When is austerity not austerity?

I have just finished the first part of David Kynaston’s mammoth and monumental history of Britain since the 2^nd World War: Austerity Britain 1945-1951. Its seven hundred pages are not only filled with a truly mesmerizing and detailed view of life in Britain in the immediate aftermath of war but they are also hugely readable, interesting and entertaining. The other two parts of the trilogy (Family Britain - 1951-1957 and Modernity Britain -1957-1962) sit on my office bookshelf waiting to be enjoyed. I understand that Kynaston is to continue the history beyond 1962 and as far as the election of Thatcher as Prime Minister. If that be the case then I will be a willing purchaser of the next volumes. The trilogy to date has received ecstatic reviews from both academia and the world of literature. Words such as brilliant, compassionate, erudite, powerful, marvellous, must read and magnificent have been common themes. I would endorse all those adjectives.

Three mammoth volumes

Both the broad sweep and the huge detail found in Kynaston’s work is truly awe inspiring and what, I think, makes the book so readable, enjoyable and illuminating is his massive use of primary sources – namely the writings and recorded comments of people who were actually there: politicians, the great and good but especially the ordinary man and woman in the street. This latter group’s comments give the whole thing a realistic feel; it is about ordinary people, their lives, their ambitions, their problems and above all their views on what was happening in the country and its impact upon them. It is not a history based upon battles won or lost or the great, good and not so good but rather a book about the common man and woman in the immediate aftermath of war. But, there is one other element that makes the book almost unique and at the same time riveting: it is history within living memory. So as I read the pages I was reading about an era that I was part of – just! It was part of my history and although I was too young to remember many of the things described and discussed by Kynaston I can certainly remember the general feel of the time and relate what I read to what I knew of the lives of my parents, my family and neighbourhood. As I read each page I was not reading a dry history of a long past and maybe forgotten age but I was reading of a time in history that was recognisable and still relevant today.

Giving out apples from America in 1948

When, for example, Kynaston discussed the problems and workings of rationing in the post war period this meant something to me – I remember it; I can still today vividly remember standing with my mother in queues when she went to get a new ration book. When Kynaston talked of the administration of the 11+ exam he was retelling my story. Reading the recollections of BBC Newsreader Peter Sissons I was suddenly taken back  to almost the exact same experience in my own life at 11+time. Sissons attended a school in Liverpool in the early 1950s and in his class with him were Jimmy Tarbuck – who would later become a  famous comedian,  and Beatle John Lennon. Sisson’s wrote: “The school was gathered together and those who had passed [the 11+] were called up to the podium one at a time with their own round of applause. The poor sods who had failed were left sitting in the hall – they only realised that they had failed because they were not called up. Actress Glenda Jackson’s recollections also stirred old memories. On the day that the results of the 11+ were announced in her school there was a mix up; those who had passed were applauded and congratulated in the same way as those at Peter Sissons’ school. Jackson, to her distress, was not one of these but when she went home that night she found that a letter had been delivered to her parents officially informing them that she had passed; the school had made a mistake. When Jackson went to school the next day she found things had changed: “I saw adults whom I had known virtually all my life change their attitude from the day before. Yesterday teachers cared nothing for me as they believed I  had failed; I had let them and myself down. But today I had praise poured upon me. On that day I learned a new word - contemptible”. As I read these and other similar recollections I was able to relate it to my own experience. I can still remember clapping my friends Billy, Brian and Barry as the head master, Mr Roberts, beamingly announced how well these three had done and what honour they had brought to the school by passing the 11+ exam at St Matthew’s Junior School. At the time I just accepted it, I didn’t think that I was hard done by I simply wished that I could have been one of those smiling at the front of the class.  But I also knew that Mr Roberts had another side to his nature not the beaming, congratulating man who stood at the front with the three winners of the educational race. And this other side  was often made plain to Victor  probably the least able pupil in our class of 53 boys. Victor was, I remember, punished mercilessly and violently by “Cock Roberts” [as we called him] for his academic failings and as I read Glenda Jackson’s comment I agreed with her word: “contemptible”. Similarly, when a Kynaston source described some of the great industrial towns of the north it was my north; “Our skyline [that of Sheffield] was dominated by hundreds of smoking chimneys and the city lived to the constant accompaniment of steam hammers and the ring of metal meeting metal”  My town was not a steel making town but a cotton weaving town  and like Sheffield dominated by tall factory chimneys. As you walked past the Paul Catterall mill at the end of the street where I lived or past one of the several great Horrockses mills in the town one could feel the pavement tremble with the sound and vibration from the thousands of looms churning out their cotton materials. As my auntie often said – and with some truth –“England’s bread hangs by Lancashire’s thread”. Occasionally, as teenager, I would visit my mother when she worked as a weaver at Horrockses, probably the world's greatest name in the production of cotton goods. The noise in the mill was overwhelming with no use of any kind of ear covers. My mother, like her fellow weavers could lip read, not because she was deaf but because it was a skill that was essential working in that environment. Most telling for me, however, was reading what parents in northern England said when interviewed in the early 1950s about their own sons and daughters entering the world of work: “No, it’s a collar and tie job for him”......”No, any boy that dons overalls when he doesn’t have to is a fool”......”He’s got a horror of tools because he’s seen what his dad’s life is”....”I don’t want my son treated like I’ve been treated, worse than an animal”.....”I won’t let him – I’d sooner he was on the streets” . Reading these comments I remember vividly (and I choose my words carefully here) the joy and pride from my parents and my wider family when I left school and got a job as a trainee draughtsman. “You’ll be clean and wear a collar and tie....you’ll get paid for holidays......nine till five not half-past six till half-past five....you’ll be able to save and maybe get a mortgage to buy a place of your own......” were all said to me by my parents and aunties and uncles.

