The Five Giants [New Edition]: A Biography of the Welfare State. Nicholas Timmins

The Five Giants [New Edition]: A Biography of the Welfare State

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Source ISBN: 978-0-00-733513-8

Ebook Edition © November 2017 ISBN: 9780008236168

Version: 2018-06-27

For Arthur, Violet and Effra

Plus any future siblings or cousins, in the hope

that as and when they need it, it will still be there.

And to all those people, users and providers,

politicians, civil servants, academics, clinicians,

managers, teachers and others who attempt to explain

the workings of the welfare state to ignorant hacks.

Without them the reporting of the subject would be

even worse than it is.

Social reform is a process, not an event: a kind of drama.

David Donnison, The Politics of Poverty (1981), p.viii

I do not agree with those who say that every man must look after himself, and that intervention by the state … will be fatal to his self-reliance, his foresight and his thrift … It is a mistake to suppose that thrift is caused only by fear; it springs from hope as well as fear. Where there is no hope, be sure there will be no thrift.

Winston Churchill, Liberalism and the Social Problems (1909), p. 209

‘Two nations: between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws.’

‘You speak of –’ said Egremont hesitatingly, ‘the rich and the poor?’

Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil (1845), Book II, chapter 5.

When the evidence changes, I change my mind. What do you do?

Cod quote attributed to John Maynard Keynes

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

List of Illustrations

Preface

Preface to the Third Edition

Introduction