Editing Aneurin Bevan (section)

==Government==
The 1945 general election resulted in a landslide victory for the Labour Party, giving it a large enough majority to allow the implementation of the party's [[manifesto]] commitments and to introduce a programme of far-reaching social reforms, that were collectively dubbed the "[[Welfare state in the United Kingdom|Welfare State]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/man/lab45.htm|title=Let Us Face the Future: A Declaration of Labour Policy for the Consideration of the Nation|publisher=Labour Party|via=Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources|access-date=20 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720200817/http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/man/lab45.htm|archive-date=20 July 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zy6xhyc/revision/1 |title=The Welfare State and its impact |publisher=BBC |access-date=27 October 2019}}</ref> These reforms were achieved in the face of great financial difficulty following the war. The new Prime Minister, [[Clement Attlee]], appointed Bevan as Minister of Health, with a remit that also covered housing. Thus, the responsibility for instituting a new and comprehensive [[National Health Service]], as well as tackling the country's severe post-war housing shortage, was given to Bevan, the youngest member of Attlee's Cabinet in his first ministerial position at the age of 47.<ref name="about">{{cite web |url=https://www.nyebevan.org.uk/about-nye/ |title=About Nye |website=nyebevan.org.uk |access-date=28 July 2019}}</ref> Although described in ''[[The Times]]'' as "an outstanding back-bench critic" and "one of (Labour's) most brilliant members in debate", his appointment was regarded as a relative surprise, given his previous disciplinary issues.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BRdrq9 |url-access=subscription |title=The New Government |newspaper=The Times |page=4 |date=4 August 1945 |access-date=27 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref> Bevan had clashed frequently with Attlee during his time as an MP, believing that the Labour leader failed to apply enough pressure on the Tory government during the war. He had also seen disputes with some of Attlee's closest allies, [[Ernest Bevin]] and [[Herbert Morrison]], who were appointed [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]] and [[Leader of the House of Commons|Leader of the House]] respectively. However, Attlee commented that Bevan was "starting with me with a clean sheet" following his appointment.<ref name="Footv2c1">Foot, vol. 2, ch. 1., p. 25.</ref> Bevan tested this newfound solidarity early on by arriving to a royal banquet at [[St James's Palace]] wearing a navy lounge suit.<ref name="Footv2c1"/> He earned a rebuke from Attlee, but Bevan contended that his Welsh mining constituency did not send him to Parliament to "dress up", and he declined to wear formal attire at further [[Buckingham Palace]] functions.<ref>Michie, Allan A. (1952), ''God Save the Queen: A Modern Monarchy'', William Sloane, p. 159.</ref>

===Minister of Health (1945–1951)===
[[File:Anenurin Bevan, Minister of Health, on the first day of the National Health Service, 5 July 1948 at Park Hospital, Davyhulme, near Manchester (14465908720).jpg|thumb|Bevan talking to a patient at [[Trafford General Hospital|Park Hospital]], Manchester, the day the NHS came into being.]]
The free [[National Health Service]] was paid for directly through public money. Bevan had been inspired by the [[Tredegar Medical Aid Society]] in his hometown, where residents would pay a subscription to enable all subscribers and their dependants to have free access to medical services such as nursing or dental care.<ref name=NHS70>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-44658282 |title=NHS 70: Aneurin Bevan Day celebrations in Tredegar |work=BBC News |date=1 July 2018 |access-date=30 July 2019}}</ref> This system proved so popular that 20,000 people supported the organisation during the 1930s. Government income was increased for the welfare state expenditure by a large increase in marginal tax rates for wealthy business owners in particular, as part of what the Labour government largely saw as the redistribution of the wealth created by the working-class from the owners of large-scale industry to the workers.<ref>Bevan argues that the percentage of tax from personal incomes rose from 9% in 1938 to 15% in 1949. But the lowest paid a tax rate of 1%, up from 0.2% in 1938, the middle income brackets paid 14% to 26%, up from 10% to 18% in 1938, the higher earners paid 42%, up from 29%, and the top earners 77%, up from 58% in 1938. ''In Place of Fear'', p. 146. If you earned over £800,000 per annum in 2005 money terms (£10,000 in 1948), you paid 76.7% income tax.</ref> Having been a member of the [[Tredegar General Hospital|Cottage Hospital]] Management Committee around 1928 and serving as chairman in 1929–30, Bevan had received an insight into the management of health services by local authorities, which proved to be a bedrock of his work in founding the National Health Service.<ref name="tsi"/>

