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The Beveridge Report
Maybe Richard could ask his MP to see if he/she could obtain a copy from the House of Commons Library. It’s in there alright. I can see it on the the third shelf above the mantelpiece:
http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/offices/commons/commonslibrary/
Oh, and it’s a full moon today, so I’m off for a lie down.
emailed the national archives and they’ve suggested Parliamentary Papers Online
http://parlipapers.chadwyck.co.uk
... is a subscription website, but can be accessed with an institutional subscription (e.g. through a university or ATHENS log in)
Now they are charging us for access to the records that we paid for in the first place. Stealth tax alert!!!
Polly Toynbee asks what would happen if Beveridge’s report were to be delivered today.
The great difference since wartime Beveridge days is less in circumstance than in the nation’s heart. People no longer trust one another, the state or any authority: only 35% trust others, compared with Sweden’s 70%. Lack of social solidarity works both ways. As a country becomes more unequal and fragmented, people trust one another less; trusting less, they are less willing to share with others. Fear of anyone cheating focuses on the most visible pariahs – the poor beneath our feet – with the gigantic cheats invisible, a stratosphere away in glass-towered banks or far offshore. The tax reliefs, evasions and avoidances of the wealthy and corporates more than match Osborne’s total planned cuts.
Cameron at PMQs called Labour “the something for nothing party”, for having left “some” on £100,000 housing benefit a year. That “some” totalled five temporary cases, but useful for bolstering accusations of benefits as a “lifestyle choice” or Duncan Smith’s “three-generation workless families” that no one has yet found anywhere. This week he unveiled yet another “moral” investigation of poverty: a Centre for Social Justice report identifies family breakdown, drugs and idleness as poverty’s prime causes. One charity acidly calls this “poverty plus a pulpit”.
Duncan Smith diverts blame from the car crash of the Tories’ “new Beveridge” policies. The £435m Work Programme emerges as less effective at finding jobs than doing nothing. Universal credit’s first secret pilot shows fateful results: officials whisper its name as “universal chaos”. In time for Christmas, thousands of families will get letters warning of benefit cuts that mean they must move away. Atos disability tests yield ever worsening stories: two-thirds of those whose appeals are successful are so sick they go into the group with the dying; 1,700 died last year within weeks of being found “fit for work”.
Cameron shouldn’t rely on public heartlessness: polls show anger at cheats but 70% declare pride in our welfare state. The 1945 plan is long gone yet the great idea abides: the state should ensure a decent life for all. But benefits now can only be weak redress in a society so out of kilter. A living wage, social housing, rent controls, good childcare and social care are the levers for a decent working life that Beveridge would recognise.
For the whole article, see If Beveridge delivered his report now, would we listen?
Had the best brains in Torquay library working on this! They have a hard copy in their archives, so most libraries should. Just a case of searching the local library database.
Was also sent these weird links (below). You have to type ‘Beveridge’ into the search box and click on an arrow. It’s in two parts, but I don’t think it’s all there though (still!!!).
http://archive.org/stream/socialinsurancep033339mbp/socialinsurancep033339mbp_djvu.txt (Part 1)
http://archive.org/stream/socialinsurancep033338mbp/socialinsurancep033338mbp_djvu.txt (Part 2)
I have no intention of reading it in full I just wanted to see the damn thing but, would you believe it, the links are blocked by our council’s IT protocols.
Looks different through the Righsnet link too. I’m actually viewing the book pages on mine!
also available as pdfs -
Social Insurance @ http://ia700202.us.archive.org/3/items/socialinsurancep033339mbp/socialinsurancep033339mbp.pdf
Industrial Injuries @ http://ia700307.us.archive.org/22/items/socialinsurancep033338mbp/socialinsurancep033338mbp.pdf
... plus a range other formats, including kindle -
http://archive.org/details/socialinsurancep033339mbp
http://archive.org/details/socialinsurancep033338mbp
Think we should print them out and give them as Christmas presents after all that searching!
Still can’t access it.
Think we should print them out and give them as Christmas presents after all that searching!
My young nephew would love a copy. That’s him sorted.
Best not send one to IDS though. Might choke on his chocolate orange.
Or to Cameron as he’s already choking on the Levenson report.
And to accompany Beveridge’s benefit rates, can I suggest the Bank of England’s inflation calculator - makes it much more fun…
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/education/Pages/inflation/calculator/flash/default.aspx