{"id":1707,"date":"2020-11-27T09:58:27","date_gmt":"2020-11-27T09:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewitnessexet.wpengine.com\/?p=1707"},"modified":"2021-01-14T15:42:05","modified_gmt":"2021-01-14T15:42:05","slug":"who-was-clement-attlee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/?p=1707","title":{"rendered":"Who was Clement Attlee?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The best Prime Minister we\u2019ve had since World War II<\/a>,\nor perhaps the \u201cindecisive and uninspiring<\/a>\u201d? The passage of\ntime has only made it clear just how much the former rings true. Regardless of\nwhat the opposition of the time thought about him, it is the change brought\nabout by Attlee that has shaped the UK into what it is today, perhaps more so\nthan any other Prime Minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming from a relatively\nmiddle-class background that allowed him to go to a good school and then study\nlaw at Oxford, Attlee in his earlier years can seem fairly mediocre. He worked\nas a barrister after graduating, moving to London and becoming exposed to the\nsocial disparities and inequalities created by extreme poverty. Horrified at\nthe sight, he quit his job and left to become a lecturer at LSE, having his first run in and victory over Hugh Dalton<\/a>,\ngiving the first hint at the man hidden beneath Attlee\u2019s understated exterior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was after the First World War\nthat Attlee started making his first proper steps into politics: first, as\nMayor of Stepney, then as MP for Limehouse. He later stated\nthat<\/a> \u201cIn a civilised community … there will be some persons who will be\nunable at some period of their lives to look after themselves, and the question\nof what is to happen to them may be solved in three ways \u2013 they may be neglected,\nthey may be cared for by the organised community as of right, or they may be\nleft to the goodwill of individuals in the community.\u201d\nIt seems to be this belief that drove his approach to politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attlee was then elected Labour\nleader and then became Deputy Prime Minister during the World War II coalition\ngovernment. His role was generally to care for domestic affairs while Churchill\nfocused on the war effort, showing how powerful and effective<\/a> Attlee could be.
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\nWhat followed was an absolutely shocking Labour victory in the general election\nand the chance to enact the most ambitious legislative programme in British\nhistory. Setting about to tackle the five \u2018great evils\u2019 of the Beveridge Report<\/a>, \u201cWant, Disease, Ignorance,\nSqualor and Idleness\u201d, Attlee enacts some of the most influential policy decisions\nto ever face the UK. His nationalisation of the railways may have saved much of\nthe transport system, as LNER, amongst others, saw a complete collapse in profitability<\/a>. He also\ncreated a \u2018cradle to grave<\/a>\u2019 system of welfare, where\npeople paid national insurance and in return saw benefits like pensions and\nchild benefit. His most brilliant achievement, however, was the National Health\nService. The NHS continues to save lives today, being one of the focal points\nof the coronavirus response and also having the support of both main parties,\ndespite the Conservatives vehemently opposing it at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not bad for someone described by\nChurchill as “a sheep in sheep’s clothing<\/a>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attlee kept fighting political\nbattles even after his time as Prime Minister, helping establish the Homosexual\nLaw Reform Society to decriminalise homosexuality, and then also later speaking\nagainst the UK joining the EEC. However, he, unfortunately, died in 1967 from\npneumonia, receiving a simple funeral that seemed in keeping with his love of \u201csimplicity and directness<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the time since his death,\nAttlee has become known as one of the most amazing Prime Ministers in history<\/a>,\nwith opinions about his supposed boringness gone in favour of respect for his\nachievements. He may have appeared more quiet and understated than expected of\na politician, but he gained the respect of even Margaret Thatcher for his \u201call\nsubstance and no show<\/a>\u201d approach and will likely be remembered for a\nvery long time as the most successful Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

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The best Prime Minister we\u2019ve had since World War II, or perhaps the \u201cindecisive and uninspiring\u201d? The passage of time has only made <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-british","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}