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The Emerging Political Power of the Elderly in Britain 1908–1948

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Andrew Blaikie
Andrew Blaikie
Affiliation:
Birkbeck College Centre for Extra Mural Studies, University of London, 26 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DQ.
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Abstract

Despite major shifts in the position of older people in British society during the first half of the twentieth century, accounts of the emergence of retirement pensions have ignored the role of old age pressure groups, preferring arguments which emphasise structured dependency rather than human agency. By contrast, this paper examines the political campaigns mounted by two groups – one claiming to speak on behalf of older people, the other composed of older people themselves. The failure of both groups to influence major policy decisions relates not to the passivity or ‘silent suffering’ of older people, or to ‘generational equity’ criteria which privileged younger, unemployed workers, but to the inadequacies of their different styles of campaigning. While the National Conference, in the decade after 1916, focused their moral invective around notions of thrift which failed to arouse or articulate the needs of all but the most ‘respectable aged Britishers’, the uncompromising, combative approach of the National Federation during the critical years leading up to the Beveridge legislation incurred the disdain of policymakers. In the intervening years, trade union activity was underlain by mixed motives. While the historical specificity of the movements and debates that are discussed is significant, the generationally specific lifetime experiences of the older people in question to some extent determined their character.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , March 1990 , pp. 17 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

NOTES

1 The Times, 17 Jan. 1921; National Conference on Old Age Pensions Reports and Pamphlets [hereafter NCOAP R & P], 1 Oct. 1921, p. 2; NCOAP, Review of Ten Tears' Progress, n.d. [1927], pp. 11–12.

2 I wish to record my thanks to John Macnicol for providing the text on which these introductory remarks are based. The research for this paper was conducted as part of a joint project supported by the ESRC (Grant No. GO1 250016).

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14 NCOAP R & P, 1 07 1916, p. 1; 24 Feb. 1917, p. 2; 8 Aug. 1917, p. 4.

15 NCOAP R & P, 1 Jul. 1916, pp. 1–2.

16 NCOAP R & P, 19 Aug. 1916, p. 2; 18 Oct. 1924, p. 2.

17 NCOAP R & P, 18 Oct 1924, p. 2.

18 NCOAP R & P, 4 Nov. 1922, p. 5; 1 July 1916, p. 2; 23 Feb. 1918, p. 2.

19 NCOAP R & P, 19 Aug. 1916, p. 3; J. Longstaff Dennison, Plain Facts. Old Age Pensions As They Are and As They Ought to Be, n.d. [c. 1919], p. 11.

20 NCOAP R & P, 3 Oct. 1920, p. 6; 19 Nov. 1916.

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22 NCOAP R & P, 1 Dec. 1923, p. 2; 3 Oct. 1920, p. 1; 19 Aug. 1916, p. 4; H of C Deb, XCI, cols. 669–70 (8 Mar. 1917).

23 Departmental Committee on Old Age Pensions, Minutes of Evidence, Parliamentary Papers (1919), Vol. 27 [hereafter PP 1919, Mins. of Evid.]; Williams, , op. cit. ch. 13 (pp. 339–373)Google Scholar provides detailed coverage.

24 PP 1919, Mins. of Evid., Qs 2710–14, p. 108; Qs 1565–66, p. 65.

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26 NCOAP, Review of Ten Years' Progress, pp. 8–12.

27 NCOAP R & P, 4 Nov. 1922, p. 5.

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32 NCOAP R & P, 3 Oct. 1920, p. 5; 1 Dec. 1923, p. 2.

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35 PP 1919, Mins. of Evid., Q. 1112, p. 49.

36 NCOAP R & P, 19 Aug. 1916, p. 2; 18 Aug. 1917, p. 4; 23 Feb. 1918, p. 5, J. Cairns, President of the Northumberland Aged Miners' Homes Association contended that the pension should be available at much lower ages since ‘many people were old at 50’.

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46 Reported in The Pensioner, Oct. 1940 [this newspaper was printed monthly from Feb. 1940].

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57 The Pensioner, Mar. 1942; June 1942. Means and Smith, op. cit. p. 70.

58 The Pensioner, Jan. 1943; Feb. 1943; May 1942.

59 Melling, G., The Federation Story, n.d. [1952], p. 8.Google Scholar

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