Lord Rushcliffe and the Assistance Board have sent to Sir
Kingsley Wood their provisional conclusions on the new Deter- mination of Needs Bill. This was a wise precaution, because no subject has created more feeling and bitterness in recent years than the Means Test. It remains to be seen whether the goodwill which has marked the progress of the War Damage Bill will be equally evident in the other major measure of this Session The crucial question appears to centre round the definition of a household, but it is precisely because there is also involved the obligations of a family that passions are easily aroused. I hope that a compromise will be found, partly because the whole question of the social services needs far more radical treatment than time can at present allow. Here is a subject on which Mr. Greenwood's new department ought to do some basic research. Every day it becomes more clear that we are in fact creating our own New Order in typically British style.
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