«Passans, cette terre est libre» - Abbiamo scelto come logo la fotografia d'un autentico "Albero della Libertà" ancora vivente. È un olmo che fu piantato nel 1799 dai rivoluzionari della Repubblica Partenopea, Luigi Rossi e Gregorio Mattei, a Montepaone Superiore, paese dello Jonio catanzarese. La scritta 'passans ecc.' era qualche volta posta sotto gli "Alberi della Libertà" in Francia.
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Nessun commentoLiam Byrne, A William Beveridge for this century's welfare state. Labour won't win on welfare reform by default. On jobs and benefits we need another tough-minded social revolution, the guardian, 2 January 2012
William Beveridge wept when he was appointed chair of the 1941 committee to rationalise Britain's system of social insurance. Beveridge wanted to be in charge of manpower on the home front to help defeat the Nazis. But once he realised the potential of his task, fashioned a social revolution. When it was presented to Parliament, 70 years ago, the Beveridge Report was blunt; a 'revolutionary moment in the world's history is a time for revolutions, not for patching.' The Manchester Guardian called it 'a big and fine thing.' People queued to buy it. This was radical — and popular.
Seventy years on, we should celebrate Beveridge's vision and laud the Labour ministers who enacted his proposals – not by asking how we freeze today's welfare state in aspic, but, instead, how we become the radical reformers once again. How do we go back to Beveridge's hugely popular first principles and apply them anew to the challenges of 21st century Britain?
Let's start with work. Beveridge's system was built on the idea of full employment. For him, "idleness" was an evil every bit as insidious as disease or squalor. So he would have been horrified at the long-term unemployment breaking out all over Britain, with over a million young people without work, and appalled at the spiralling cost of benefits. He would scarcely have believed housing benefit alone is costing the UK over £20bn a year. That is simply too high.
Beveridge would have wanted determined action from government to get communities working once again, not least to bring down that benefits bill to help pay down the national debt. He wanted a responsible government taking determined action to create work, but a responsible workforce too. He would have wanted reform that was tough-minded, and asked everyone to work hard to find a job. He would have worried about the ways that his system had skewed social behaviour because he intended benefits to help people who had their earning power interrupted because of illness, industrial injury or the capriciousness of the trade cycle. He never foresaw unearned support as desirable.
"Unemployment benefit after a certain period." said Beveridge, should be "conditional upon attendance at a work or training centre". Second, let's restore the idea of "something for something". Beveridge called his system social insurance. (He didn't like the term welfare state, which had been coined by Archbishop Temple.)
I think Beveridge would have looked aghast at the government's plans to axe disability benefits – like employment and support allowance that working people have actually paid in for. The idea that cancer patients, still in chemotherapy, could lose the support of a benefit financed in this way would simply fail his moral code.
That would not have made Beveridge against the reform of disability benefits. But as a great public servant, I think he would have found the current chaos in the assessment of those on disability benefits, with spiralling appeal times and poor back-to-work support, deeply troubling.
But beyond this, "something for something" means reward for those who are desperately trying to do the right thing, saving for the future and trying to build a stable, secure home. Right now, these families are offered too little reward and incentive – in social housing and long-term savings – for the kind of behaviour that is the bedrock of a decent society.
Finally, let's remember that there was one idea above all that animated Beveridge: how we as a country maximise our earning power in tough times. How do we help families juggle the challenges of modern life and keep earning what they could? This requires fresh thinking – and one more heave behind our old agenda won't do.
The Tories wanted to trim and delay the Beveridge Report in 1942. Today, they are presiding over an exploding welfare bill while cutting back on contributory benefits and services like childcare – vital, if we are to ensure the rhetoric on making work pay becomes a reality. And they are axing tax credits for working families just as the squeeze on living standards intensifies. As Ed Miliband has said, tough times expose your values, and Labour is clear: we are on the side of people who work hard and do the right thing.
But Labour won't win on welfare reform by default. Seventy years on from Beveridge, we are reclaiming his vision, learning from his political courage, understanding what has gone wrong in recent years as well as what has worked. Britain is a very different country to 70 years ago. That's why social security has to change. But in rethinking the future, Beveridge's first principles are the right place to begin.
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{ Pubblicato il: 27.03.2012 }
