3. (a) Study Sources B and C Compare These Sources as Evidence for Views on Government Spending on Social Problems During the Immediate Post-War Period.

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3. (a) Study Sources B and C Compare these sources as evidence for views on government spending on social problems during the immediate post-war period. Sources B and C provide differing ideas to how the British government should deal with its post-war social problems, both additionally have contrasting relationships with the government and its best interests, due to both sources agendas. The content and reliability of both will reveal the spectrum of post war views which both sources provide for historians. The content of Sources B and C contrast greatly as they both take up different viewpoints on how the country should move forward. In contrast to source C, source B by Tom Jones- depicts the view that Civil Servants who believe the government should spend their way out of the crisis “with an advanced programme of social reform, using the “enormous sums of money made available for housing the minister of Supply”, citing the dangers of “Bolshevik Propaganda”. This demonstrates a highly contrasting approach to what due to hindsight one knows the government took (e.g. Geddes axe), and how real the fear of a revolution was to many of high political importance. Conversely, Source C (First Interim Report of the Committee of National Expenditure) demonstrates a more negative approach, suggesting the shrinking of the state; inferring that the committee are relatively indifferent to the scale of social unrest (perhaps even no comprehension for the possibility of a Bolshevik revolution) due to the fact that they do not wish to give the public something positive in the wake of the previous national tragedy. Both greatly differing viewpoints present a spectrum of views to how the post war government should deal with social problems- providing historians with informative evidence on the matter. The reliability of both sources is crucial in order to consolidate both sources
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