Preston when I was young

I could go on – every chapter in the book it seemed was a part of my own history – and if  not mine then someone I knew!

There was, however, another element to the book that has given me cause for thought. The title of the book is “Austerity Britain” and indeed the years after the end of the 2^nd World War were indeed a period of huge austerity and shortage for the whole of Europe. Much of the country was suffering the effects of war – destroyed buildings, shortage of decent housing or an industry that had been geared to producing war materials  and unable to quickly revert to domestic, peace time production. The country faced all sorts of problems – not least a disastrous shortage of money and basic raw materials – it was a real problem for any government elected to manage the situation. As one reads the comments of people at the time, it is obvious that they recognised the difficulties that the country faced but at the same time two other threads ran though the comments. Firstly that the electorate wanted something better – better homes, better jobs, a better life and future for them and their children. It was against this that the 1945 Attlee government were returned to introduce things like the health service and the like. And secondly, the belief that we had won the war and so deserved this better life. In many ways this became a problem for the government because people expected things to improve – they almost demanded it – and when in the early 50s things like rationing were still an issue people became disenchanted.

The queue for vegetables in 1948

There can be no doubt that the austerity of the immediate post-war years was profound and to use a modern term systemic. It affected everyone to a significant degree: power cuts, food shortages, shortages of other basic items such as clothes, limited medical provision, shortages of coal and other means of keeping the house warm, a widespread lack of what we today would consider absolute essentials for life: hot and cold water, inside toilet, bathroom .........and so the list goes on. This was austerity. Much of the problem was the direct after-effect of war but equally important was the fact that, just as today, the government had to direct the few available resources at things considered important such as goods for export so that the country earned much needed money. The result was that goods for home consumption were disproportionately hit. A few quotes catch the life and feelings of the time:

·         “Went out shopping. Woolworths like every other shop, lit by gas lamps and candles”

·         “Long queues for potatoes.....reduced clothing coupon allowances...no wonder people steal clothes and food”

·         “No soap to be bought anywhere. Managed to get 2lb of potatoes but will save them for Sunday’s dinner”

·         “In addition to my usual winter apparel I am now wearing four woollen pullovers and my waistcoat but house I am still cold [because of power cuts and a shortage of coal in a very cold winter]”.

·         “About 7 million dwellings lacked hot water, some 6 million an inside WC and 5 million a fixed bath”.

·         “Yesterday I queued for 2 hours for a packet of biscuits. Luckily I’m well stocked for clothes perhaps I’ll try to swap some clothes coupons for food coupons. I might get a new frock next year”.

·         “There is a feeling of despair in the streets. Rationing controls on materials and income tax of 9 shillings in the pound [standard rate of tax was 45%; the higher rate was 90%] all contribute to it”.

·         “A story that gained prominence at that time was of a nineteen year old woman who had no food coupons left and so “bought” a loaf of bread on the black market. When she got home she found that half the loaf was uneatable and filled with mould. She was frightened that if she threw it away and was caught she would be “in trouble” with the authorities. So, she tried to burn it by putting some petrol on the bread. Unfortunately the fire got out of control and she was burned to death”.

