My dad was an electrician all his working life, and was employed from 1938 to 1977 by the same company which manufactured electric furnaces. He was just an ordinary working-bloke, but at the end of the War his firm gained some large contracts to install electric furnaces in Europe. This meant that from about 1947 onwards my dad travelled quite a bit, especially to Sweden, the first time he had ever been out of the country. He also spent a short time in Germany and Italy. These visits made a lasting and profound impression on him, and to the end of his life he would sound off about how, after WW2, the neutral and even the defeated countries enjoyed a better standard of living than poor victorious Britain. He'd go on about how there were no food shortages or rationing in Italy, yet well into the 1950's some basic foodstuffs were still rationed in the UK. He couldn't understand how Italian shops were loaded with good food and luxury goods, whereas in England you had to queue to get your ration-card for the absolute basics.
All his life he'd tell anyone who cared to listen that, in his opinion, Attlee 'punished' the British electorate for supporting Churchill through the war, by extending austerity long after it was necessary to do so, keeping wages low and taxes high. Dad wasn't concerned that in 1945 the British people voted Churchill out and Attlee in! Dad called it the 'Welfare State Election Of Lies', and that Attlee got in purely on the basis of false promises. He hated that man, and he hated the postwar Labour Government with a vengeance. He was also convinced that at the end of the War the USA turned its back on Britain, and poured money into the defeated nations so that they became dependent upon America.
Until the day he died he would say that far from being the champion of the working-man, the Labour Party and various Labour Governments have done nothing whatsover for the people who put them in power. Had Dad lived to see the Blair Government, I think he'd have died of apoplexy! His hero was, it goes without saying, Winston Churchill. Dad was also a great admirer of Harold MacMillan who, he said, gave this country some pride in itself and wasn't afraid of material benefits, higher wages, lower taxes, etc. Dad said that MacMillan was the only Prime Minister who really did do something for the workers - including ridding the country of the austerity hangover from the War. And then of course along came Harold Wilson who turned everything around again.
I don't think Dad voted again after Thatcher got in. He was very bitter about the War and its repercussions as far as the workers were concerned, and he very often used the word 'betrayal' when he was in full flow.
I just wonder if anyone else feels the same as Dad did, or if their own father had similar views. Please note that the above are his thoughts and convictions, not mine! I shan't say what I think!
Big Gee
All his life he'd tell anyone who cared to listen that, in his opinion, Attlee 'punished' the British electorate for supporting Churchill through the war, by extending austerity long after it was necessary to do so, keeping wages low and taxes high. Dad wasn't concerned that in 1945 the British people voted Churchill out and Attlee in! Dad called it the 'Welfare State Election Of Lies', and that Attlee got in purely on the basis of false promises. He hated that man, and he hated the postwar Labour Government with a vengeance. He was also convinced that at the end of the War the USA turned its back on Britain, and poured money into the defeated nations so that they became dependent upon America.
Until the day he died he would say that far from being the champion of the working-man, the Labour Party and various Labour Governments have done nothing whatsover for the people who put them in power. Had Dad lived to see the Blair Government, I think he'd have died of apoplexy! His hero was, it goes without saying, Winston Churchill. Dad was also a great admirer of Harold MacMillan who, he said, gave this country some pride in itself and wasn't afraid of material benefits, higher wages, lower taxes, etc. Dad said that MacMillan was the only Prime Minister who really did do something for the workers - including ridding the country of the austerity hangover from the War. And then of course along came Harold Wilson who turned everything around again.
I don't think Dad voted again after Thatcher got in. He was very bitter about the War and its repercussions as far as the workers were concerned, and he very often used the word 'betrayal' when he was in full flow.
I just wonder if anyone else feels the same as Dad did, or if their own father had similar views. Please note that the above are his thoughts and convictions, not mine! I shan't say what I think!
Big Gee