DOCSLIB.ORG

The Social Liberalism of Keynes and Beveridge, 1922 – 1945

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Social Liberalism of Keynes and Beveridge, 1922 – 1945 ‘RELUCTANT’ OR LIBERAL COllECTIVisTS? ThE SOciAL LIBERAlism OF KEYNES And BEVERidgE, 1922 – 1945 At the 1945 British General Election, held in the wake of the Allied victory in Europe, the Liberal Party addressed the electorate in an assertive, heir social liberal creed but because, in their view, it would prescribed an extended role entail productive forms of state even confident, spirit. Tfor the State in both eco- activity that were compatible with Its election campaign, nomic and social policy, involv- liberal values – with the defence of ing commitments to a managed individual freedom and the pursuit chaired by Sir William market economy, to the goal of of rational progress in promoting full employment, and to a welfare the common welfare. Beveridge, promoted society. But this expansion of the Reflecting, then, those State’s role was justified by Keynes ideological influences, as well as a clear and radical and Beveridge not for its own sake, the prevailing climate of popular programme which involved, in several important respects, a broadly collectivist approach towards the nation’s acute economic and social problems. That approach was itself consistent with the kind of social liberalism which both Beveridge and Maynard Keynes, by 1945 the Liberal Party’s most influential policy intellectuals, had, in their different ways, advocated during the interwar and wartime years. Tudor Jones examines their approach. 32 Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 ‘RELUCTANT’ OR LIBERAL COllECTIVisTS? ThE SOciAL LIBERAlism OF KEYNES And BEVERidgE, 1922 – 1945 opinion, the Liberal manifesto Security and Full Employment, been destroyed or damaged beyond stressed the need for post-war the Liberal Party leads a frontal repair during World War II. Land social reform and reconstruction, attack on this Fear.1 development rights outside built- declaring that: up areas were to be ‘acquired for In addition, the Party advocated the public’ and ‘a periodic levy on mankind is a prey to Fear – fear a Ministry of Housing to oversee all increases in site values’ was pro- of poverty and want through a post-war housebuilding drive, posed in order to secure for the unemployment, sickness, acci- including an expansion of afford- community any appreciation in the dent and old age. With the able housing, in a country in which value of land that was due to com- Beveridge schemes for Social more than 500,000 dwellings had munal action.2 The Liberal manifesto also called for the public ownership of the coal-mining industry, depicted as ‘the key to the health of our basic industries and our export trade’, and therefore accorded the status of ‘a public service’. The rail- ways and electric power similarly should be organised as public utili- ties, and in general it was argued that where there was ‘no further expansion or useful competition in an industry’, or where an industry had become a private monopoly, it should become a public utility.3 In British industry Liberals believed in ‘the need for both private enter- prise and large-scale organisation under government control’, and, in deciding which form was nec- essary, identified as the tests to be applied in each particular case ‘the service of the public, the efficiency of production and the well-being of those concerned in the industry in question’.4 All in all, the Liberal election manifesto of 1945 was thus, as Alan Watkins later noted, ‘surprisingly leftist both in content and in tone’.5 Certainly, by 1945 a more collec- tivist strand of thought was widely evident within the Party. It under- lay both its economic and its social policy proposals, reflecting the Journal of Liberal History 78 Spring 2013 33 ‘RELUCTANT’ OR liBERAL COllECTIVisTS? THE SOciAL liBERAlism OF KEYNES And BEVERidgE, 1922–1945 highly influential contemporary played a leading part.8 These con- movement – including Keynes, ideas of Maynard Keynes and Wil- sisted of, first, the Liberal Sum- Henderson, Layton, Muir and liam Beveridge. mer School movement, established Ernest Simon. To some extent, too, the shift to in 1921 and running from 1922 Rejecting the traditional antith- state collectivism in Liberal policy onwards; second, the Liberal peri- esis between individualism and col- and thought by 1945 was due to odical, The Nation, founded in lectivism, Britain’s Industrial Future the influence of a pressure group 1907 and managed by Keynes as offered radical proposals for state within the Party originally estab- active chairman from 1923 until intervention in the British econ- lished in 1941 under the name, the its absorption into The New States- omy without recourse to the ortho- Liberal Action Group, and renamed man in 1931; and third, the Liberal dox socialist remedies of large-scale Radical Action in 1943. It sought Industrial Inquiry, financed by state or collective ownership of to campaign for imaginative and David Lloyd George, and culmi- industry or central state economic radical