The Nanny State Made Me: A Story of Britain and How to Save it

by Stuart Maconie

It was the spirit of our finest hour, the backbone of our post-war greatness, and it promoted some of the boldest and most brilliant schemes this isle has ever produced: it was the Welfare State, and it made you and I. But now it's under threat, and we need to save it.

In this timely and provocative book, Stuart Maconie tells Britain’s Welfare State story through his own history of growing up as a northern working class boy. What was so bad about properly funded hospitals, decent working conditions and affordable houses? And what was so wrong about student grants, free eye tests and council houses? And where did it all go so wrong? Stuart looks toward Britain’s future, making an emotional case for believing in more than profit and loss; and championing a just, fairer society.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Biography, Audiobook, Society, Sociology

304 pages, Hardcover

First published March 5, 2020

About the author

Stuart Maconie is a TV and radio presenter, journalist, columnist and author.

He is the UK’s best-selling travel writer of non-TV tie-in books and his Pies and Prejudice was one of 2008’s top selling paperbacks. His work has been compared with Bill Bryson, Alan Bennett and John Peel and described by The Times as a 'National Treasure'.

He co-hosts the Radcliffe and Maconie Show on BBC Radio 2 every Monday – Thursday evening, as well as The Freak Zone on 6Music on Sunday afternoons, and has written and presented dozens of other shows on BBC Radio. His TV work includes presenting the BBC's On Trial shows, Pop on Trial and Style on Trial, as well as Stuart Maconie’s TV Towns, a popular gazeteer of major British cities and their roles in modern cultural life for ITV 4 and The Cinema Show/The DVD Collection on BBC 4.

As well as a popping up in Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, and on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Stuart was a favourite on hit TV series such as the BBC's I love the 1970s' , I love the 1980s , and is now in variously Grumpy... . His other books include the acclaimed official biographies of both Blur and James. He can name GQ Man of the Year and Sony Awards Radio Broadcaster of the Year amongst his accolades. He has regular columns in The Radio Times and Country Walking and writes for WORD magazine and The Mirror.

Reviews

[Sid Nuncius · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought The Nanny State Made Me was excellent. Stuart Maconie is a very good, engaging writer who combines thorough research, intelligence and genuine interest in people with a readable style and just the right leavening of wit and humour to lighten the subject without ever trivialising it.

The book is self-confessedly polemical; Maconie writes passionately about the public services which helped him throughout his life and which so many of us rely on but often take for granted. He uses aspects of his own life to link subjects the NHS, council housing, public parks, libraries, schools, transport, the benefits system and so on. He comes from a left-wing stance, but is never doctrinaire. He recognises some of the failings of the left and supports his arguments with facts, statistics and human stories, plus his own visits to important people and places which illustrate his points and show pretty conclusively how much we all need these state-organised institutions. His conclusions can be largely summed up in his own words: “We may be coming to realise that the people who complain about the nanny state are the people who had nannies.”

It’s a delight to read. The following passage about a personal experience of the NHS gives a good flavour of the style:
“It was quiet and tense in the room where I sat as a young doctor, Malaysian/ English I think, was telling me and my stepdaughter that my gravely ill ninety-year-old mother-in-law would probably not last the afternoon. However, he said, there was one slim chance of keeping her with us a while longer. It was tricky and risky and would involve him inserting a thin wire in a vein in her arm and trying to manually guide it up and into her torso via a maze of arteries and eventually to her heart where, with luck and skill, it would remove the blockage there. He made it sound a little like the fairground game where a steady hand around the curves of a steel pipe is needed to avoid setting the electric buzzer off. Except the price of failure was rather more serious than a mild jolt, of course. We told him to try, and away he went.
“Forty-five minutes later, he returned, rolling his sleeves down and mopping his brow. ‘Well, it worked,’ he said, breezy and matter-of-fact. ‘She’s weak and very poorly but she’s still here. You can go up for a chat in a minute. I have to go now.’ With that, and the tired but satisfied air of a mechanic who had just replaced a fan belt, he strode away to perform another minor miracle. I thought then, as I do every time I recall that morning, that in those forty-five minutes that young man achieved more, did something more important, than anything and everything I will do in my whole life. Yours too, probably, if you’ll forgive me. When I think about the NHS, I think about him, and then I think about those people not fit to scrub his hands who make his job and his life – and the jobs and lives of his tired, overworked, dedicated, brilliant workmates – harder every day. And I know whose side I am on, and who my enemy is.”

The Nanny State Made Me is thought-provoking, touching, amusing, informative and a pleasure to read. Very, very warmly recommended.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

thanks to netgalley and the publishers for a free copy in return for an open and honest review.