Rationing - real austerity

This was real austerity and although I am not old enough to remember much of this I can remember the effects. Until I moved to Nottingham to train to be a teacher in 1965 I lived with my parents in a house where we had no hot water, no inside toilet and no bath or shower. Until I left home my regular Friday night occupation was to visit my auntie’s house a few streets away where she had a bathroom. I had my weekly bath there. Each winter my mother would put a small oil lamp in our outside toilet at the top of the back yard to make sure that it didn’t freeze. We didn’t use toilet paper but each week mother would neatly cut up newspapers. I was not alone, this was the life of millions. My wife spent her childhood in a flat where they used an old tin bath to bathe in – reusing the same hot water. People of my parent’s generation got used to managing with very little in the way of food and for the rest of their lives found the wasting of food unacceptable. This was austerity.

No explanation required

Today’s austerity is different. In the post-war years the food shortages, poor housing and the rest affected everyone to a greater or lesser degree. And, importantly, it was all too often related to items which really were truly essential – not just desirable – to human life. Today’s “austerity”, however, tends to impact upon certain groups and although within those groups there are very many who are in genuine need of basic life essentials – food, warmth, shelter – the vast majority of us claim to be suffering a period of “austerity” because we have a little less money to spend on our life-style choices. Of course, “austerity” might be viewed as a relative term – what was “essential” to a man or woman of the 1940s or of (say) the 1890s would not necessarily be viewed in the same way today. It might be argued for example that access to a computer is one of the modern life’s essentials (see blog for November 10^th: “A modern day Pandora’s box”) but I am equally absolutely sure

that if those millions of post-war [usually] women who spent hours each day standing in queues with their coupons to buy a small piece of meat or their sugar ration or their dried eggs could return to our present day they would not view our shopping experience as “austerity”. I am absolutely sure that if the housewife who felt she was “well stocked” for clothes and who might “buy a new frock next year” walked around my city centre today and saw the thousands carrying bags filled with the latest fashions she would rapidly conclude that this was an era of great wealth not austerity.

I will not labour the point. Certainly, the government has adopted policies which they feel will get the country’s economy back on track and it is absolutely true that the fallout from the financial crisis has impacted on world economies and upon the lives of people everywhere. Clearly, too, there are many individuals and sections of society who, for a variety of reasons, have been hit disproportionately by the financial crisis and its fallout. But for the vast majority this political and economic climate that we call “austerity” is in reality a reflection of society’s inequalities than any great shortage or true austerity.

The "austerity" word originates from the Latin “austeritas” meaning “severe”. Two definitions are typical: “conditions living without unnecessary things and without comfort, with limited money or goods” or “a situation in which there is not much money and it is spent only on things that are absolutely necessary”. Others may disagree, and clearly with the growth of foodbanks and tales of people struggling to make ends meet as they work on zero hours contracts and the like there are indeed many who are suffering considerable hardship. But I do not believe this is comparable with the post war years. Indeed, politicians have rightly pointed out that in terms of  pay, debt, government investment in social services  and the like we have merely returned to pre 2008 levels – in other words we haven’t “grown” and kept pace with inflation or expectations. It might be a hardship, it might be dreadful for many but it is not a general period of austerity.

People of the post-war years would not believe that
we buy these and think we are in a period of austerity

Four decades ago the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Denis Healey said that he would tax the rich until the “pips squeaked” in order to right the country’s economic and social ills – in my view we have an enormously long way to go before that happens in this period of so-called austerity. The UK, as with probably every other western country, is amazingly wealthy – wealthier than anyone alive during the post-war period could ever imagine. Our “austerity" is no more than a very mild inconvenience: interest rates on or savings are a little lower, taxation of varying kinds has risen very slightly, our pay rises have been rather less than we had got used to, and for a few years it has been a little harder to get credit........and so the list goes on. Very few of us have been on the bread line: walk through Nottingham any night of the week and see cafes and bars heaving mostly with young people; stand in any airport and see people flying off for their winter break; look at the vast crowds paying huge amounts for their 90 minutes of football at Premiership stadiums; count the new cars on our roads; stand in any super market and watch how many people buy a sandwich, a can of coke and a packet of crisps for their lunch rather than make one at home for half the price; join the throngs that fill the multitude of Starbuck like coffee shops every waking hour; feel your eyes water at the billions of pounds and dollars  that vast portions of the population feed into the coffers of SKY each month. I don’t begrudge any of this – indeed, many would argue that it is essential that we continue with this madcap consumer driven economy because it is what feeds the economic treadmill. If we all started to be more penny pinching then our UK economy based now upon consumerism rather than manufacturing would quickly begin to unravel. No, I do not believe it is in our interest to change all this, much as I would like to, but please let’s not call it “austerity”.

