Spirit of '45.

I shall hopefully be returning to full activity once again with a slight change in schedule. If everything is normal I should be posting articles every Monday and Friday. Here is an extremely short post I wrote after watching the Spirit of '45 on netflix

In the Second World War the vast industrial capacity of the United Kingdom was focused towards a singular goal, the destruction of Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers. Politics flew out of the window as all parties worked together in order to ensure production converting consumer goods factory to produce goods for the front lines and nationalising mines in order to ensure a constant rate of production. After achieving this victory the country was faced with a multitude of challenges damage from the blitz and the remnants of slum housing from the 30's combined with the near bankrupt nature of the country. Today we face the aftermath of one of the largest financial disasters since the great depression and a housing crisis that has been compounded by decades worth of government inaction. As a result people on the left and right have started blaming migrant communities for the shortage in housing, schools, hospitals and other local public services claiming that the influx of people as overwhelmed the system and led to the current situation but even if this was the case (its not) the current crisis remains and for a solution we must look at the actions of past governments

During the 45 election campaign Clement Atlee and the Labour Party pledged to remove the slums of the past and replace them with quality homes that will provide a stable foundation for the creation of the modern welfare state. After achieving a landslide victory Nye Bevan, then Minister of Health stepped into the role working with town planners and architects to construct attractive low-income housing (that was obviously a massive increase in quality from the slums of the past), nationalising former privately owned hospitals and constructing new clinics to suit the needs of the population. We need to re-kindle the spirit of 45 and empower national and local government not only to construct new homes, schools and hospitals but repair current empty lots and re-open public services forced to close due to government cuts. An end to the damaging policy of austerity and a solution to the public services crisis that does not involve scapegoating immigrants.