Liberalism. As Sir John Marriott has pointed out, most of the State interferences with private enterprise and laisser-faire, i.e. with capitalist dominion, were carried out by Conservative Governments in the teeth of Liberal opposition. Though in later times most industrial magnates have left a decaying Liberalism for the more potent and reputable Conservatism which they have helped to transform into a safeguard for Capital versus Labour, the Conservative Party still retains some of its traditional humanitarianism in the conduct of industry. The large increase of public expenditure on social services since the beginning of the nineties met much approval and but little opposition from Conservative statesmen, while their far-reaching influences have brought immense gains to the social and economic well-being of the working classes.[1]
Though the direct contributions of the employees to many of these services, together with the indirect
- ↑ The Report of P.E.P. (1937) (Political and Economic Plan-
ning) upon the Social Services groups them as follows:
(1) Constructive community services, including education, public health, and medical services, the mental health services, the welfare of the blind, and the work of the Ministry of Labour’s employment exchanges and training centres.
(2) The social insurance services, including national health insurance, unemployment insurance, and widows’, orphans’ and old-age contributory pensions — the workmen’s accident compensation scheme is also put in this class.
(3) The social assistance services, including non-contributory old-age pensions, the work of the Unemployment Assistance Board, and the manifold services of local public assistance committees.