policies for post-war social nating in Britain’s Industrial Future, planning. In addition to advocat- and economic reconstruction and, published in 1928, the key propos- ing joint consultation in industry more immediately, to question or als of which later appeared in We between workers and managers, challenge the Party leadership’s Can Conquer Unemployment and Can the Yellow Book put forward as its support for the wartime electoral Lloyd George Do It?, the pamphlets key proposal a Board of National truce between the three main par- that launched the Liberals’ 1929 Investment, which would oversee a ties. Founded by Donald Johnson, general election campaign. wide-ranging programme of state a doctor and publisher, Honor Bal- Like their Edwardian New Lib- investment in public works. This four, a journalist, and Ivor Davies, eral predecessors, these intellectual anticipated Keynes’s case in The another publisher, the group later movements and influences may be General Theory of Employment, Inter- included among its most prominent described as social liberal, rather est and Money, published eight years members the Liberal MPs, Clem- than classical liberal, in character To some later, for large-scale public invest- ent Davies, Dingle Foot and Tom since, while supporting a market ment as a crucial means of stimulat- Horabin. In 1942 Lancelot Spicer economy, they advocated a signifi- extent, too, ing economic activity and reducing replaced Donald Johnson as the cant measure of state intervention mass unemployment. group’s chairman. By the time of in modifying or supplementing the shift to The authors of Britain’s Indus- the dissolution of Parliament in market outcomes in order to reduce trial Future, published a few months 1945, six of the 19-strong Parlia- mass unemployment and to pro- state col- before the Wall Street Crash, suc- mentary Liberal Party were mem- mote social welfare.9 During the ceeded, as Ed Randall has observed, bers of Radical Action.6 1920s the Liberal Summer School lectivism in in ‘fashioning a Liberal programme Aiming to radicalise the party movement thus sought to build on for national recovery calibrated to in respect of its policy, strategy the foundations of Edwardian New Liberal policy needs of their own times’.14 Their and organisation, Radical Action Liberalism by recommending selec- most significant proposals were strongly supported the Beveridge tive state intervention in the cause and thought popularised a year later in the two Report and its far-reaching pro- of social reform whilst turning by 1945 was 1929 election pamphlets, Can Lloyd posals for social security after its away from the path of doctrinaire George Do It?, co-written by Keynes publication in December 1942. It state socialism.10 due to the and Hubert Henderson, and We also claimed credit for encouraging The Liberal Summer School Can Conquer Unemployment, pub- the party leader, Sir Archibald Sin- movement was, as Michael Freeden influence of lished in Lloyd George’s name.15 clair, and other senior party figures has observed, ‘the linchpin of lib- The latter document’s centrepiece eventually to support Beveridge’s eral and progressive thought during a pressure was its proposal for massive public proposals. It succeeded, too, in the 1920s’.11 Its leading lights were investment in road-building, hous- pressurising the Liberal leadership drawn partly from Manchester - group within ing, electrification and other pub- into fighting the forthcoming 1945 including Ramsay Muir, Ernest lic works. The Yellow Book, and General Election as an independ- Simon and Edward Scott - and the Party the documents that it generated, ent political organisation, and into partly from Cambridge – includ- thus reflected the major influence keeping free of any subsequent coa- ing Keynes, Hubert Henderson originally that Keynes had exerted during his lition arrangements once the war and Walter Layton. The movement period of closest involvement in the had ended.7 became particularly influential established politics of the Liberal Party, that But more significantly, the after Lloyd George assumed the is, between 1924 and 1929 – years ascendancy of Liberal collectiv- Party leadership in 1926. During in 1941 under in which he had set out, in Rob- ist ideas in 1945 could be traced that year he personally initiated ert Skidelsky’s words, ‘to supply it back to the currents of social lib- and financed the Liberal Industry the name, with nothing short of a new philos- eral thought that flowed during Inquiry which resulted in the pub- ophy of government’.16 the interwar years. In that period lication of Britain’s Industrial Future, the Liberal In ideological terms, Keynes of electoral decline and internal ‘the Yellow Book’ as it was popu- Action Group, saw the central task of this govern- strife, the Party had nonetheless larly known, in February 1928.12 ing philosophy, his version of social continued to display its intellectual That ‘formidable and … exceed- and renamed liberalism for the 1920s, as one of vitality.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Welfare State Under Labour 1945-1951 Was It a Success?
