The Welfare State We're In

by Bartholomew, James

• ISBN13: 9781842750636
• ISBN10: 1842750631
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-08-30
• Publisher: Consortium Book Sales & Dist

Summary

The founding of the welfare state in the 1940s has been seen as the crowning achievement of modern British social history. In this controversial book, however, journalist James Bartholomew argues that it has undermined the very decency and kindness that first inspired it, causing thousands of people to live in deprivation and resulting in a generation of badly educated and dependent citizens. James Bartholomew is a leader writer and columnist for the Daily Telegraph. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

The welfare state quiz	iv
Some major welfare dates	viii
Author's preface: Growing up with the welfare state	ix
From Stanley Matthews to Vinnie Jones	1	(24)
Has the character of the British people changed?
What did Orwell make of us in the 1940s?
And what do the number of red cards issued in football matches tell us about attitudes today?
How Willie was treated compared to Vinnie
Social security: Catherine's four dead boys and Frank's bingo blow-out	25	(62)
What did Catherine of Aragon have to do with the origins of the welfare state?
The reason Frank Stent spent his windfall instead of saving
What The Full Monty tells us about living without a job
Do welfare benefits cause unemployment?
The NHS: like a train crash every day	87	(64)
Healthcare before the NHS
Did the poor get any?
Aneurin Bevan, rebel with a cause, who created the NHS on Marxist principles
Does the NHS do what was promised?
In which advanced country do you not want to be ill?
The cost of the NHS in lives lost
Education: eleven years at school and still illiterate	151	(74)
Did the poor get any education before the state took over?
The unlikely man who began the state monopoly and who had nothing like that in mind
Has state education given better chances to the less well off?
How state education contributes to incivility and crime
Housing: from `homes fit for heroes' to Rachman and Damilola Taylor	225	(24)
A surprise in Bethnal Green
`Slums' that worked and tower blocks that didn't
How rent controls of 1915 led to bully landlords
What caused the failure of council housing?
Parenting: Princess Diana and the habits of the apes	249	(34)
The first and second lone-parenting booms
Did the state cause both?
Does `broken parenting' matter?
What male hanuman langurs do to babies that are not their own
The suffering of Diana and the terror of Jade Hart
Pensions: Octavia warned us	283	(26)
What Octavia Hill told Prince Edward about state pensions
Are state pensions adequate?
Were the politicians who promised better ones fools or liars?
What state benefits do to saving rates
Is a bad state pension better than none?
Tax and growth: Harold Wilson versus John Who?	309	(18)
A plump, tall, bespectacled civil servant runs Hong Kong while Harold Wilson is prime minister of Britain
Under one, welfare benefits and taxes stay low
Which country grows faster?
Which is richer now?
And which one taxes the poor?
The reckoning	327	(16)
The full charge sheet against the welfare state
The ways in which the welfare state has affected the character of the British people
How the problems created by the welfare state have led to governments reducing personal freedom
If the welfare state is so bad, why don't we get rid of it?	343	(14)
Laura Touche and Trinity Reynolds both died in hospitals
One death was a national scandal, the other was hardly mentioned at all
What this tells us about the difficulty a democracy has in giving up state dependency
Afterword: Why do people talk more about `poverty' now that there is less of it?	357	(4)
Ten things wrong with the welfare state	361	(1)
Ten explanations of the failure	362	(1)
Four reasons why the welfare state is never likely to succeed	363	(1)
Personal reflections on writing The Welfare State We're In	364	(4)
Acknowledgements	368	(2)
Select bibliography	370	(3)
Illustrations	373	(1)
Notes	374	(24)
Index	398