Austerity Britain

by David Kynaston

  15. The Complete Works of George Orwell, Volume 19 (1998), pp 435–44; Godfrey Hodgson, ‘The Steel Debates’, in Sissons and French (eds), Age of Austerity, p 297; Headlam, p 568.

  16. Michael Foot, Aneurin Bevan, Volume 2 (1973), pp 259–61; John Campbell, Nye Bevan (1997), pp 206–7.

  17. Kenneth O. Morgan, Labour in Power, 1945–1951 (Oxford, 1984), pp 126–7; Laurie Dennett, A Sense of Security (Cambridge, 1998), pp 295–301; Ron Noon, ‘Goodbye, Mr Cube’, History Today (Oct 2001), pp 40–41; Sunday Pictorial, 23 Jan 1949; Tribune, 28 Jan 1949.

  18. Michael Young, Small Man, Big World (republished in Social Science as Innovator – Michael Young [Cambridge, MA, 1983]), pp 196–7, 205–8; Tribune, 11 Mar 1949; Dartington Hall Trust Archive, LKE/G/35, 6 Jul 1948, 14 Dec 1948; Phyllis Willmott, Joys and Sorrows (1995), pp 102, 135–6; Keith Jefferys, Anthony Crosland (2000), pp 29–30; Michael Young, The Chipped White Cups of Dover (1960), p 16. For a helpful overview, setting Young and Crosland in context, see: Martin Francis, ‘Economics and Ethics’, Twentieth Century British History, 6/2 (1995), pp 220–43. 19. New Statesman, 11 Sept 1948.

  3 Jolly Good as a Whole

  1. The Times, 30 Mar 1999 (Alan Hamilton); Picture Post, 10 Sept 1949; David Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy (1990), pp 646, 639–40; West London Chronicle, 13 May 1949; Janet Street-Porter, Baggage (2004), pp 29–32; W.F.F. Kemsley and David Ginsburg, Consumer Expenditure Series: Expenditure on Laundries, Dyeing and Cleaning, Mending and Alterations and Shoe Repairing Services (The Social Survey, Aug 1949), p 18; Hoover, The Official Opening of the Factory of Hoover, Limited at Pentrebach, Merthyr Tydfil, Tuesday October 12th 1948 (Merthyr Tydfil, 1948), pp 44–5.

  2. Channel 4, Pennies from Bevan, 14 Jun 1998; Philip M. Williams, Hugh Gaitskell (1979), p 211; The New Yorker, 8 Jan 1949; Guardian, 25 Jun 1998 (Susannah Frankel); Journal of the John Hilton Bureau (Special Collections, University of Sussex, Box 12), 14 Jan 1949; The New Yorker, 8 Jan 1949; John Campbell, Nye Bevan (1997), pp 180, 181; Headlam, p 574.

  3. British Medical Journal, 19 Feb 1949; Campbell, p 182; Jim Tomlinson, ‘Welfare and the Economy’, Twentieth Century British History, 6/2 (1995), pp 210–11; MO A, TC 13/4/C; M-O A, Bulletins, New Series No 48, Dec 1952/Jan 1953; The Kenneth Williams Diaries (1993), p 41.

  4. For a valuable corrective, see: Nicholas Bullock, ‘Re-assessing the Post-War Housing Achievement: The Impact of War-damage Repairs on the New Housing Programme in London’, Twentieth Century British History, 16/3 (2005), pp 256–82.

  5. Malden & Coombe Old People’s Welfare Association, The Reason for Old People’s Week (Malden, 1949); Cliff Richard, Which One’s Cliff? (Coronet edn, 1981), p 23; Peter Hall, Cities of Tomorrow (Oxford, 2002), p 240; The New Yorker, 24 Jul 1948; Picture Post, 22 Jan 1949.