    DEMOCRATIC AND POPULAR REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND SIENTIFIC RESEARCH University of Mentouri *CONSTANTINE* Faculty of Letters and Languages Department of Foreign Languages ⁄English Title: The Welfare State under Labour 1945-1951 Was it a Success? A Mémoire Submitted to the Department of Foreign Languages in Candidacy for the Degree of Master in British Studies Candidate: Supervisor: Soumia BOUGUERRA Prof. Brahim HAROUN 2009 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgements........................................................................................4 Abstract: In English ...........................................................................................5 In French ..........................................................................................6 In Arabic ...........................................................................................7 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 8 Chapter One: The Shift to Labour .............................................................12 1. The 1945 Election ...................................................................................12 2. The Reasons for Labour’s Win ............................................................14 3. Reactions to Labour’s Win ...................................................................18 Chapter Two: The Impact of Beveridge on Labour’s Social Policies .....................................................................................................................22
    [Show full text]
  • A Breach in the Family
    The Lloyd Georges J Graham Jones examines the defections, in the 1950s, of the children of David Lloyd George: Megan to Labour, and her brother Gwilym to the Conservatives. AA breachbreach inin thethe familyfamily G. thinks that Gwilym will go to the right and she became a cogent exponent of her father’s ‘LMegan to the left, eventually. He wants his dramatic ‘New Deal’ proposals to deal with unem- money spent on the left.’ Thus did Lloyd George’s ployment and related social problems. Although op- trusted principal private secretary A. J. Sylvester posed by a strong local Labour candidate in the per- write in his diary entry for April when dis- son of Holyhead County Councillor Henry Jones in cussing his employer’s heartfelt concern over the fu- the general election of , she secured the votes of ture of his infamous Fund. It was a highly prophetic large numbers of Labour sympathisers on the island. comment. The old man evidently knew his children. In , she urged Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to welcome the Jarrow marchers, and she battled he- Megan roically (although ultimately in vain) to gain Special Megan Lloyd George had first entered Parliament at Assisted Area Status for Anglesey. Megan’s innate only twenty-seven years of age as the Liberal MP for radicalism and natural independence of outlook Anglesey in the We Can Conquer Unemployment gen- grew during the years of the Second World War, eral election of May , the first women mem- which she saw as a vehicle of social change, espe- ber ever to be elected in Wales.
    [Show full text]
  • 01.01.13 Green Liberalism
    The Green liberalism project is part of a wider Green Alliance programme which looks at the relationship between the values and priorities of the UK’s three main political traditions – conservatism, liberalism and social democracy – and their support for the development of a greener economy. Green Alliance is non-partisan and supports a politically pluralist approach to greening the economy and restoring natural systems. Many political scientists consider the environment to be an issue similar to health and education where voters judge the likely competence of a party if it were in power, and where most voters want similar outcomes. In such issues parties tend to avoid taking sharply contrasting ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ positions.1 Nevertheless the way environmental outcomes are achieved, and even understood, will differ depending on how individual parties view the confluence of their values with environmental solutions. There is also a risk that as environmental policy beings to impinge on significant economic decisions, such as the transformation of transport and energy infrastructure, there will be less common ground between parties. The two-year Green Roots programme will work with advisory groups made up of independent experts and supporters of each political tradition, including parliamentarians, policy experts and academics, to explore how the UK’s main political traditions can address environmental risks and develop distinct responses which align with their values. Liberalism is founded on a supreme belief in the importance of the individual.2 This belief naturally extends to a commitment to individual freedom, supported by the argument that “human beings are rational, thinking creatures… capable of defining and pursuing their own best interests.”3 However, “liberals do not believe that a balanced and tolerant society will develop naturally out of the free actions of individuals..
