Harold MacMillan

[St Petre]

In 1957 when Tory prime minister Harold Macmillan announced that the nation 'had never had it so good', was he right ?

[Longcol]

1 minute ago, St Petre said:

In 1957 when Tory prime minister Harold Macmillan announced that the nation 'had never had it so good', was he right ?

Is this a thread for pensioners only,  because nobody else will be able to remember that far back  - and only a small percentage of them would have been adults at the time.

[*_ash_*]

'They' perhaps never had it so good at the time. As above, only old people know.

 

You can't use this to compare to modern times though. It's a completely different society now. (work and tech wise).

Edited July 11, 2019 by *_ash_*

[Ontarian1981]

1 hour ago, St Petre said:

In 1957 when Tory prime minister Harold Macmillan announced that the nation 'had never had it so good', was he right ?

 Well, I would have been about 12,so yes, that was a bit better than when I was 11, my pocket money went up by threppence.  

[Halibut]

8 hours ago, *_ash_* said:

'They' perhaps never had it so good at the time. As above, only old people know.

 

You can't use this to compare to modern times though. It's a completely different society now. (work and tech wise).

Not just work and tech - leisure,  social attitudes, sexual mores...it's different in so many ways.

[Janus]

As we progress in time every few years, is it fair to say that the nation has never had it so good?  The next few years more improvement and so on.

 

A major fly in the ointment being the level of knife murders in the UK. Has that ever been this bad? Krays etc?

 

I don't know, so over to the elderly to answer that.

 

[Mister Gee]

On July 11, 2019 at 22:47, St Petre said:

In 1957 when Tory prime minister Harold Macmillan announced that the nation 'had never had it so good', was he right ?

It's hard to believe that in 1957 the Tories were actually in competition with the Labour Party to see who could build more council houses.

Macmillan was a typical Tory though because he spoke a load of rubbish. After winning the 1959 general election he said, 'The Class War Is Obsolete.' He then formed a government that included a Duke, three Earls and a Marquess.

Edited July 14, 2019 by Mister Gee

[Longcol]

2 hours ago, Mister Gee said:

It's hard to believe that in 1957 the Tories were actually in competition with the Labour Party to see who could build more council houses.

Macmillan was a typical Tory though because he spoke a load of rubbish. After winning the 1959 general election he said, 'The Class War Is Obsolete.' He then formed a government that included a Duke, three Earls and a Marquess.

Perhaps he thought the aristocracy were victorious for eternity.

[hauxwell]

I can’t remember Macmillan but people who were still alive when he made that speech who had lived through the Great Depression in the 1930s, WW1 and WW2.  Also food rationing which didn’t end until early 1950s, must have thought he was right when he said, you have never had it so good.

 

In 1957 rationing had ended, unemployment was down and wages were up.  

The National Health Service after the Beveridge Reoport was in full swing.  You no longer had to pay to see a doctor and Elvis Presley was on the radio.  

 

Those people  must have been counting their blessings.

 

 

[davyboy]

On 15/07/2019 at 09:37, hauxwell said:

I can’t remember Macmillan but people who were still alive when he made that speech who had lived through the Great Depression in the 1930s, WW1 and WW2.  Also food rationing which didn’t end until early 1950s, must have thought he was right when he said, you have never had it so good.

 

In 1957 rationing had ended, unemployment was down and wages were up.  

The National Health Service after the Beveridge Reoport was in full swing.  You no longer had to pay to see a doctor and Elvis Presley was on the radio.  

 

Those people  must have been counting their blessings.

 

 

You are right.

I was 17 in 1957 in a working class family living in a very nice semi council house which now sell for £360,000 (nice profit for those that could afford to buy!)

In  both 1952 and 1953 I had  spent  6 weeks each time in hospital being dosed with expensive  and newly discovered antibiotics and having operations

My father had been told on the first occasion the drugs alone had cost £300. 

My wife has told me that just before  the NHS her mother had told their GP not to pay a return visit as she couldn't afford the 2/6 (12 1/2p) charge.

I was in the 6th form of  a grammar school, my father had been eligible to go to one but his parents wanted him out at work.

I worked Saturdays (9 to 5.30) in the local Co-op for 30/- (£1.50) but a pint of cider and mild cost 5p, fish and chips 7 1/2 p and 2miles on a bus  1/2p.

You could say things were better than before the war.

 

This is an article on Osteomyelitis, which I had, and the life saving penicillin, which I was given, injections four times a day for 4 weeks.

 

http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/BOT135/Lect21b.htm

Edited July 17, 2019 by davyboy