More or less a century of change

Every so often I invite any reader of this blog to roll around their brain some statement or other. Usually they contain a truth (either for good or ill) and hopefully helps inform people. What it informs them is of course completely up to the reader, but it is presented for acceptance or rejection.

What I am going to offer today is a passage written by the historian A.J.P taylor and I believe taken from his book 'English History 1914-45:

Until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the post office and the policeman. He could live where he liked and as he liked. He had no official number or identity card. He could travel abroad or leave his country for ever without a passport or any sort of official permission . . . The Englishman paid taxes on a modest scale: nearly £200 million in 1913–14, or rather less than 8 per cent of the national income.

Now it is easy to point at this and say a lot has changed in almost 100 years. In fact, it changed pretty dramatically with the outbreak of World War One and it would be stupid to think Britain, Europe and a whole chunk of the rest of the world could go back to how it was before that war broke out.

By the way, I am currently reading 'Catastrophe' by Max Hastings which is about the build up to 'The Great War' and details how various pressures (a lot of them internal or self-inflicted) was forcing the direction of the European powers to war. It is revealing too in that period how unprepared these powers were for a war on such a scale -- Britain for example had a small army and was unsure where a tiny Expeditionary Force would be sent as we still mistrusted France -- and what a mess these countries and empires were politically. The people who had the power largely wielded it to preserve their way of life and not in order raise living standards in their own nations. The ordinary people were beginning to knock on the door and if there was anyone home they weren't listening.

On the other hand, it is much the same today. We still have a small army, we don't know what to do next, our leaders love power for their own privilege and not yours, we probably still mistrust France (and with them, the EU) and guess what, no one is still at home.

But what Taylor was pointing out was that the Big State hadn't been refined. There wasn't the mechanism for controlling people as there is today. Freedom of movement for those who could afford it (or even who wanted to go) and the nation provided a few essential services but other than that saw little reason to interfere.

I know this was no golden age. Labour activists and Trade Unionists can swiftly and rightly point to abuses and horrors and restrictions on the working man, most notably through wages and conditions. But equally I can say that a century's worth of interference by these same objectors haven't eradicated all the problems by a long way, and they aren't wise men and women by any means. In fact, the time a Trade Union official told me I might not have a job in future if I left the union to go into management still irritates me. Almost as much as the time when, as a Trade Union member along with a handful of fellow workers had a legitimate complaint against our employer, I was told to drop it as "it wasn't worth bothering with" from the Union's point of view. Not big enough, you see.

Anyway, be that as it may: water under a bridge and we move on. My point here is that Britain had a time when the Big State wasn't everywhere and didn't need to be in everyone's faces. A Big State that grew to swallow vast amounts of taxation and one that is remarkably keen to limit its own people with diktats and edicts and laws and regulations, while not very good at asking who exactly is coming to live here and why. Indeed, can't even seem to ask how many are coming to live here.

What we can conclude from two major wars (and a host of minor conflicts that were probably unwinnable even if we had the will to win) is that this was just what those who run the country wanted. Here was a golden chance to restrict and modify, to check and control, even if the controls were selective and the aims obscure.

There is no doubt the standard of life -- our lives -- has got a whole lot better in 100 years for many people, but I would argue this is not down to the successive 'give us power to do what we want' governments whose best reaction to anything is to regulate in order to deny people certain freedoms.

But, when the chance came along on the backs of the deaths of tens of millions then all credit to governments because they took the opportunity and grasped it firmly. An iron grip that probably they won't relinquish any time soon. With their hands on power, there is nothing they can't do when it comes to limiting people who pay taxes and generously pay the controllers' wages and expenses.

More of this for them, less of that for you. My, how things have changed in a 100 years.