Government Affairs Blog

Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain

The first episode of Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain was broadcast last Tuesday at 9 pm on BBC 2. Over the next few weeks Marr will take in the decades that led us to where we are now.

Marr began with the General Election of 1945.  For those who missed the programme, and don’t pay attention to their political history, the election was a landslide victory for the Labour party.  Marr commented that Clement Attlee was one of two great British post-war Prime Ministers, the other being Margaret Thatcher.

Most people involved in politics will no doubt assume they know the story: the creation of the NHS, nationalisation and the Marshall Plan. 

There are several things that make this series worth watching.  One is Andrew Marr.  He is enthusiastic and engaging.  The second is the bits of the story that Marr picks out and that most of us won’t know or had forgotten. 

Marr tells us about the squatters in the 1940s, desperate for homes and let down by Government and the generous reaction of the British public who threw them food so they didn’t need to abandon their new illegal homes.  He tells is  that John Maynard Keynes had to beg the United States for economic assistance and was rejected only for America to change its mind once it realised the UK was unable to commit troops to Korea.  The politically obsessed probably know that it was a liberal who masterminded the Welfare State but for many it will have come as a surprise to learn that the author of the Beveridge report was not a socialist.  In fact, Keynes too was a liberal, something Marr left out.

Marr’s history isn’t just about social, political and economic change.  Ealing Studios was referenced several times and for Marr Michael Balcon (founder of the studios) is as significant a figure as Beveridge and Keynes. 

The final reason to watch this programme is the most important.  Marr in his way is telling us what makes us British.  This question has been raised many times in the last decade as we agonise over the difference between English and British culture.  Here for all to see are the people that make Britain what it is.  They define what it is to British, from Beveridge and his desire to end poverty to Michael Balcon and his belief in creating a cinematic national culture and in between all those who stood up against a State, who in the name of rationing, told them to eat a rather bizarre fish.

Simon Goldie is Head of Communication at The Chartered Institute of Taxation – www.tax.org.uk - and a member of the CIPR GAG committee