Mention of Aneurin Bevan always draws me into the realm of political conjecture.
He's remembered today as a left-winger...but at the time of his early death in 1960, he was moving to the right. He'd become a strong supporter of nuclear weapons, the first issue on which he'd broken with his traditional left-wing supporters (coining the famous phrases 'naked into the conference chamber' and 'an emotional spasm'). It's likely that if he'd continued in this way, he would have arrived at a position somewhat similar to that occupied by Denis Healey during the 74-79 government. I somehow doubt that he would have left Labour, though....and I couldn't see him going the whole hog (as I think his son did) and joining the Tories.
I'm not sure he really was moving to the right. Bevan's last Labour Party conference speech demonstrates a powerful condemnation of the values of market capitalism, in language that is hugely resonant today (and condemns New Labour as much as anyone):
Bevan expands on the theme of the 1959 election defeat and the apparent satisfaction of people with their economic and social condition - the riposte to never having had it so good:
"What is the lesson for us? It is that we must enlarge and expand those personalities, so that they can become again conscious of limitation and constriction. The problem is one of education, not of surrender! This so-called affluent society is an ugly society still. It is a vulgar society. It is a meretricious society. It is a society in which priorities have gone all wrong. I once said -- and I do not want to quote myself too frequently -- that the language of priorities was the religion of Socialism, and there is nothing wrong with that statement either, but you can only get your priorities right if you have the power to put them right, and the argument, comrades, is about power in society. If we managed to get a majority in Great Britain by the clever exploitation of contemporary psychology, and we did not get the commanding heights of the economy in our power, then we did not get the priorities right. The argument is about power and only about power, because only by the possession of power can you get the priorities correct..."
"I have enough faith in my fellow creatures in Great Britain to believe that when they have got over the delirium of television, when they realise that their new homes are mortgaged to the hilt, when they realise the moneylender has been elevated to the highest position in the land, when they realise that the refinements for which they should look are not there, that it is a vulgar society of which no decent person could proud ... when they realise all the tides of history are flooding in our direction, that we are not beaten, that we represent the future: then, when we say it and mean it, we shall lead our people to where they deserve to be led."
(The whole speech is worth reading. It appears not to be available on the web but it is reproduced in full in Michael Foot's biography)
Incidentally, I'm not sure that Bevan and Jennie Lee had any children. Attlee's son certainly did join the SDP, and the current Earl Attlee, Clement Attlee's grandson, is a Tory front-bencher in the Lords. I've met him - he is chairman of a trade association with whom I have had professional dealings - and is a charming man with an uncanny resemblance to his grandfather. But it is interesting to note in these days of politicised spouses that Clement Attlee's wife was a lifelong Tory.
