Aneurin Bevan: telling it the way it should be

If, like me, you are seeking relief from the pantomime that now passes as politics, I can thoroughly recommend a 'grown up' book on the subject: Aneurin Bevan's In Place of Fear.  

First published in 1952, In Place of Fear serves as an inspiring insight into the political philosophy of Aneurin Bevan. Most famously Minister for Health and Housing in the post-World War II British Labour government, Bevan established the National Health Service (NHS). From what was previously a piecemeal coverage dependent on charities, employers, and private clinicians. emerged universal healthcare (while still having charities, private clinicians, etc. lurking around the edges). The vital difference was that, for the first time in Britain, medical care was available on demand and free at the point of use for all. It was one of the most (positively) transformative moments in the nation’s history. It was Bevan's unshakeable credo that "the collective principle asserts that no society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means".

Growing up in the hardship of a South Wales mining community (Tredegar), Bevan developed a passionate conviction in the need for collective action by his class. In 1929 he began his long career as the Member for Ebbw Vale, and developed into one of the most brilliant debaters in Parliament. He believed that Democracy and Socialism go hand in hand and that the unrestrained free-market undermines democracy. Rather than an economy based on the attempt to frighten people into working harder by allowing many to fall into unemployment, poverty and homelessness pour encourager des autres, Bevan proposed that government provides for the basic needs of all through a comprehensive welfare system and more control of the nation's resources and infrastructure. Although written in the early 1950s, it is as relevant today as it was when it first came out. It's a programme of social democracy that the Labour party and Keir Starmer have long left behind. It hits all the spots that they miss by a mile. And that's a shame. It's also a shame that no political leader today, no matter what the party, seems to be able to articulate their guiding principles as clearly and cogently as Aneurin Bevan. We need his like now - but where are they?