This book looks at the state or welfare state and how it helps and made people (cira 1945-1979) and Maconie with his social history wit and charm navigates us through different parts of what was coined "The Nanny State" and how it has been eroded and chipped away at since the sweeping election of the Torys in 1979. As it looks at the NHS, schools, transport, leisure, social housing and how the labour government of Atlee tried to elevate the problems of poverty, ill health in establishing the welfare state. Enjoyed this book and makes you realise to those who grew up in the period pre 1979 how lucky they were.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

People have different views as to the role of the state in people’s lives, I tend to think that when a population reaches a particular size then the state is an essential thing that actually can be a great benefit to the people that it serves. Those of a more right-wing bent, tend to think that too much state is a bad thing and that private enterprise is the way to ensure a smooth-running society.

The answer is somewhere in the middle. Companies are very good at doing some things well and there are other things that the state is much much better at doing. Maconie is one of those advocating for stronger state institutions in people’s lives and in this book he is putting forward his point of view by taking us through how the state has been there throughout his life since birth.

According to this book, he was the 8,047,970th baby born since the NHS was started in 1945. How he found that out, I have no idea! His first few days were spent in the hospital under the care of the nurses. This free healthcare meant that his parents didn’t have to pay money for a midwife to come to their house to help deliver him. The NHS was there to ensure that he had the inoculations he needed to ensure that he had the best start in life.

As soon as he was old enough he went to school, another service provided by the state. He started at St Joseph’s a catholic primary school and soon after they were moved to a new part of the town and a new school, called St Jude’s. HE was of the age just before they moved from the eleven plus to comprehensive education and was lucky enough to pass and go to the local grammar school. He never really thought about the direction of his life if he hadn’t made it. This also gives him an opportunity to talk about private schools and the massive disproportionate influence that they have over life in our country today.

There is a whole chapter on libraries, one of the public services that I think should be much better funded than they currently are. It was one of his favourite things to do on a regular basis and he is not alone in seeing how the benefits that they bring to society are deep and long-lasting. But, the deep and long cuts that they have suffered have had an impact. This was just one of the services that are provided by local councils, the other being leisure facilities, in particular parks and swimming pools. It brought back memories of going to the pool in Woking that the council thought would best built in the centre of a roundabout…

He has a particular gripe about the state of our transport systems. The long-held aim to privatise everything has meant that the current rail and bus services are not cheap, frequent or reliable, however, the shareholders and directors have made a tidy sum from it, so that’s ok then. Maconie has been a radio presenter on the BBC for many years now, so I would expect some positive bias towards his employer. However, he does make some good points as to the continuation of this national institution, even though it has a raft of issues to deal with I still manage to broadcast a range of quality programmes for people of all walks of life.

I thought that this was excellent. Maconie has a distinctive voice that comes through strongly in this book and he is not afraid to put forward his point of view about the failing of the current government and those that have gone before. It is more than a middle-aged guy having a rant too. He looks back at the way that the state enabled him to be able to participate in society by having a properly funded education and health system and he is seething that those opportunities have been successively taken away by Tory governments over the years.

[Ian Mapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stuart Maconies has a distinctive voice and it readily leaps of the page. You can hear the author speak, in the way the sentences are expertly constructed and the cultural references he uses. I am not sure I like it all the time - he can come across as self aggrandising and I'm certainly left with the feeling that he doesn't listen to others points of view at all.

This is a book about the growing up under the protection of the Welfare state - reaching its peak in the 70s before Thatcher dismantled it and left us where we are today.

Its a very personal account of the NHS, Council Housing, New Towns (although I cannot believe he has ever spent time in Stevenage - a uniformly shite experience), the Dole, transport and the privatisation of everything. Each chapter is Stuarts personal experience of one of the topics.

Its also a lament on the loss of shared experience and community.

In many ways, its an awful reflection on where we are today.

Things I did like - the arguments about artistic types who could only perfect their art by being on the dole. He cites many artists and musicians who have contributed greatly to the government coffers following their success. Further expanding on the point he talks about the pop stars of today are all upper middle class - as they are the only ones who can afford the same time to input today. This is something that has been staring me in the face but previously unacknowledged.

You could weep at what this county has done to public transport - the bus situation on Oxford Road showing the opposite end of the disaster to the rural routes that have been binned as unprofitable. And the answer to the railways is staring us in the face - yet on we plough with failing franchises bailed out by the government and tracks owned by different people to the operators.

And how/why did Water get privatised. He is correct in saying there is not much free market competition for the most basic of human needs

Maybe a more balanced argument could have been used.... for every Noel Gallagher learning the guitar at the taxpayers costs there is no getting away from the fact that you have entire subsections of society who have never worked a day in their lives. The safety net was never meant to a lifestyle choice. Stuart does argue that people avoiding tax cost the collective purse much more than those who take benefits but it is kind of tough to look out of my window at the two car family, with three kids that live in the same street and you know the adults have never done a days work in their entire life.