{{blockquote|The collective principle asserts that&nbsp;... no society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.|Aneurin Bevan|''In Place of Fear'', p. 100}}

On the "appointed day", 5 July 1948, Bevan's [[National Health Service Act 1946]] came into force. On the day, Bevan attended a ceremony at the [[Trafford General Hospital|Park Hospital, Trafford]] (now Trafford General), at which he symbolically received the keys to the hospital.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2008/07/03/nhs60_trafford_general_hospital_feature.shtml |title=Trafford General: Where It All Began |publisher=BBC |date=3 July 2008 |access-date=24 February 2019 }}</ref> The scheme was achieved having overcome political opposition from both the Conservative Party and from within his own party. Confrontation with the [[British Medical Association]] (BMA) was led by [[Charles Hill, Baron Hill of Luton|Charles Hill]], who published a letter in the [[The BMJ|''British Medical Journal'']] describing Bevan as "a complete and uncontrolled dictator".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Clark |first1=Sir George Norman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wpm8gmGt7Q4C&dq=bevan+%22a+complete+and+uncontrolled+dictator%22&pg=PA1311 |title=A History of the Royal College of Physicians of London |last2=Briggs |first2=Asa |date=1964 |publisher=Clarendon Press for the Royal College of Physicians |isbn=978-0-19-925334-0 |language=en}}</ref> Members of the BMA had dubbed him the "[[Tito]] of Tonypandy".<ref name="tsi"/><ref name="birthnhs">{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-birth-of-the-nhs-856091.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-birth-of-the-nhs-856091.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=The Birth of the NHS |newspaper=The Independent |last=McSmith |first=Andy |date=28 June 2008 |access-date=28 July 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref> They threatened to derail the National Health Service scheme before it had even begun, as medical practitioners continued to withhold their support just months before the launch of the service. After eighteen months of ongoing dispute between the [[Department of Health (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Health]] and the BMA, Bevan finally managed to win over the support of the vast majority of the medical profession by offering a couple of minor concessions, including allowing consultants to keep their own private practices and continuing to allow doctors to be paid in capitation fees rather than salaries,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thorpe |first=Andrew |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0 |title=A History of the British Labour Party |date=1997 |publisher=Macmillan Education UK |isbn=978-0-333-56081-5 |location=London |pages=122–123 |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0 |ref=none}}</ref> but without compromising the fundamental principles of his National Health Service proposals. At a dinner in late 1955 or early 1956 to celebrate the publication of the [[Guillebaud Report]] into NHS costs Bevan remarked to [[Julian Tudor Hart]] "ultimately I had to stuff their mouths with gold" about his handling of the consultants. This is often quoted as "I stuffed their mouths with gold".<ref>{{cite book|last=|first=|author-link=|editor-first=Charles|editor-last=Webster|editor-link= Charles Webster (historian of medicine)|title=Aneurin Bevan on the National Health Service|year=1991|publisher=University of Oxford Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine|location=Oxford|isbn=0906844096|pages=219–220|contributor=|chapter=Note on 'Stuffing their Mouth with Gold'}}</ref><ref name="birthnhs"/> Some 2,688 voluntary and municipal hospitals in [[England and Wales]] were nationalised and came under Bevan's supervisory control as Health Minister. Two of the key elements of Bevan's proposals were this nationalisation of the hospital services and the abolition of the sale and purchase of goodwill by general practitioners. The former aimed to provide a uniform standard of consultant led care and expertise throughout the country and to replace the patchwork of voluntary and municipal hospitals which existed at that point. The latter – sale and purchase of goodwill – often placed new entrants to the GP profession under large amounts of debt. Along with this, the Medical Practices Committee was to oversee the distribution of GP practices – a proposal which the previous Coalition Minister had withdrawn after opposition from the British Medical Association.