  6. Coventry Evening Telegraph, 27 Apr 1949; Town and Country Planning (Spring 1949), pp 38–9; Osborn, p 179; Architects’ Journal, 10 Mar 1949, 26 May 1949; Lewisham Journal, 18 Mar 1949. For a more detailed ‘housing versus architecture’ overview, see: Nicholas Bullock, Building the Post-War World (2002), pp 206–16.

  7. Hodgson, 1 May 1949; Roger Berthoud, The Life of Henry Moore (1987), pp 217– 18; Langford, 29/30 Apr 1949; M-O A, FR 3120.

  8. Daily Telegraph, 27 Mar 1996 (Snagge obituary); Valerie A. Tedder, Post War Blues (Leicester, 1999), p 55; Guardian, 23 Dec 1997, Independent, 31 Dec 1997 (Woodcock obituaries); Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, 1950 (1950), p 241; Spectator, 19 Jun 2004 (Frank Keating).

  9. Langford, 24 Jun 1949. This reading of Passport to Pimlico owes much to Charles Barr, Ealing Studios (1977), pp 95–107, and Andy Medhurst, ‘Myths of Consensus and Fables of Escape’, in Jim Fyrth (ed), Labour’s Promised Land? (1995), pp 295– 6.

  10. James Lansdale Hodson, Thunder in the Heavens (1950), p 159; The New Yorker, 12 Feb 1949; Weston Mercury, 28 May 1949; Picture Post, 4/25 Jun 1949; The Private Diaries of Sydney Moseley (1960), p 472.

  11. Gordon Johnston, ‘Writing and Publishing the Cold War’, Twentieth Century British History, 12/4 (2002), p 451; The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, Volume IV (1968), p 564; Robert Hewison, In Anger (1988), p 28; Osbert Lancaster, Signs of the Times (1961), p 49; Arthur Hearnden, Red Robert (1984), p 253; Hodgson, 10 Jul 1949; Sunday Pictorial, 10 Jul 1949. On the politics of the 1949 dock strike, see also Phillip Deery, ‘“The Secret Battalion”’, Contemporary British History (Winter 1999), pp 3–6.

  12. Steve Parsons, ‘British “McCarthyism” and the Intellectuals’, in Fyrth, Labour’s Promised Land?, pp 230–34, 238; Hewison, In Anger, pp 28–30; Anthony Howard, Crossman (1990), pp 150–51.

  13. Mervyn Jones, Chances (1987), pp 116–18; The Times for Lochgelly, Bowhill, Dundonald, Glencraig and Lochore, 12 May 1949; Daily Herald, 14 May 1949; A. J. Davies, To Build a New Jerusalem (1992), pp 180–82; Willie Thompson, ‘British Communists in the Cold War, 1947–52’, Contemporary British History (Autumn 2001), p 121; J. D. Bernal, ‘The Biological Controversy in the Soviet Union and Its Implications’, Modern Quarterly (Summer 1949), pp 203–17; Times Literary Supplement, 20 Aug 1999 (Christopher Hitchens); William Gallacher, The Case for Communism (1949), front cover, pp 134–5. In general on Communist Party culture in the 1940s and 1950s, see the wonderfully vivid essays in Raphael Samuel, The Lost World of British Communism (2006).

  14. Doris Lessing, Walking in the Shade (1997), pp 3–5; Radio 4, Fifty Years On, 7 Aug 2002; Doris Lessing, In Pursuit of the English (Sphere edn, 1968), pp 37–9, 112; Carole Klein, Doris Lessing, pp 126–7; Hewison, In Anger, p 33.

  15. Lessing, Walking, pp 12–13; H. D. Willcock, Report on Juvenile Delinquency (1949), p 48; Clive Harris, ‘Post-war Migration and the Industrial Reserve Army’, in Winston James and Clive Harris (eds), Inside Babylon (1993), pp 27–8; D. W. Dean, ‘Coping with Colonial Immigration, the Cold War and Colonial Policy’, Immigrants & Minorities (Nov 1987), p 326; Harold Nicolson, The Later Years, 1945–1962: Diaries and Letters, Volume III (1968), p 169.