Today's front & back pages of the Guardian -
a disgrace anbd I told them so!

When I collected my Guardian newspaper this morning (Monday, Nov 23^rd) I was at first bemused then horrified to see that the whole of the front cover and the back cover and the inside of these two pages was one long advert for Tesco supermarket. The headline was:”You’re gonna need a bigger tree......” and then followed four whole pages trying to encourage me and thousands of other readers to take advantage of the latest mobile phone offers at Tesco this Christmas. I have written a letter to complaint to the Guardian, advising them that this is not what I buy the newspaper for. But apart from my personal views on such an advert it proves the point I feel that this is not a period of austerity. If it was so then Tesco would be wasting their time – no-one would be in the market such luxuries. Last week I read in the newspaper that a consumer survey in the UK suggested that this Christmas the average child (if there be such a thing) in the UK would have some £349 spent on Christmas presents and associated items by his or her parents. How can that be described as a time of austerity?

Last week Pat and I dined with a cousin of Pat’s who we see only infrequently and who was visiting the area. As one would expect we spent time reminiscing about past family events and members of the family now long gone – aunts, uncles, parents grandparents etc. As we talked I thought back to Pat and Terry’s grandfather, Harry, who died many years ago. Harry like so many of his generation had had a hard life – First World War, the great depression, Second World War, the harsh post-war years and all the rest. Whenever we went to visit Harry as an old man his first words whenever a man entered his little kitchen were the always same: “Have you got plenty of work?” Harry knew from long bitter experience what hardship and austerity meant –  he had lived through it for most of his life. To Harry and millions like him who had suffered the unemployment of the great depression followed by the privations of war time and the austerity of that period and its aftermath work meant a few pennies in your pocket and food on the table - it was real austerity. It wasn’t about not having SKY TV or being able to buy a cup of Starbuck’s coffee; it wasn’t about paying many pounds to watch a football match.  And it certainly wasn’t about buying a “King Prawns, Salmon and Lemon & Dill Crème Fraiche Sandwich” (I kid you not – these are on offer at Sainsbury’s today!) for his lunch. It was about having enough money for a loaf of bread and maybe a bit of cheese (with butter as a luxury), or it was about having enough coal to keep warm or the money to pay the rent to keep a roof over your head.

Since I started writing this blog a couple of days ago I have begun the second of Kynaston's three books: Family Britain 1951-1957. In the opening chapter, Kynaston reviews life in Britain in 1951 and he relates a little story which has a telling "punchline". Winston Churchill had just been elected as Prime Minister, Attlee's Labour government defeated by a populace unhappy with the continuing austerity of the time. One of Churchill's first acts was to acquaint himself with what the ordinary man and woman was having to put up with so he asked one the Minister of Food, Gwilym Lloyd George, to bring him the rations that each person was allowed. A little later the Minister returned and placed the food on Churchill's desk. Official records show that Churchill looked at the food and said "Well this is not bad, you could make a reasonable meal out of these. What are people complaining about?". Lloyd George  replied "But these are not for one meal Prime Minister - they are for a whole week". Churchill was both lost for words and horrified but the country's situation was so desperate that despite this lesson he was forced to reduce the meat ration yet again, increase transport fares further and put up the price of coal.

Harry in his latter years

In the austere 1940’s and 50s world described by Kynaston there was a very significant impact upon every member of society. Of course, some were hit harder than others but such was its widespread impact upon the everyday life and conditions of the populace that although people complained and dreamed of something better most just got on with things – that was the way it was. It was survival. The book again and again gives examples and emphasises that people just accepted it as a way of life. Everyone was, to coin a phrase, in the same boat. And my recollections, such as they are, confirm this; I cannot remember ever feeling “deprived” that I had to go out in the cold and wet to walk up our back yard lavatory. It never felt like a hardship that we didn't have hot water in the house for it was all we had ever known. The vast majority of the people in the town lived as I did. And that is why I enjoyed David Kynaston’s book so much – it was about real people and how they made the best of some very difficult years in “Austerity Britain 1945-1951”. It was a  salutary reminder of how very well off most of us are today and what austerity really is. It was, too, a poignant, personal and important reminder of family heritage and just why Harry always greeted men in the family with“ Have you got plenty of work?”.