    [Show full text]
  • The Political History of Nineteenth Century Portugal1
    The Political History of Nineteenth Century Portugal1 Paulo Jorge Fernandes Autónoma University of Lisbon [email protected] Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses National University of Ireland [email protected] Manuel Baiôa CIDEHUS-University of Évora [email protected] Abstract The political history of nineteenth-century Portugal was, for a long time, a neglected subject. Under Salazar's New State it was passed over in favour of earlier periods from which that nationalist regime sought to draw inspiration; subsequent historians preferred to concentrate on social and economic developments to the detriment of the difficult evolution of Portuguese liberalism. This picture is changing, thanks to an awakening of interest in both contemporary topics and political history (although there is no consensus when it comes to defining political history). The aim of this article is to summarise these recent developments in Portuguese historiography for the benefit of an English-language audience. Keywords Nineteenth Century, History, Bibliography, Constitutionalism, Historiography, Liberalism, Political History, Portugal Politics has finally begun to carve out a privileged space at the heart of Portuguese historiography. This ‘invasion’ is a recent phenomenon and can be explained by the gradual acceptance, over the course of two decades, of political history as a genuine specialisation in Portuguese academic circles. This process of scientific and pedagogical renewal has seen a clear focus also on the nineteenth century. Young researchers concentrate their efforts in this field, and publishers are more interested in this kind of works than before. In Portugal, the interest in the 19th century is a reaction against decades of ignorance. Until April 1974, ideological reasons dictated the absence of contemporary history from the secondary school classroom, and even from the university curriculum.
    [Show full text]
  • The Beveridge Report – from Cradle to Grave
    The Beveridge Report – From Cradle to Grave A Biography of William William Beveridge was born on 5 March 1879 in Bengal, India. His father was a judge in the Indian Civil Service whilst his mother was involved in the liberal education of Indian children. Aged 5, William was now living in Southport with two sisters and a German governess at a small Unitarian boarding school. On William’s mother returning home, she found her children “undernourished, unhappy and subdued.” Private tutors in India took charge of his education until the family returned permanently to Britain in 1890. From Kent House prep school, where he was a boarder, now aged 13 he won a scholarship to Charterhouse. Whilst acquiring the habits of discipline, hard work and accuracy, he found Charterhouse “intellectually and emotionally barren.” At Balliol College, Oxford, William studied maths but switched to classics, graduating with first class honours. There he met the pioneering R. H. Tawney, sharing with him a growing interest in social reform. Beveridge trained as a barrister but became disillusioned with cases often far removed from the realities of working lives. Soon, he became interested in unemployment and its causation. He came to prominence with the Liberal government of 1906 and was asked to advise David Lloyd George on old age pensions and national insurance. In 1908, Beveridge was introduced to Winston Churchill by Beatrice Webb at a dinner party hosted by her. Impressed by his reformist ways, Churchill invited him to join the Board of Trade. As an advisor, Beveridge successfully implemented a national system of labour exchange and national insurance with the twin aims of fighting unemployment and poverty.
    [Show full text]
  • University Microfilms. a XER0K Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan
    72-11430 BRADEN, James Allen, 1941- THE LIBERALS AS A THIRD PARTY IN BRITISH POLITICS, 1926-1931: A STUDY IN POLITICAL COMMUNICATION. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1971 History, modern University Microfilms. A XER0K Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan (^Copyright by James Allen Braden 1971 THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED THE LIBERALS AS A THIRD PARTY IN BRITISH POLITICS 1926-1931: A STUDY IN POLITICAL COMMUNICATION DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By James Allen Braden, B. S., M. A. * + * * The Ohio State University 1971 Approved by ment of History PLEASE NOTE: Some Pages haveIndistinct print. Filmed asreceived. UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS Sir, in Cambria are we born, and gentlemen: Further to boast were neither true nor modest, Unless I add we are honest. Belarius in Cymbeline. Act V, sc. v. PREFACE In 1927 Lloyd George became the recognized leader of the Liberal party with the stated aim of making it over into a viable third party. Time and again he averred that the Liberal mission was to hold the balance— as had Parnell's Irish Nationalists— between the two major parties in Parlia­ ment. Thus viewed in these terms the Liberal revival of the late 1920's must be accounted a success for at no time did the Liberals expect to supplant the Labour party as the party of the left. The subtitle reads: "A Study in Political Communi­ cation " because communications theory provided the starting point for this study. But communications theory is not im­ posed in any arbitrary fashion, for Lloyd George and his fol­ lowers were obsessed with exploiting modern methods of commu­ nications.