  16. Michael Banton, White and Coloured (1959), p 157; Julia Drake, ‘From “Colour Blind” to “Colour Bar”’, in Lawrence Black et al, Consensus or Coercion? (Chel-tenham, 2001), p 86; Picture Post, 2/16 Jul 1949; Birmingham Gazette, 10/11 Aug 1949.

  17. The Political Diary of Hugh Dalton, 1918–40, 1945–60 (1986), p 450; The New Yorker, 10 Sept 1949.

  18. Philip Ziegler, Wilson (1993), pp 73–6; Alec Cairncross, Living with the Century (Fife, 1998), p 136; ‘Witness Seminar: 1949 Devaluation’, Contemporary Record (Winter 1991), p 495; Milton Gilbert, Quest for World Monetary Order (New York, 1980), p 53.

  19. Listener, 22 Sept 1949; Like It Was: The Diaries of Malcolm Muggeridge (1981), p 351; Hodgson, 18 Sept 1949; Preston, 18 Sept 1949; Langford, 18 Sept 1949; The New Yorker, 1 Oct 1949; Daily Telegraph, 1 Mar 2003 (Robert Philip); Speedway World, 24 Aug 1949; Daily Mirror, 23 Sept 1949.

  4 A Decent Way of Life

  1. M-O A, D 5353, 14 Oct 1949; Nottingham Journal, 17 Oct 1949; Alan Sillitoe, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (Pan edn, 1961), pp 111, 114; Graham McCann, Frankie Howerd (2004), p 93.

  2. Raynham, 22 Oct 1949; Listener, 27 Oct 1949; Haines, 24 Oct 1949; Robert J. Wybrow, Britain Speaks Out, 1937–87 (Basingstoke, 1989), p 28; Heap, 25 Oct 1949; Picture Post, 22 Oct 1949, 12 Nov 1949; Barbara Pym Papers (Bodleian Library, Oxford), 40, fol 23; St John, 22 Nov 1949; Olga Cannon and J.R.L. Anderson, The Road from Wigan Pier (1973), p 106.

  3. Channel 4, Children of the Iron Lung, 21 Sept 2000; Geoffrey Rivett, From Cradle to Grave (1997), p 58; Independent, 28 Mar 2000 (Dury obituary); Julian Critchley, A Bag of Boiled Sweets (1994), p 38; Haines, 22/23 Nov 1949; Barbara Stoney, Enid Blyton (1974), p 159; Denis Gifford, The Golden Age of Radio (1985), p 156; BBC WA, R9/74/1, Mar 1950.

  4. Listener, 15 Dec 1949; Sunday Mercury, 11/18 Dec 1949; Birmingham News, 17 Dec 1949; Asa Briggs, Sound and Vision (Oxford, 1995), p 221; BBC WA, R9/74/1, R9/4, 20 Feb 1950; Haines, 9 Jan 1950.

  5. Speed, 1 Jan 19
50; Dartington Hall Trust Archive, LKE/G/35, 4 Jan 1950; Douglas Jay, Change and Fortune (1980), pp 192–3.

  6. David Hughes, ‘The Spivs’, in Michael Sissons and Philip French (eds), Age of Austerity (Oxford, 1986), p 74; The Times, 19/27 Jan 1950; D. J. Taylor, Orwell (2003), pp 7–9; Ludovic Kennedy, Ten Rillington Place (Panther edn, 1971), pp 227–8.

  7. Andy Medhurst, ‘Myths of Consensus and Fables of Escape’, in Jim Fyrth (ed), Labour’s Promised Land? (1995), p 300; Charles Barr, Ealing Studios (1977), pp 90–91; Charles Barr, ‘The National Health’, in Ian MacKillop and Neil Sinyard (eds), British Cinema of the 1950s (Manchester, 2003), p 68; Woman’s Own, 16 Mar 1950; Langford, 27 Jan 1950; Golden, 2 Jun 1950; Heap, 25 Feb 1950; Sue Harper and Vincent Porter, Weeping in the Cinema in 1950 (Brighton, 1995), pp 10–11; McCann, Frankie Howerd, p 96.