The book was finished as Boris was coming to power. The book could have had more on how the red wall communities have abandoned labour and the reasons for this - its briefly touched on.

And of course - now we are seeing the necessity for "Big Government" in wake of the covid crisis with furlough schemes, bail outs of the public transport system etc. - future editions of the book could have a section on this to re-enforce his views.

An easy entertaining read that has you questioning previously held opinions and wondering how the hell it went so badly wrong.

[SueLucie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Between the end of the Second World War and the entry of Thatcher into Downing Street, the state generally did what it thought was the best for the very best of reasons. It was progressive, imaginative, adventurous, caring and responsible. The years since then have seen not salvation but a shrinking, the slow sour closing of the English mind and heart, as we turn to worship at the altar of the private sector.

The first book by Stuart Maconie I’ve read and what a delight, though he is preaching to the converted with me, being a beneficiary of many of the state-funded educational and social provisions he discusses. He applies a well-informed, passionate but often wry, approach to a serious theme - that of what we have lost over the last four decades in terms of people’s well-being and quality of life. I enjoyed it enormously, especially the anecdotes from his own early years. Highly recommended to ponder over during this difficult time - one the author could not have predicted but what I wouldn’t give to read his take on our response to it. A sequel beckons?

With thanks to Penguin, Ebury Press via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.

[Sophie Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sophie’s first book of the month was The Nanny State Made Me by Stuart Maconie. The “Nanny State” is a British colloquialism for what many Americans would term “big government” – a government that provides medical care, social housing, libraries, leisure facilities, and other services for its people. It’s a form of government that thrived in Britain in the decades after World War Two, ending during the 80s and the rise of Thatcherism.

In The Nanny State Made Me, Stuart Maconie investigates how the Nanny State helped raised his generation. The chapters cover the NHS, schools, libraries, benefits, and public transport among other subjects and explores the consequences of privatization combined with years of austerity for the average Brit. It’s not a balanced book.

It’s obvious from the title that Maconie is strongly in favor of this form of government and he argues vehemently for its many benefits. After reading, it’s hard to disagree with him, although given that Sophie already agreed with him before picking the book up, she admits her opinion is heavily biased.

With everything going on over the last few weeks and strong arguments calling for nationalized health care in the US to help prevent the spread of deadly contagions, this book feels incredibly timely. We’re all in this together and The Nanny State Made Me shows how a country can pull together even more effectively with the help of a caring government that puts its people before profits.

[Stephen Goldenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

As Maconie points out, it’s always posh right wing Tories who were brought up by nannies who rail against the nanny state. But for those of us from more humble backgrounds who, as I am, we’re part of the post-war baby boom, we owe a great deal to the nanny state.
I did consider writing this kind of book myself a couple of years ago, tracing the development of the welfare state alongside my own autobiography, as someone who was born just as the NHS was getting underway, but I shelved the idea. I’m sure Stuart Maconie has done a much better job of it than I would have. In his usual entertaining way, it’s an eclectic mixture of autobiography, social history, travelogue, box pops and interviews with obscure cult celebrities (e.g lead singer and songwriter of satirical Liverpudlian rock band Half Man Half Biscuit).
And it’s also a suitably angry polemic, railing against the gradual dismantling of the welfare state and the rolling back of all the advances made by ordinary working people from 1945 up to the election of Thatcher in 1979. As with nearly all of Stuart Maconie’s writing, what underpins it is the issue of social class.

[Pam Devine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up with Thatcher and Maconie in the north east of England and was interested to see what he had to say. A lot of his opinions resonate, or I can at least see where he is coming from. A slow read but only because I wanted to absorb the detail or went back to read bits. Arguably Maconie has picked the research to back himself up but doesn't every writer? I definitely agree that five years ago I would never have expected to see the buffoon which is Boris as PM. A truly unbelievable state of affairs. Britain might not be as great as it once was but we can be proud of ourselves if we only see the way to making the NHS, schools, libraries, housing work for the people instead of for managers, stopping tinkering and fiddling for the sake of it and investing in the nation and its future. That stands regardless of whether someone voted Leave or Remain. The deed is done and now we must embrace self-care as a nation. Machine's book is a good place to start.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting explanation as to why this country has turned into such a dreadful place

[Simon Hodge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stuart Maconie brilliantly uses his own story of growing up in a better Britain. A time when the welfare state worked for everyone and not just there to be broken down and sold off to the highest bidder.
He interviews a number of people throughout the book and asks them about their experiences of the so called 'nanny state'.
Often funny, sometimes sad but always compelling, I also found myself feeling strangely nostalgic.
A great book which has definitely come at a time when we need a change in this country.
As Stuart rightly points out, the people who complain about the 'nanny state' are the people who had nannies and all went to the same private schools.
Maybe the change could start with them?