    [Show full text]
  • Television Coverage of British Party Conferences in the 1990S: the Symbiotic Production of Political News
    Television Coverage of British Party Conferences in the 1990s: The Symbiotic Production of Political News James Benedict Price Stanyer PhD thesis submitted in the Department of Government London School of Economics and Political Science 1 UMI Number: U120754 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U120754 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract Studies of political communication in the UK have focused primarily on election campaigns and reportage of parliamentary and public policy issues. In these contexts, two or more parties compete for coverage in the news media. However, the main British party conferences present a different context, where one party’s activities form the (almost exclusive) focus of the news media's attention for a week, and that party’s leadership ‘negotiates* coverage in a direct one-to-one relationship. Conference weeks are the key points in the organizational year for each party (irrespective of their internal arrangements), and a critical period for communicating information about the party to voters at large, especially via television news coverage, which forms the focus of this study.
    [Show full text]
  • The Beveridge Report: Its Impact on Women and Migrants Marese O’Brien April 2010
    Volume 2, Issue 2 The Beveridge Report: its impact on women and migrants Marese O’Brien April 2010 University of Limerick Department of Sociology Available at http://www.ul.ie/sociology/socheolas/vol2/2 ISSN 2009-3144 The Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, welcomes applications for post-graduate study • MA in Sociology (Applied Social Research): http://www.ul.ie/sociology/ma.html • MA in Sociology (Youth, Community and Social Regeneration): http://www.ul.ie/sociology/ycsr.html • MA in Gender Culture and Society: http://www.ul.ie/sociology/gcs.html • PhD by research: http://www.ul.ie/sociology/researchdegrees.html http://www.ul.ie/sociology Socheolas: Limerick Student Journal of Sociology . Vol. 2(2), April 2010 The Beveridge Report: its impact on women and migrants Marese O’ Brien Psychology and Sociology Produced during World War Two, the Beveridge Report in Britain became a blueprint for a new welfare state. Designed to tackle the five giants of Want, Disease, Squalor, Ignorance and Idleness, it gave hope to a war weary British public. Based on a system of social insurance, it promised security in times of unemployment, sickness, accident and old age. While it was welcomed by many, in time it came to be viewed as both racist and sexist. Enshrining an ideology of family that was based on the male breadwinner model, provisions within the Report actively prevented women reaching full citizenship as we know it. A welfare state that perceived the citizen as white, male and engaged in full-time life-long paid employment also denied full citizenship to those who did not fulfil these criteria, including immigrants.
    [Show full text]
  • Give and Take: How Conservatives Think About Welfare
    How conservatives think about w elfare Ryan Shorthouse and David Kirkby GIVE AND TAKE How conservatives think about welfare Ryan Shorthouse and David Kirkby The moral right of the authors has been asserted. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book. Bright Blue is an independent think tank and pressure group for liberal conservatism. Bright Blue takes complete responsibility for the views expressed in this publication, and these do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors. Director: Ryan Shorthouse Chair: Matthew d’Ancona Members of the board: Diane Banks, Philip Clarke, Alexandra Jezeph, Rachel Johnson First published in Great Britain in 2014 by Bright Blue Campaign ISBN: 978-1-911128-02-1 www.brightblue.org.uk Copyright © Bright Blue Campaign, 2014 Contents About the authors 4 Acknowledgements 5 Executive summary 6 1 Introduction 19 2 Methodology 29 3 How conservatives think about benefit claimants 34 4 How conservatives think about the purpose of welfare 53 5 How conservatives think about the sources of welfare 66 6 Variation amongst conservatives 81 7 Policies to improve the welfare system 96 Annex one: Roundtable attendee list 112 Annex two: Polling questions 113 Annex three: Questions and metrics used for social and economic conservative classification 121 About the authors Ryan Shorthouse Ryan is the Founder and Director of Bright Blue.
