Fifty years ago
A GOOD many people will soon be get- ting rather tired of declarations by Labour Ministers that their predeces- sors have left things in such a shocking state that they, with all their virtues, cannot be expected to reduce chaos to order at once. The other day it was Mr. Greenwood protesting that Mr Willink had left the Health Service negotiations in such a hopeless muddle that Mr. Bevan would have to begin over again from the beginning. Now it is Mr. Shin- well asserting that he has been left "a terrible legacy of improvisation and muddle." The comment, qui s'excuse s'accuse, is obvious. In any case, the thing is nonsense. The Labour Minis- ters, man for man, are on the average not superior but inferior to the Minis- ters they have displaced. Some of them, no doubt, will do well; some may scrape through; all of them will be judged on their performance, and some have rea- son to fear the verdict.
The Spectator 31 August 1945
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