  8. Ted Willis, Evening All (1991), pp 70–72; John Barron Mays, ‘A Study of the Police Division’, British Journal of Deliquency (Jan 1953), pp 187, 189; Barbara Weinberger, The Best Police in the World (Aldershot, 1995), pp 41–4, 72–3.

  9. Geoffrey Gorer, Exploring English Character (1955), pp 213–21.

  10. Heap, 22 Mar 1950; Hodgson, 2 Apr 1950; BBC WA, R9/13/27; Susan Sydney-Smith, Beyond Dixon of Dock Green (2002), p 98; T. Ferguson and J. Cunnison, In Their Early Twenties (1956), p 73; John Barron Mays, Growing Up in the City (Liverpool, 1954), pp 21–2, 32, 190.

  11. Abigail Wills, ‘Delinquency, Masculinity and Citizenship in England 1950–1970’, Past and Present (May 2005), pp 157–60; H. D. Willcock, Report on Juvenile Deliquency (1949), pp 92–7.

  12. Langford, 1 Jun 1949; Willcock, Report, pp 21, 37; R.F.L. Logan and E. M. Goldberg, ‘Rising Eighteen in a London Suburb’, British Journal of Sociology (Dec 1953), pp 323–45.

  13. Joanna Bourke, Working-Class Cultures in Britain, 1890–1960 (1994), p 182; Tom Hickman, The Call-Up (2004), pp 10–11; Kathleen Tynan, The Life of Kenneth Tynan (1987), p 77; Tony Richardson, Long Distance Runner (1993), pp 38–9; Stephen Martin, ‘Your Country Needs You’, Oral History (Autumn 1997), pp 70–72.

  14. Mary Abbott, Family Affairs (2003), p 107; Dannie Abse, A Poet in the Family (1974), pp 146–7; Adrian Walker, Six Campaigns (1993), p 4; William Osgerby, ‘“One for the Money, Two for the Show”’ (PhD, University of Sussex, 1992), pp 177, 90.

  15. Trevor Royle, The Best Years of Their Lives (1997), pp 84–5, 88; Bill Williamson, The Temper of the Times (Oxford, 1990), pp 95–7; T. Ferguson and J. Cunnison, ‘The Impact of National Service’, British Journal of Sociology (Dec 1959), p 286; Arthur Marwick, Britain in Our Century (1984), p 153; Sidney R. Campion, The World of Colin Wilson (1962), pp 42–3.

  16. Liz Stanley, Sex Surveyed, 1949–1994 (1995), pp, 87, 97, 111, 123– 4, 132–4, 137– 40, 155, 166. For a trenchant critique of the sexing up of ‘Little Kinsey’ in an October 2005 BBC television documentary, see: Norman Dennis, ‘Propaganda or Public Service Broadcasting?’, Civitas Review (Feb 2006), pp 1–13.

  17. Gorer, Exploring, pp 86–7, 93, 96–7, 98–114,.

  18. Jeffrey Weeks, Coming Out (1990), pp 158–9; Independent, 22 Dec 2001 (Philip Hoare); Woman’s Own, 11 May 1950; John Coldstream, Dirk Bogarde (2004), p 194.

  19. Mark Abrams, ‘Social Trends and Electoral Behaviour’, British Journal of Sociology (Sept 1962), pp 240–41; M-O A, Directives for Aug 1949, Replies (Women A–M).

