The 1945 Labour Government
Building a post-war world
Touchstone of the Labour movement: but what was achieved by the Labour government of 1945?
One event, many perspectives
Why can't we arrive at an agreed version of the past - or even of what history is? Why do historians disagree?
Clement Attlee's government is now remembered as the founder of the welfare state. At every General Election we are invited to recall the creation of the NHS and the building of a new Jerusalem.
But how radical was this agenda and how much of this memory is myth-making by subsequent Labour governments?
Michael Portillo remembers the pragmatism, the compromises and the in-fighting of that post war government. He meets Denis Healey, Peter Carrington and Tony Benn to uncover the forgotten choices made in a Britain exhausted by one war and on the brink of another.
You can read a transcript of this programme.
Content last updated: 15/11/2006
