ABSTRACT

While the tortuous planning process weaved its slow progress through the Whitehall maze, a quite different narrative was being forged beyond the walls of Westminster. Beveridge was wary of too closely identifying with an overtly pro-Beveridge organisation since he was stung by the criticism heaped upon him about the alleged impropriety of him ‘stumping the country’ in support of his own report. The difficulties the SSL had in maintaining enthusiasm for the Beveridge cause were largely caused by the lack of any visible outcome, as the Government continued to procrastinate and the often-promised White Paper failed to appear. Beveridge’s insistence that workers must be prepared to move for a new job presaged ‘conscription of labour and migration of the family’, the loss of yet another element of personal liberty.