There now follows a public information film… During the 1940s, the British Council produced more than 120 short films ‘designed to show the world how Britain lived, worked and played’. They’re now available online, and here’s the wonderfully of-its-time feature on local government — or, as it’s described in the British Council Film Department Catalogue:
‘A simple description of English Local Government, showing the areas into which England is divided, the system of election and finance, and the many services administered by the local authorities.’
Hark back to a time when local authorities had power over all manner of local services — from public health and education, to the fire authorities and water boards — when councillors were invited to stand for election from every walk of life (“for instance, this businessman or even his wife”), and a little boy would utter the deadpan phrase “I’m going to be a councillor when I grow up, daddy”.
(Also available to view here.)
* Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from 2007 to 2015, and writes at The Collected Stephen Tall.
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11 Comments
I wonder when they stopped allowing the general public into counts… also, I was amused by the reference to counting agents being the “wives and friends” of the candidates.
It seems ironic that all this hands-on local democracy with the local people running all their local services – the ‘perfect English town’ – was finally destroyed by the heroine of the Tory Right wing, Mrs T, who privatised and centralised almost everything. They seem to have short memories.
Keith Browning – yes: the Tories have a wonderful way of having a public image which is contradictory to almost everything they do. What a great way to win votes – destroy the sense of community and country and decency through selling this country out to the global financial elite, and then win the “why-oh-why” votes this destruction leads to.
Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” more then any other politician gave away this country’s real independence through her economic policies. Margaret Thatcher, supposed defender of the family, more than any other politician destroyed the family by destroying industrial communities and through policies which placed a family home beyond the reach of millions who could neither afford the inflated house prices she encouraged nor get council housing as she sold it off. Margaret Thatcher with her keynote policies of selling off council housing and “tell Sid” privatisation more than any other politician set this country off on the disastrous economic path of supposing wealth is made by owning things and not by work. Margaret Thatcher, the grocer’s daughter, presided over the squeezing out of existence of small businesses like the one she grew up with through economic policies which favoured City-run big business. She sold off the family silver, wasted our North Sea oil assets, and now we sit in the mess that she, more than anyone else, was responsible for. With those who regard her as their number one heroine leading the government.
Oh, and back to the subject – note they did not need executive mayors in those days – councils then were run by councils.
Matthew: I suspect Peter Hitchens (who I would characterise as an authentic conservative) would agree with every word you say!
Wonderful film, I love the voice of the commentator. It is all very charming. The council happens to be very good, but the council candidate wants to make it even better!
There probably was a time before Margaret Thatcher became prime minister when the Tories believed in local government. Today they send out contradictory messages; they believe in localism, but education should not be run by local authorities.
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Councils ran the buses, developed power generation and gas works, and other things already mentioned. Nobody saw them as ‘profit making’ but as service, and any proceeds went back into the pot. The argument was that by handing everything over to business it would be more efficient, what a sick joke that has proved to be.
Matthew’s piece is excellent, can we have it printed and laminated, and available from LibDem Image please? – but Peter Hitchins(?), sorry, I can only descibe him in words that I would not write!
Interested in the bit about counting agents.
In Slovakia the polling station attendants are nominated by the parties standing and they also count the votes at the end, so the counters are all checking each other. The result doesn’t come out much quicker though, even though the polling station covers a relatively small area (my polling district is a street of 15 blocks, each with 23 flats in them – fun fact is that as the letterboxes are all at street level the 345 residences can be leafletted in less than 30 minutes) – it is one of many polling stations located in the local school. Possibly the reasons the result takes so long to come out is that the counters are tired after sitting there for 12 hours, and because under the electoral system you can pick 4 candidates from up to 150 nominated by your party, so each voter is handed 19 sheets of A4 paper (one for each party, they mark 4 candidates on one and then throw away the rest). This means that rural areas (where village polling stations sometimes have less than 30 voters) report first and urban areas last – the exact opposite of how it works in the UK.
Alex Sabine
Matthew: I suspect Peter Hitchens (who I would characterise as an authentic conservative) would agree with every word you say.
Yes, there is actually quite a strong small-c conservative streak in me. It is in fact this streak which tends to push me to the left on economic matters. Of course this is all about politics having many more than one dimensions.
I blame Ken, Derek and the ILEA!
Back when Mrs T was deciding on the evils of local authorities, most MPs lived in London, occasionally visiting their constituency when they couldnt avoid it, so their overall view of LAs was coloured by the antics of a few high profile individuals, totally ignoring the good work of the majority of LAs around the country.
Once you throw in the stupidities of CCT and latterly Best Value (sic), councils end up as no more than contract negotiators with little ability to actually deliver. Quite frankly the furore about things like block maintenance of roads overlooks the simple fact that LAs have been diverting money allocated for roads maintenance to all sorts of other activity, as they can legally do.
Through the 90s, I was chair of an LEA, and if the council had not effectively ring fenced education in the area, then the chances of our children would have been damaged by the spending cuts of both Tory and the incoming Labour government, at the expense of other valued services.
I therefore find it depressing and sad that our party seems to have so embraced the ludicrous academy and free school programmes that have no LA oversight and will potentially leave LA schools as sink schools for those with no other choice.