  20. Martin Francis, ‘“Not Reformed Capitalism, But . . . Democratic Socialism”’, in Harriet Jones and Michael Kandiah (eds), The Myth of Consensus (Basingstoke, 1996), p 43; Headlam, pp 615–16; Matthew Hilton, ‘Michael Young and the Consumer Movement’, Contemporary British History (Sept 2005), p 312; Independent, 3 Jul 1997 (Young interview); Speed, 25 Jan 1950; Conservative Party, This Is The Road (1950), pp 1–4.

  21. Financial Times, 14 Mar 1992 (David Butler); Lewis Baston, Reggie (Stroud, 2004), p 71; H. G. Nicholas, The British General Election of 1950 (1951), p 126; BBC WA, R9/13/37; The New Yorker, 4 Mar 1950.

  22. Mervyn Jones, Michael Foot (1994), pp 167–71; Baston, Reggie, pp 73–4; Robert Shepherd, Iain Macleod (1994), p 58; Simon Heffer, Like a Roman (1998), pp 132– 3; Robert Shepherd, Enoch Powell (1996), pp 79–81; John Campbell, Edward Heath (1993), p 67; Campbell, Margaret Thatcher, Volume One (2000), p 80; Crosland Papers (British Library of Political and Economic Science), 16/1, 3/9 Feb 1950.

  23. Headlam, p 619; Lord Hill of Luton, Both Sides of the Hill (1964), p 126; Bruce Belfrage, One Man in His Time (1951), p 214; Haines, 15 Feb 1950.

  24. Harold Macmillan, Tides of Fortune (1969), p 312; Mark Benney et al, How People Vote (1956), pp 129–30, 155–6, 159; Mass-Observation, Voters’ Choice (1950), p 5; Steven Fielding et al, ‘England Arise!’ (Manchester, 1995), p 193; M-O A, TC 76/4/E.

  25. Nicholas, General Election, pp 107–8, 127–8; Benney et al, How People Vote, p 160; Bourke, Working-Class Cultures, p 189; M-O A, D 5353, 4 Feb 1950; Listener, 23 Feb 1950; Hill, p 128; Preston, 14 Feb 1950; Hodgson, 18 Feb 1950.

  26. Stuart Laing, Representations of Working-Class Life, 1957–1964 (Basingstoke, 1986), p 7; Nicholas, General Election, p 126; Martin Gilbert, ‘Never Despair’ (1988), pp 510-11; Harold Nicolson, The Later Years, 1945–1962: Diaries and Letters, Volume III (1968), p 186; Francis Beckett, Clem Attlee (1997), p 279; Voters’ Choice, pp 8–9; Listener, 23 Feb 1950.

  27. McCann, Frankie Howerd, p 65; Cliff Goodwin, When the Wind Changed (1999), p 111; Fenton Bresler, Lord Goddard (1977), p 206; Independent, 11 Jun 2003 (Robert Verkaik); Raynham, 10–19 Feb 1950; Independent, 23 Aug 2001 (Steve Connor); BBC WA, R9/74/1, Apr 1950.

  28. Gaitskell, p 162; Fielding et al, ‘England Arise!’, p 191; Headlam, p 616; Nicholas, General Election, p 284; M-O A, TC 76/4/E.

  29. M-O A, TC 76/4/J; The New Yorker, 4 Mar 1950; Goodwin, Wind, p 111; Like It Was: The Diaries of Malcolm Muggeridge (1981), p 380; The Diaries of Cynthia Gladwyn (1995), p 118; Haines, 23 Feb 1950; John Fowles, The Journals, Volume I (2003), p 19; BBC WA, R9/74/1, Apr 1950.

  30. Nicolson, Later Years, p 187; Langford, 24 Feb 1950; The New Yorker, 4 Mar 1950; Haines, 24 Feb 1950; BBC WA, R9/74/1, Apr 1950.

  31. Hodgson, 25 Feb 1950; Raynham, 24 Feb 1950; Economist, 4 Mar 1950; Nicolson, Later Years, p 188; M-O A, D 5353, 24 Feb 1950; M-O A, TC 76/4/A.

