered by Nazi air attacks and little had been done to replace obsolete manufacturing plan. As Kennedy points out “about 10 percent of Britain prewar national wealth had been destroyed at home. Overseas debts had increased nearly fivefold, to £ 7,355 million, and capital assets worth £1,299 million liquidated … in all, British had lost about quarter (£ 3,300 million) of its pre−war wealth » (Spence J., p206) By these words J. SPENCE means that the post war period witness a great loss of wealth for the British nation since Britain suffered great damage caused by the war. Consequently the United Kingdom had to depend upon the loan from the United States of America negotiated by the economist John Maynard Keynes, an economic figure whose advocacy of economic policy was appreciated by the chief figure of the labour government who supported social liberalism. Besides let’s note that the fact that America accepted this request can be accounted for by Attlee’s establishment of pro-Americanism because at that time not only many of the legislators feared of being in the same economic crisis they had faced during the passed years due to the refusal of the European countries to pay off their debts but they also opposed to the influence of communism upon the European country by the Soviet. Even, such statement proved Attlee’s antipathy of the communism Russian communism is an illegitmate Child of Karl Marx and of Catherine the Great. 20 Talking about the Anglo –American loan, one can’t go without mentioning the condition it included the fully convertibility of the pound to the dollar which was in the interest of America. It was estimated that the loan imposed 2 percentage interest rate. Within this context, the historian Alan SKED commented the US didn’t seem to realize us that Britain was bankrupt. By this he means that Britain had to make great efforts so as to revive his economy. As the result, the convertibility of the dollar was to the detriment of the British post war economy which made Britain to suspend the convertibility later on while benefiting on the Marshall plan its ratification and took drastic measures to reduce domestic consumption and overseas debt expenditure. Besides, once enacted in July 1947 by the labour government the convertibility including the winter period of 1948-1947 which proved the weakening of the British economy with the shortage of coal hence the regular cut powers resulting in the fuel crisis, led to the fall of the sterling, the currency crisis. To this added another deficit of the balance of payment which forced the Chancellor of the Exchequer Stratford Cripps into devaluation of the pound in 1949 by over 30% giving of $ in2.80 1949. However, before revealing its effectiveness, this devaluation impacted upon prices at home hence the price of loaf from 4 dollar to 6 dollar. Fortunately, the change in value of dollar of Canada grew ambition to maintain the devaluation. Afterwards, the practice of this devaluation was not only a domestic economic success but also positioned the British country in the field of international relationship. Perceiving the British progressive economy policy, the secretary of the office treasureMr. John Snider described The British devaluation is a constructive economy step a long term result should be a healthy impetus to a world aide multilateral trade. Both them shared this same point of view for the latter on the Britain saw a riseof its economy and its attitude towards therest of the world.  

Achievement in the Field of Foreign policy

The post war government was compelled to do with the pressure of time. the cold its circumstances and the decolonization Obviously by the end of 1945 the diplomatic problem between Britain and Soviet who gad interested in Europe remained irreconcilable which pushed Churchill, atFulton,; Missouri to argue From the Baltic to the Adriatic an iron Curtain has descended across the continent Behind that line lies the capital of ancient states of central and Europe All the famous cities and the populations around then lie what I must call The soviet sphere.And all are subject in form one or another .Not to soviet influence, But to avery high and in some cases, increasing Measures from Moscow ( Britannica encyclopedia p279). So to react to the after math of the war ,Britain felt the obligation to compensate the great amount of national wealth damaged in the war but also to recover the European economy since the latter shared good relationship with the united states hence the imperial ties Fortunately since the labour government coincides with period when Europe was in dire need of economy recovery, the latter proved their abilities in the domain of foreign policy to promote America Marshall plan all the more that Britain proved alone with a diplomatic reserve vis a vis of the United states .This can be accounted when referring to what Spence wrote Its true significance arose from the circumstances of the immediate post War period .Britain along among the major European allies had emerged From thewar as an unoccupied power but without the economic resources to rebuild the shattered economies of the WesternEurope.But it did have a sufficientreserve of diplomatic and political skill to enable its 23 Government to take the lead of the winning of a massive American Commitment to the maintenance of western European Security.Spence ,p 204 Awaring from what resulted on the Postdamconference ,theAttlee’s government committed itself to the maintenance of his alliance with the United States for the Western European recovery and the widespread of his alliance with the United States for the Western Euroiean recovery and the widespread of liberalism opposing the communist soviet . Besides, theAttlee’s foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin was the perfect embodiment of an anti communism which pushed Kenneth O Morgan to describe him as a wary and suspicious but automatically hostile.(O Morgan Kenneth. p25). And since, in the domain of foreign policy, the cold war was one of the issues with which the Attlee’s government wasconcerned, the Labour in government effected change by recoveringtheWestern Europe Economy through the maintenance of his Ally relationship, the United States as a means to counter the widespread of communism by the Soviet Union who, hadlong threatened the continent with their socialist ideas hence the communist influence in the workers strike in the United Kingdom which put the nation in a social upheaval and made them the politicians in U.K to bear a grudge against them and aligned to the united states of America supporting democracy for the best maintenance of National Security and European economy recovery . Moreover, in search for thenational security and economic recovery Britainb had apparently to choose between the Commonwealth or empire or European cooperation hence the creation of many alliances under Attlee’s government. First it moved towards Britain and France against the possible revivalof GERMAN militarism and linked to Belguim,theNetherlands, Luxembourg in the Brusels TREATY 1948 and the creation of North Atlantic Treaty organization NATO in April 1948 which bounded the signatories at Brussels with Canada and the United STATES in a military alliance fro containing the soviet . Lets consider that the group of left wing pushed the labour government into creating a European defense to stand between the two emerging supper powers in the view of protecting the European interest .