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A Duty of Care

Britain Before and After COVID

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A Duty of Care

By: Peter Hennessy
Narrated by: Matthew Spencer
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The 'duty of care' which the state owes to its citizens is a phrase much used, but what has it actually meant in Britain historically? And what should it mean in the future, once the immediate COVID crisis has passed?

In A Duty of Care, Peter Hennessy divides post-war British history into BC (before corona) and AC (after corona). He looks back to beginnings when, during wartime, Sir William Beveridge identified the 'five giants' on the road to recovery: want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness and laid the foundations for the modern welfare state. Hennessy examines the attack on the giants after the war and asks what the giants are now, and calls for 'a new Beveridge' to build a consensus for post-corona Britain with the ambition and on the scale that was achieved in the decades after the Second World War.

©2022 Peter Hennessy (P)2022 Penguin Audio Europe Future Studies Great Britain Political Science Politics & Government Social Policy Social Sciences Socialism War Capitalism
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Excellent account of modern welfare development. Peter Hennesy's work is based on analysis of historical data combined with insights from policy insiders. He takes a potentially 'dry-as-a- bone' story and tempers it with his very real affection for the Post-Beveridge welfare state. I would recommend this for any social policy student because it combines academic rigour with human warmth.

Keep a pen and paper by your side - there are times when the narrator rattles off important statistics which I found difficult to follow (but then I'm getting on in years and only have three brain cells left!)

The narrator was excellent although to be honest I missed the sound of Peter Hennessy's voice! .

Excellent account of modern welfare development

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Totally focused around Tory governments, hardly any coverage of Labour who after all, founded the NHS.

Nevertheless, an enjoyable romp though the tale

PS who is Jeremy Far-arrrr? Is he a pirate relative of Jeremy Farrar?

Is the author a Tory? lol. Didn't think so!

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