Bevan said:

{{blockquote|The National Health Service and the Welfare State have come to be used as interchangeable terms, and in the mouths of some people as terms of reproach. Why this is so it is not difficult to understand, if you view everything from the angle of a strictly individualistic competitive society. A free health service is pure Socialism and as such it is opposed to the hedonism of capitalist society.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.sochealth.co.uk/national-health-service/the-sma-and-the-foundation-of-the-national-health-service-dr-leslie-hilliard-1980/aneurin-bevan-and-the-foundation-of-the-nhs/in-place-of-fear-a-free-health-service-1952/ |title=In Place of Fear |page=81 |last=Bevan |first=Aneurin |date=13 March 1952 |access-date=27 October 2019}}</ref>|Aneurin Bevan|''In Place of Fear'', p. 81}}

Conservative opposition of the National Health Service scheme feared that the sudden access to [[free health care]] would be overrun. In its early stages this proved true, as the service went vastly over budget in its inaugural year, and Attlee was forced to make a radio address to the nation in an attempt to limit the strain on the system. Bevan countered that the initial overspending was down to years of underinvestment in the [[Healthcare in the United Kingdom|British medical system]] prior to the Second World War: by the start of the 1950s, the early overspending had come to an end.<ref name="birthnhs"/>

===Housing reform===
[[File:Statue of Aneurin Bevan, Cardiff - geograph.org.uk - 309913.jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of Bevan in [[Cardiff]] by [[Robert Thomas (sculptor)|Robert Thomas]]]]

When Bevan was made a minister in 1945, he envisaged the [[Public housing in the United Kingdom|social housing sector]] as a housing service similar to the National Health Service, ensuring that everyone had access to decent and affordable homes, with people still having the option to live in owner occupation or the private sector if they so chose (with grants made available to owner-occupiers and private landlords to bring dwellings up to decent standards).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G0koAQAAIAAJ|title=Where the Other Half Lives: Lower Income Housing in a Neoliberal World|last=Glynn|first=Sarah|date=2009|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=978-0-7453-2858-4|pages=42|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1949/mar/16/housing-bill|title=Housing Bill (''Hansard'', 16 March 1949)|website=api.parliament.uk|access-date=2019-12-18}}</ref> The removal of the criteria of "working class" from local authority housing provision was seen as a first step, widening access to the council housing that was becoming an ever larger part of the UK housing stock and which made up a majority of new homes built after the war.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bevanfoundation.org/commentary/why-nye/|title=Why Nye?|last=The Bevan Foundation|website=Bevan Foundation|language=en|access-date=2019-12-18}}</ref> The aim was to create new homes and communities with a place for all sections of society :

{{blockquote|We should try to introduce in our modern villages and towns what was always the lovely feature of English and Welsh villages, where the doctor, the grocer, the butcher and the farm labourer all lived in the same street. I believe that is essential for the full life of citizen&nbsp;... to see the living tapestry of a mixed community.<ref>Beech, Matt, and Simon Lee (eds), ''Ten Years of New Labour'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.</ref>|Aneurin Bevan|Parliament speech, 1949<ref>{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1949/mar/16/housing-bill |title=Housing bill |work=Hansard |access-date=27 October 2019}}</ref>}}