  32. Socialist Commentary (Apr 1950), p 88; Mark Benney and Phyllis Geiss, ‘Social Class and Politics in Greenwich’, British Journal of Sociology (Dec 1950), p 323.

  Part Two

  5 A Negative of Snowflakes

  1. Laurence Thompson, Portrait of England (1952), p 65; West Midland Group, Conurbation (1948), pp 100–103, 16.

  2. Roland Quinault, ‘Britain 1950’, History Today (Apr 2001), p 16; G. C. Allen, The Structure of Industry in Britain (1961), p 11; The Times, 9 Jan 1995; Peter Pagnamenta and Richard Overy, All Our Working Lives (1984), p 20; Clara H. Greed, Women and Planning (1994), pp 126–9.

  3. Picture Post, 21 Oct 1950; Stewart Dalton, Crashing Steel (Barnsley, 1999), pp 6–7; Thompson, Portrait, p 245; Michael Blakemore, Arguments with England (2004), pp 75–6; Manchester Evening Chronicle, 12/16 Oct 1951; Sunday Times, 7 Nov 2004 (Hunter Davies).

  4. James Lees-Milne, Caves of Ice (Faber edn, 1984), p 211; Blakemore, Arguments, p 75; The New Yorker, 25 Dec 1948; Michael Bond, Bears & Forebears (1996), p 119; West Midland Group, Conurbation, pp 113–15; Listener, 27 Sept 1951; Meredith Veldman, Fantasy, the Bomb, and the Greening of Britain (Cambridge, 1994), pp 208–9, 273–99.

  5. Colin G. Pooley and Jean Turnbull, ‘Commuting, Transport and Urban Form’, Urban History (Dec 2000), pp 366–7; Gordon E. Cherry, Town Planning in Britain since 1900 (Oxford, 1996), p 160; Peter Cain’s recollection of growing up in Bolton.

  6. Illustrated London News, 10 Jan 1948; H. C. Casserley, The Observer’s Book of British Steam Locomotives (1974), pp 176–7; Paul Vaughan, Exciting Times in the Accounts Department (1995), pp 3–4.

  7. Peter Bailey, ‘Jazz at the Spirella’, in Becky Conekin et al (eds), Moments of Modernity (1999), p
23; Planning, 17 Oct 1949, p 115; Margaret Hanson et al, The Inner Circle (Stroud, 2002).

  6 Part of the Machinery

  1. Seán Damer, ‘Last Exit to Blackhill’ (Glasgow, 1992), p 39; Ian Jack, Before the Oil Ran Out (1987), pp 1–3.

  2. This paragraph is based on: Ross McKibbin, Classes and Cultures (Oxford, 1998), pp 106–11; David C. Marsh, The Changing Social Structure of England and Wales, 1871–1961 (1965), pp 130–53; Sidney Pollard, The Development of the British Economy (1983), pp 264–5.

  3. Ferdynand Zweig, The British Worker (1952), p 203.

  4. Nigel Watson, The Celestial Glass Bottle Company (Cambridge, ; Alan Sillitoe, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958), pp 23, 31; Arthur J. McIvor, A History of Work in Britain, 1880–1950 (Basingstoke, 2001), pp 242–3; Willmott, Oct 1948; Peter Pagnamenta and Richard Overy, All Our Working Lives (1984), p 14.

  5. Illustrated London News, 30 Aug 1947; McKibbin, Classes, p 118; McIvor, History of Work, p 245; News Chronicle, 21 Dec 1949; Duncan Gallie, ‘The Labour Force’, in A. H. Halsey (ed), Twentieth-Century British Social Trends (Basingstoke, 2000), pp 303, 306; Derek H. Aldcroft and Michael J. Oliver, Trade Unions and the Economy (Aldershot, 2000), p 71; William Ashworth, The History of the British Coal Industry, Volume 5 (Oxford, 1986), p 556; Ferguson, 31 Oct 1950.