July 22nd,2 / Leave Feedback / nezuppal
Ask most secondary school children who Clement Attlee was and a blank stare is most likely the best you can hope for. Ask who Ernest Bevin was and you’ll probably get the same response. Ask who Aneurin Bevan was and someone will probably notice that you’ve been talking to school children for a bit too long.
Clement Attlee was the first post-war Prime Minister, elected in 1945, defeating Winston Churchill. “How could this unknown man beat such a war hero in a general election straight after the war?” Well, during the war a coalition of parties were formed to act in the nation’s best interest. (A coalition during times of emergency … that’d be nice.) And whilst Churchill got the glory for his speeches, his V sign and his public persona, he was actually in charge of war planning.
People forget that during the war British people needed to be fed. The economy needed to keep moving and people needed to keep working. This was Attlee’s job and he did it remarkably with no thanks or praise, all behind-the scenes. A quiet man, Churchill continually mocked Attlee throughout his political career, Churchill once joked that he was stood outside his hotel and an empty taxi pulled up, and out stepped Clement Attlee. Another example of the lack of respect – since the end of World War 2 the Queen has attended two state funerals for former Prime Ministers – Churchill and Thatcher. She did not attend Attlee’s.
Interesting, you may think (I hope you think), but why then does he matter? Attlee, Bevin and Bevan matter because they created the NHS.
Attlee was the mastermind of nationalisation. He passed numerous social reforms, created National Insurance in 1946 and founded the National Health Service in 1948 – arguably Britain’s proudest achievement. Now read the title again – did you really know his name? I could go on about his various political work with nationalisation and how he effectively salvaged a destroyed nation. But another time.
The question is, why is he not in the history books like Thatcher, Blair and Churchill. Attlee literally created a national treasure during the worst of times and he is barely consigned to the history books. During unprecedented pandemics like this we thank NHS staff, you get life-saving surgeries and you’ve never had to worry about health insurance before in your life. That’s unique. That’s because of Attlee. The man should be on stamps, banknotes and tattooed on new-borns. It really is a difficult question to answer why he has been so forgotten but my conclusion is that he was unfortunate to be in politics at the same time as Churchill.
Churchill once famously commented, ‘history will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.’ Following on from the quote ‘history is written by the winners.’ Indeed, that’s why we have Winston Churchill on a £5 note and most of you won’t have heard of the founder of the NHS.
Ignorantly Ignorant 