Substantial bombing damage, with over 700,000 homes needing repair in London alone,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BRdyy9 |url-access=subscription |title=Utmost Vigour for Housing |newspaper=The Times |page=2 |date=25 August 1945 |access-date=27 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref> and the continued existence of pre-war slums in many parts of the country made the task of housing reform particularly challenging for Bevan. Indeed, these factors, exacerbated by post-war restrictions on the availability of building materials and skilled labour, collectively served to limit Bevan's achievements in this area. Bevan was also limited due to his desire for new homes to be bigger and of better quality than the ones they were being built to replace, based on the recommendations of a 1943 report by the Dudley Committee, and a shortage of skilled workers to undertake the work.<ref name="Holmes">{{cite web |url=https://www.ippr.org/files/images/media/files/publication/2011/05/housing_equality_choice_full_1284.pdf |pages=19–32 |title=Housing, Equality and Choice |last=Holmes |first=Chris |publisher=Institute for Public Policy Research |access-date=28 July 2019 |archive-date=20 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120194104/https://www.ippr.org/files/images/media/files/publication/2011/05/housing_equality_choice_full_1284.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.library.wales/index.php?id=8291 |title=Welsh Politicians |publisher=The National Library of Wales |access-date=28 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BReEq4 |url-access=subscription |title=Housing Labour Short for "Some Months" |newspaper=The Times |page=2 |date=10 December 1945 |access-date=27 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref> 1946 saw the completion of 55,600 new homes; this rose to 139,600 in 1947 and 227,600 in 1948. While this was not an insignificant achievement – the 850,000 homes built in the four years immediately after the war ended was the biggest housing programme ever introduced<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/housing-owned-people-people--2066201 |title=Housing owned by the people for the people – Nye would have approved |work=WalesOnline |publisher=Media Wales |date=21 December 2009 |access-date=27 October 2019}}</ref> – Bevan's rate of house-building was exceeded by his Conservative (indirect) successor, [[Harold Macmillan]], who was able to complete some 300,000 new homes a year as Minister for Housing in the 1950s. These numbers were reached by lowering the quality standards originally put forward by Bevan, with council houses featuring gardens being largely dropped in favour of tower blocks and flats.<ref name="Holmes"/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BQi8i7 |url-access=subscription |title=Aneurin Bevan |newspaper=The Times |page=5 (S2) |date=10 April 1993 |access-date=30 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref> Macmillan was also able to concentrate full-time on the housing crisis, instead of being obliged, like Bevan, to combine his housing portfolio with that for Health (which for Bevan took the higher priority: he once stated [[tongue-in-cheek]] that he devoted "five minutes a week to housing").<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/23/grenfell-tower-radical-overhaul-housing-policy |title=Housing Inequality Kills |newspaper=The Guardian |last=Hanley |first=Lynsey |date=23 June 2017 |access-date=27 July 2019}}</ref>

At a party rally in 1948, during a speech, Bevan stated: "That is why no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party that inflicted those bitter experiences on me. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin. They condemned millions of first-class people to semi-starvation."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sochealth.co.uk/national-health-service/the-sma-and-the-foundation-of-the-national-health-service-dr-leslie-hilliard-1980/aneurin-bevan-and-the-foundation-of-the-nhs/bevans-speech-to-the-manchester-labour-rally-4-july-1948/|title=Bevan's speech to the Manchester Labour rally|date=4 July 1948|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]], [[The Manchester Guardian]], and [[The Times]]|via=Socialist Health Association|access-date=20 August 2018}}</ref> The comment inspired the creation of the [[Vermin Club]] by angry Conservatives, who attacked Bevan for years for the metaphor. Labour Party deputy leader [[Herbert Morrison]] complained that Bevan's attack had backfired, for his words "did much more to make the Tories work and vote&nbsp;... than [[Conservative Central Office]] could have done".<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas-Symonds|2014|p=5}}</ref> It was later claimed that his words had cost Labour more than two million votes.<ref name="Butler"/>{{by whom|date=November 2021}}

