Face of government vs beancounter full#

Hardly anyone then believed there would ever be another breakdown of the system that would cause mass unemployment. His policies were also accepted by Conservative chancellors from 1951-1974, fromīutler to Barber.

Face of government vs beancounter full#

He believed the British economy could be balanced by Government spending in periods of recession so that full employment could be maintained. Hugh Gaitskell, the Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer of the early Fifties, defined full employment as a rate of unemployment of three per cent or less. it is the damage that will be done to human lives' 'It is not just nostalgia that makes me feel real sadness. The Keynesian Revolution held out the promise that mass unemployment could be avoided by increased Government expenditure, and that became the orthodoxy of post-war governments. It was the Great Depression that had the most lasting impact on British politics.Įven those, like myself, who had still been children in the Thirties, had seen enough of the social distress of mass unemployment to know it was a great evil. They had failed to re-arm for the Second World War, and they had been in power during the Great Depression when unemployment rose into the millions. In 1945, the Conservatives, led by Winston Churchill, lost one of the historic General Elections. That is a very large number of people, and larger if it is multiplied to include the families of Woolworths staff.ĭirectly or indirectly, there must be 100,000 people who will have a Christmas of anxiety.

Woolworths employs 30,000 people, few of whom can be sure they will keep their jobs. It is the damage that will be done to human lives. In any case, the goods I once bought were its miniature records of the songs of the late Thirties: Harry Roy playing Tiger Rag or Disney’s hit song Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?īut it is not just nostalgia that makes me feel real sadness at the threatened closure of the Woolworths business. I’m not sure that I’ve bought anything from one of its shops since 1945. I was myself devoted to Woolworths but that was when I was eight. Its loyal customers retain a nostalgic affection for the store but they no longer have to ration the pennies in a half-crown allowance. Woolworths: 'Its loyal customers retain a nostalgic affection for the store'