| William Beveridge addressing a group of housewives, 1944. Photograph: Hans Wild |
My hero:
William Beveridge
by Will Hutton
Sat 23 Oct 2010
I
n 1942 William Beveridge's report on social insurance was a national bestseller: with memories of the 30s still vivid, wartime Britain had an enormous appetite for the promise that the postwar world would be different. The scant support for millions locked, through no fault of their own, in the "five evils" – want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness – had been a disgrace. There had to be change.