In 1951, with the retirement of [[Ernest Bevin]], Bevan was a leading candidate for Foreign Secretary. Prime Minister Attlee rejected Bevan in favour of [[Herbert Morrison]] because he distrusted Bevan's personality. In his biography of Bevan, John Campbell wrote: "Bevan's impetuous temperament, undiplomatic tone and reputation as an extreme left-winger combined to make the Foreign Office seem the last place a prudent Prime Minister would think of putting him at any time. His 'vermin' speech still resonated: imagination shuddered at a repetition of that on the international stage."<ref>Campbell, John, ''Nye Bevan: a biography'' (1987), p. 229.</ref>

===Minister of Labour and National Service (1951)===
Bevan was instead appointed [[Secretary of State for Employment#Minister of Labour and National Service|Minister of Labour]] in January 1951 in place of [[George Isaacs]]. The move was seen by some as a sideways or backwards step, although a potential rearmament programme was expected to make the post of future importance.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/nhs_at_50/special_report/120208.stm |title=Aneurin Bevan – Labour's Lost Leader |work=BBC News |date=1 July 1998 |access-date=29 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BRoht7 |url-access=subscription |title=Mr. Bevan as Minister of Labour |newspaper=The Times |page=5 |date=18 January 1951 |access-date=29 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref> During his tenure, Bevan helped to secure a deal for railwaymen which provided them with a significant pay increase.<ref>{{cite book|first=Kenneth O.|last=Morgan|title=Labour in Power, 1945–51| year=1985|page=300|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780192851505}}</ref> However, three months after his appointment, [[Hugh Gaitskell]] introduced a proposal of [[prescription charges]] for dental care and spectacles—created to save a potential £25m to meet the financial demands imposed by the [[Korean War]]. An infuriated Bevan stated that he would never be a member of a government that imposed charges on the National Health Service.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BRoht7 |url-access=subscription |title=Dissentian but no Resignations |newspaper=The Times |page=6 |date=12 April 1951 |access-date=29 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref> The Labour MP [[David Marquand]] has stated that the savings were introduced by Gaitskell simply to "impose his will" upon Bevan who he saw as a political rival.<ref name="ns"/> Bevan resigned from his position two weeks later, stating both the proposed changes and the increase in military expenditure that necessitated the need for such proposals.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BRp4w4 |url-access=subscription |title=Mr. Bevan Resigns |newspaper=The Times |page=5 |date=23 April 1951 |access-date=29 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite hansard |jurisdiction=United Kingdom |title=Mr Aneurin Bevan (Statement) |url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1951-04-23/debates/9724e67c-a557-4305-8fcb-1cc99cb1a7b2/MrAneurinBevan(Statement) |house=House of Commons |date=23 April 1951 |column_start=34 |column_end=43 |speaker=Aneurin Bevan |position=Minister of Labour}}</ref> Two other ministers, [[John Freeman (British politician)|John Freeman]] and [[Harold Wilson]], resigned at the same time.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/major-john-freeman-soldier-who-became-an-mp-diplomat-and-broadcaster-best-known-for-his-series-of-9938495.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/major-john-freeman-soldier-who-became-an-mp-diplomat-and-broadcaster-best-known-for-his-series-of-9938495.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Major John Freeman: Soldier who became an MP, diplomat and broadcaster best known for his series of interviews, Face to Face |newspaper=The Independent |last=Leapman |first=Michael |date=21 December 2014 |access-date=27 October 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Bevan received unanimous support for his actions from his local Labour constituency leaders.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BRxY76 |url-access=subscription |title=Ebbw Vale Backs Mr. Bevan |newspaper=The Times |page=4 |date=30 April 1951 |access-date=29 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref>

Later the same year, the Labour Party were defeated at [[1951 United Kingdom general election|the general election]]. After Bevan left the Health ministry in 1951 he could never regain his level of success and feuded with fellow Labour leaders, using his strong political base as a weapon. Historian [[Kenneth O. Morgan]] says: "Bevan alone kept the flag of left-wing socialism aloft throughout—which gave him a matchless authority amongst the constituency parties and in party conference".<ref>Morgan, ''Labour in Power'' (1985), p. 57.</ref>