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Notes -
Hard to take these economic complaints seriously:
Compare the old age of a working class war veteran of the 1939-1945 war to the old age of a working class veteran of the Crimean War, or the First Boer War, or the Napoleonic Wars of a few generations before at the height of the glorious British Empire and the difference in treatment is rather visible.
People who returned from WW2 as able-bodied young men had their peak earning years at the height of the greatest economic boom in history (the baby boomers, for the criticism thereof, had to deal with the terrible 1970s as juniors and retired on the eve of (or just after) the 2008 recession that destroyed the value of any market-linked pensions). They lived through the greatest asset pricing boom in history having been able to acquire houses at the pricing nadir of the postwar era. They are unimaginably, almost incomprehensible richer than their parents’ generation, and benefited from extremely generous pension schemes that were successively whittled away for younger generations.
As for immigration, the hostility is much more reasonable (and justified). Still, the final blow, dealt by Tony Blair, was acquiesced to by this generation. White men over 65 did (as I understand it) vote for Labour in 1997, by a smaller margin than some other groups, but still they did. They are not blameless, and it is irksome when the elderly throw up their hands and relieve themselves of all responsibility for the present state of affairs.
Also the welfare state they complain about disproportionately favors them in many regards. A hugely outsized portion of healthcare costs go towards treating the elderly, and they also (probably) get all sorts of old age benefits and subsidies for caretaking, retirement homes, public transportation, and such.
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I find it somewhat curious that you didn't include the First World War in that short list. It's understandable, though, as it can hardly be considered provocative to view it as tragically pointless as futile; after all, pretty much all of the British people have shared this view since about 1930 or so (at least according to my knowledge).
Anyway, I have to wonder about a few things. Didn't the end of the Napoleonic Wars coincide with the zenith of the First Industrial Revolution - also another big economic boom, I imagine? Isn't the period of the Boer Wars coincidentally remembered as the "The Beautiful Era" in France and also in Britain, presumably?
But anyway, my main problem with your argument is that the Second World War very obviously has a rather different place in British memory from those other wars. This puts the reactions of the veterans to the post-war era into a different context.
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The UK did not have the post-war boom that the US did. The Empire slowly collapsed and rationing continued into the 50s. Our baby boom also did not happen at the same time as the US. Yours was in the 50s. Ours was in the 60s
The UK did have a smaller postwar economic boom in the 50s and especially 1960s, until around 1972/3. Yes, GDP growth never reached American levels but it was a time of large-scale increases in prosperity, particularly for the working class. That’s as I understand it anyway.
Just to be clear, are you arguing then that people who returned from WW2 as able-bodied young men had their peak earning years about 15-20 years after the war ended?
Yes, that is typically the case.
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https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_brigade.htm
There were thirty million English who talked of England's might, There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night. They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade; They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.
They felt that life was fleeting; they knew not that art was long, That though they were dying of famine, they lived in deathless song. They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door; And the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four !
They laid their heads together that were scarred and lined and grey; Keen were the Russian sabres, but want was keener than they; And an old Troop-Sergeant muttered, "Let us go to the man who writes The things on Balaclava the kiddies at school recites."
They went without bands or colours, a regiment ten-file strong, To look for the Master-singer who had crowned them all in his song; And, waiting his servant's order, by the garden gate they stayed, A desolate little cluster, the last of the Light Brigade.
They strove to stand to attention, to straighten the toil-bowed back; They drilled on an empty stomach, the loose-knit files fell slack; With stooping of weary shoulders, in garments tattered and frayed, They shambled into his presence, the last of the Light Brigade.
The old Troop-Sergeant was spokesman, and "Beggin' your pardon," he said, "You wrote o' the Light Brigade, sir. Here's all that isn't dead. An' it's all come true what you wrote, sir, regardin' the mouth of hell; For we're all of us nigh to the workhouse, an' we thought we'd call an' tell.
"No, thank you, we don't want food, sir; but couldn't you take an' write A sort of 'to be continued' and 'see next page' o' the fight? We think that someone has blundered, an' couldn't you tell 'em how? You wrote we were heroes once, sir. Please, write we are starving now."
The poor little army departed, limping and lean and forlorn. And the heart of the Master-singer grew hot with "the scorn of scorn." And he wrote for them wonderful verses that swept the land like flame, Till the fatted souls of the English were scourged with the thing called Shame.
They sent a cheque to the felon that sprang from an Irish bog; They healed the spavined cab-horse; they housed the homeless dog; And they sent (you may call me a liar), when felon and beast were paid, A cheque, for enough to live on, to the last of the Light Brigade.
O thirty million English that babble of England's might, Behold there are twenty heroes who lack their food to-night; Our children's children are lisping to "honour the charge they made - " And we leave to the streets and the workhouse the charge of the Light Brigade!
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I bump into this when discussing whatever current policy sucks with the older generations. I'm not exactly defending my generation, but I will note that Philip Hart wasn't a Millennial or a Zoomer. Say what I will about the Zoomers, it is quite literally not possible for them to have been responsible for the present state of affairs, whether you like the present state of affairs or not. Listening to Boomers complain about the present generation, immigration, and so on just invites the obvious question - "who did that?".
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