Review of The Spirit of '45 (2013) by Ola S — 04 Oct 2013

It could seem surprising, that Churchill lost the British elections in 1945. Were people simply ungrateful? The loss for the conservatives had two reasons, according to Ken Loach. The memories of powerty after WW1 and the fact that if the state was capable of organizing the whole society into winning a war, why couldn't it also win the peace?

So Britain got nationalisation of the coal mines, the energy industry, the railroads and not at least healthcare. Only that last reform has so far been unattacked by neobiberals, although a part of the railroads was taken back in 2002. The alternative was bankrupcy.

We get many interviews with those who remember these days of prime minister Clement Attlee and his main social architect mr. Bevan. They also remember what it was before, with five children in one bed full of lice, two children dying the same week, the conditions in the coal mines and the mother who couldn't afford one pint of blood after giving birth to her tenth child. Her son asked God to give him his mother back, but since God didn't do that, this man is from then on an atheist.

What one lacks is en explanation of how it all was financed and one would also like to know why Churchill came back in 1951, followed by tory pms like Eden, Macmillan and Douglas-Home. They seemed to have approved the Attlee ideas or what? Anyway, another way of society was possible. Not just in Britain but in all of Western Europe.