    [Show full text]
  • APPENDIX I the Carlton Club Meeting, 19 October 1922
    APPENDIX I The Carlton Club Meeting, 19 October 1922 This appendix lists the vote at the Carlton Club Meeting of all Conservative M.P.s It is based on a list in the Austen Chamber­ lain Papers (AC/33/2/92), and has been checked against public statements by the M.P.s of their votes at the meeting. In two cases the public statements disagreed with Chamberlain's list. They were Sir R. Greene (Hackney North) and C. Erskine-Bolst (Hackney South). Chamberlaine's list said that Greene supported the Coalition, while Erskine-Bolst opposed it. The two men indicated that they had the opposite opinion, and their votes may have been transposed in Chamberlain's list. The appendix gives information on the attitude of Conserva­ tive M.P.s towards the Coalition before the Carlton Club Meet­ ing, and it also lists some M.P.s who were present but who according to Chamberlain did not vote. R. R. James, using a different source, published a list of the M.P.s voting at the Carlton Club (Memoirs Of A Conservative, 130-3). He gave the total vote as 185 opponents of the Coalition, and 88 supporters, and he lists 184 opponents of the Coalition. M.P.s who were listed differently from Chamberlain's accounting were: H. C. Brown (Chamberlain, anti; James, absent) C. Carew (Chamberlain, absent; James, pro) G. L. Palmer (Chamberlain, absent; James, anti) H. Ratcliffe (Chamberlain, absent; James, pro) 222 THE FALL OF LLOYD GEORGE N. Raw (Chamberlain, absent; James, anti) R. G. Sharman-Crawford (Chamberlain, anti; James, absent) R.
    [Show full text]
  • Harold Elletson 0 Fixing a Broken Britain
    0 Boris Johnson, the man with no bottom - Harold Elletson 0 Fixing a broken Britain - Roger Hayes 0 Thought slavery had been abolished? - Isabelle Parasram Issue 397 - September 2019 £ 4 Issue 397 September 2019 SUBSCRIBE! CONTENTS Liberator magazine is published six/seven times per year. Subscribe for only £25 (£30 overseas) per year. Commentary .................................................................................3 You can subscribe or renew online using PayPal at Radical Bulletin .............................................................................4..5 our website: www.liberator.org.uk THE MAN WITH NO BOTTOM ................................................6..7 Or send a cheque (UK banks only), payable to Boris Johnson might see himself as a ’great man’, but is an empty vessel “Liberator Publications”, together with your name without values says former Tory MP Harold Elletson and full postal address, to: IT’S TIME FOR US TO FIX A BROKEN BRITAIN ....................8..9 After three wasted years and the possible horror of Brexit it’s time Liberator Publications for the Liberal Democrat to take the lead in creating a reformed Britain, Flat 1, 24 Alexandra Grove says Roger Hayes London N4 2LF England ANOTHER ALLIANCE? .............................................................10..11 Should there be a Remain Alliance involving Liberal Democrats at any imminent general election? Liberator canvassed some views, THE LIBERATOR this is what we got COLLECTIVE Jonathan Calder, Richard Clein, Howard Cohen, IS IT OUR FAULT? .....................................................................12..13
    [Show full text]
  • SECURITY with FREEDOM the Challenge for Liberals
    SECURITY WITH FREEDOM The Challenge for Liberals The current obsession of the Western World is the search for security – whether it is security from international terrorism, from muggers on our streets, from kids hanging around outside the local shop and of course from the marauding hordes of paedophiles. We feel that we have lost control of our lives in a world dominated by the mysterious and unaccountable forces of globalisation and the seemingly ever more rapid and incomprehensible pace of technological change – all of it reported to us coated in political spin and trivialised and sensationalised by media frenzy. In a world seemingly gone mad we yearn for old values of community and unchanging certainties. We long for that rose covered cottage where we know and like everyone in the village and our door remains safely unlocked at all times. To achieve that we are happy – at each and every level – to “give up a little freedom” in order to gain some sort of assurance of “security”. Indeed there are those who would seek security at any price. Of course this all started long before 11th September 2001 but the events of that day have now become the ultimate excuse on a grand scale for the search for security at whatever cost to freedom. Of course people are entitled to yearn for security but – argues Mike Oborski – in giving up freedom we are not achieving security we are instead merely giving up freedom while failing to achieve security. To achieve security we need greater freedom because it is only with greater and truly informed freedom that we can change society and the world to preserve and extend both freedom and security.
    [Show full text]