ABSTRACT

The basic achievements of the Welfare State fell into three main areas; those caused by full employment, those associated with increased standards of living, and those making for a greater degree of equality in society. Of these the first was the biggest single factor of change. Throughout the thirties unemployment had been at a high level for many years continually, ranging from over 20 per cent (registered) in 1931-3 to 10 per cent in 1939. At any time in the decade there were between one and two million workers without jobs. But from 1940 to 1960 the number of unemployed never exceeded half a million (480,000 in 1947 was the highest figure), and for most of the time was in the region of 300,000 or less (1•4 per cent.) Much of this, even, was short-term unemployment, though there were

regional pockets of more serious unemployment such as those in Lancashire and Northern Ireland. For most of the country the Welfare State signified, first and foremost, jobs for all. It would be hard to exaggerate the importance of this for the people as a whole. At no time in the previous 150 years had there been a period of twenty years of such uninterrupted full employment. To older workers it seemed too good to last, and the fear of unemployment therefore remained; but as a new generation grew up this fear receded, until by the later fifties the cruel memories of the dole and queues at 'the Labour' ceased to play the dominant part in working-class attitudes that they had once done. The feeling of greater security was also enhanced by the strength of the trade unions, now operating in a sellers' market for labour;1 the balance of power in labour relations was felt at all levels, from the new respect with which governments treated the T.U.C. to the settlement of grievances on the shop floor. The Welfare State did not by any means end many of the frustrations of workers in industry, nor did it remove the fear of periodical redundancy. But it did answer the bitter cry of The Road to Wigan Pier and The Town that was Murdered.