Beveridge Without Bureaucrats

For five years Britons had coped with wartime hardships: blackout, rationing, bombs, robombs and plain, ordinary fatigue. But above all they were fed up with restrictions--of which the long-continued blackout was almost the symbol. The blackout had been partially lifted.

The Bitter 'Arf. Official fanfare seemed to have convinced Londoners that the lights would really go up in Piccadilly. But the dimout proved only a flicker less black than the blackout. In a bit of nonsense that was also an exasperated travesty on Government rules, regulation and confusion, the Daily Express' "Beachcomber" (J. B. Morton) said what most Londoners thought. He wrote: "The Strabismus plan for a half-dim (partial) blackout is now completed and may soon come into operation. The idea is to black out partially half of every window but only with a mild form of blackout. In cases where the left half of the window is made partially dim, the right half must be wholly blacked-out during an alert, unless the whole window is entirely blacked-put before and after the alert when the half-dimming of the unblacked-out half of the lighted window was, during an alert, left partially dimmed out before the alert, or after it. This does not apply to windows or half-windows left partially lighted before and after alerts unless otherwise stated. In the case of the half-dimming of partially lit windows or part of windows during alerts, the partial blackout should be as before."

Nonsense Is Not Enough. Britons could still laugh with Beachcomber. Newspapers seriously warned Prime Minister Winston Churchill's Government that it was facing a people with a very short temper. For Britons confronted a dilemma. The war was nearing its end and they wanted an end to wartime restrictions. But wartime restrictions had a bearing on peacetime security. Britons wanted security without interference. Whether or not the People's Plan, currently being plugged by Lord Beaverbrook's Express (see PRESS), reflected their mood, they were also all for the Beveridge Plan.

The British paradox that Britons wanted last week was Beveridge without bureaucrats. The Government tried to give them what they wanted--a cradle-to-grave social security plan (cost $2,600,000,000) covering every man, woman & child in Britain.

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