Back then and baton change

Were these really Happy Days?

“The question is asked – can we afford it? Supposing the answer is No, what does that mean? It really means that the sum total of the goods produced and the services provided by the people of this country is not sufficient to provide for all our people at all times, in sickness, in health, in youth and in age, the very modest standard of life that is represented by the sums of money we set out in the Second Schedule to this Bill.

I cannot believe that our national productivity is so slow, that our willingness to work is so feeble or that we can submit to the world that the masses of our people must be condemned to penury”

Clement Atlee puts the case for National Insurance to the House of Commons 1946.

“The Bill for the National Health Service, which is a necessary part of the structure of National Security, has its place in the queue of legislation and will come before the House before Easter.

The real test of the Bill…is does it take care of the patient? Parliament will apply that test to the Bill when its contents are disclosed, but it can be assured that in design and scope it will provide a completely comprehensive service – from before birth, in the form of ante-natal care, until death. The people of this country will get clinics, a family doctor service, consultants, hospital treatment, rehabilitation, dentists, drugs, oculists and opticians and a lot more. All free…”

Editorial in The New Statesman, February 1946.

“As the number of turkeys available this Christmas will not be sufficient to meet the demand, the Ministry of Food asks turkey retailers to spread the limited supplies amongst the largest possible number of families by cutting birds into two parts before sale. Half a turkey, he believes, will supply a good meal for most families”

The Times 15 December 1945.

These come from a fascinating collection of diaries written between 1945 and 1948. I was surprised at one theme which ran through quite a few immediately after the end of the war where there was a considerable amount of anti-Semitism. This so soon after we were all made aware of what the Holocaust was all about. There are the same comments we see today regarding how Britain had lost its place in the world, no one wanted to work any more and how the Government was failing the country.

Seems I have been tagged to complete an on-line survey. Came out of the blue. I’m not sure what is required of me having been tagged but native cunning led me to these:

01. Total volume of music files on my computer?

Almost none. I have some 250 CD going back to, I should think, the first one made. I used the Mac and iTunes to put the ones I really like onto memory cards which fit into my PDA and I play them from there.

02. The last CD I bought was?

Chip Taylor – Hit Man. Writer of Wild Thing, I can make it with you etc.

03. Song playing right now.

George Jones – running through the album. Right this moment – He stopped loving her today

04. Five songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me (in no particular order)

These are the ones that mean a lot. So powerful that I rarely play them now but they get my get bits when I hear them.

Two little boys. At the time I was one of two ‘little boys’ with a very close friend. He died in a horse riding accident. No one else could face doing the investigation so, as the Boss, I had to do it.

Slaughter on 10^th Avenue. My first real very-grown-up girl friend was a pianist and this was ‘our’ song.

Rifat al Zaad. It is belly dance music. I had a very heavy thing with a belly dancer in Port Said, Egypt.

Devil went down to Georgia. It was TOTP during a holiday in Arizona and it brings that wonderful time back to me.

Get No Satisfaction by Mick. Goes back to riotous nights in the Sergeants’ Mess when we had all had enough to drink and were convinced we could all sing – and dance – like Jagger. And we did!!

05. Which 5 people are you passing this baton to, and why.

Pass – need instructions on this. Hope this does not constitute dropping the baton but, then, I was never much good at team sports.