🏥The Welfare State and the NHS

How Britain built its welfare state after 1945.

1. An exhausted nation

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   Although the UK had won the Second World War, the country was exhausted economically and the people wanted change and wider social reforms.

2. Labour elected 1945

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   In 1945 the British people elected a Labour government. The new Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, promised to introduce the welfare state.

   so

3. The Beveridge Report

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   The welfare state was outlined in the Beveridge Report, which recommended fighting the five Giant Evils of Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness.

   based on

4. The NHS founded 1948

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   Aneurin Bevan, the Minister for Health, led the establishment of the National Health Service, which guaranteed health care for all, free at the point of use.

   and so in 1948

5. Social security

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   A national system of benefits was introduced to provide social security, so the population would be protected from the cradle to the grave.

   alongside this

6. Nationalised industries

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   The government took into public ownership, or nationalised, the railways, coal mines and the gas, water and electricity supplies.