The Beveridge inheritance.

Frank Field considers the Beveridge inheritance in this reevaluation of Sir William Beveridge's career. Beveridge's 1942 Report on Social Services was like the dawn of a new Britain, as he planned the foundations for Britain's post-war welfare state. What was Beveridge like? What made him tick? This programme uses Sir William's broadcasts, and those of Harold Wilson, Dick Crossman, Lord Longford and Clement Attlee, to explain aspects of the planning. He saw poverty on the streets of Oxford and wanted to change society. He wanted a society with social solidarity at its core. From employment exchanges to old age pensions he planned a 'living wage' with compulsory National Insurance from cradle to grave as the basis for funding.