[Keen Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I like those very few of my friends and colleagues who send their kids to fee-paying schools. But let’s be absolutely straight about this. Any opinion other than the conviction that private education should be abolished immediately is cant and bullshit. It may make your domestic life less smooth. But so did abolishing slavery for the comfortably well off. Privilege and unfairness will never be eradicated, social justice will never be achieved while well-meaning but hand wringing liberals pay for their children to go to private schools. Sorry, guys, but it’s hypocrisy, and you know it. Turn them into Aldis, sports halls and nail bars. Today. ”

I have nothing but warm memories of listening to Maconie on the radio back in the day, and like many, I know him most of all for his contribution to music, and to a lesser extent pop culture and social history across various mediums. Though I had no idea that he was such a staunch lefty and with such anger, passion and conviction too!

“Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through time of no libraries.” Anne Herbert

Part travelogue, part socio-political history the ever verbose and avuncular Maconie takes us on a cheery and intrepid amble around Great Britain, digging out nuggets of relatable and inspiring tales of ordinary people achieving extraordinary things, and not in the name of greed or self-interest, but…wait for it...community!

Citing a broad range of worthwhile and provocative sources, ending up in all sorts of corners of the country from Barnsley, where he finds Margaret Scargill (Daughter of Arthur Scargill) and her husband, and a ground breaking health centre they helped create to the furthest north NHS surgery in the UK found in Shetland and this is just within the chapter of the NHS. Maconie names and shames the like of the “Evening Standard” which vehemently opposed the idea of the NHS and the BMA and that bastard Churchill and his Tory toads who repeatedly voted against the founding of the NHS.

Elsewhere he commits chapters to the likes of British education, libraries, public parks, state schools, the benefit system, the transport system and even his paymasters at the BBC. He covers so much in here, and is spot on with his point about the reductive right wing narrative created and perpetuated about 1970s in Britain which is forever repeated to serve a right wing agenda.

Some minor criticisms would be, he definitely gets carried away with the nostalgia a little too often, and I have to say I did take exception to him describing Jacinda Ardern and her Labour government as being an “enlightened social democracy” and gushing over a misinformed cult mythology which seems to hold particular sway outside of NZ.

He reminds us that the elite, private schools in the UK enjoy charitable status (laughter!) and are state subsidised. Private schools in London have 59 theatres compared to the 42 in the West End. There are lots of maddening facts and stats about so called private millionaires and billionaires being subsidised by the taxpayer at further expense to the er taxpayer that make for ideal rage reading.

But overall this is a great read, I was really impressed by this book on many levels and just like on the radio, Maconie makes for grand company. His research is deep and the sources many, and he speaks to many interesting and memorable sorts and he even manages to summon up love for the much maligned new towns of Cumbernauld and East Kilbride. Two places I also retain a strong affection for. Mr Maconie take a bow.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

ast week I reviewed Cash Carraway’s book about her struggle to build a life for herself and her daughter under the current social system in this country. It felt timely then to read this book straight after – a book that praises that once great system, when the much maligned ‘nanny’ state looked after the people of this country and helped those who needed help.

I am slightly younger than Maconie, but I very much recognised the world he described – albeit that I lived further south, first in London and then in an estate in a new town, built to cater for the London overspill. Like Maconie’s estate, the estate we lived in had been planned to put open spaces at its heart – terraces of houses not in rows but in squares around a green area, and we had a toilet downstairs!

I had a free education, free library, free care from the NHS, and when I when to university I had a grant – a grant that didn’t need to be paid back – ever.

Things weren’t perfect. There was snobbery. There was still need. But it was a damn sight better than now.

Maconie’s book then, is a love letter of sorts to those institutions that meant so much to those of us who were working class – the swimming pools, the parks, the libraries (especially the libraries), the completely free education. And it’s also a warning that we are letting it all slip away. That we are letting this false narrative of scroungers, of benefit cheats, of people swanning up to food banks in Range Rovers (yes, I have been told this I by someone I know – she firmly believes it) to allow us to turn our back on a system that, although not perfect, was genuinely a safety net, was genuinely a way out for many of us.

Maconie writes with wit, with warmth, with intelligence. The book isn’t perfect though. In a section about how the privately educated have taken over the music industry, with the majority of bands in this country formed of ex-public schoolboys, Maconie wonders where are the John Lennons, the Jarvis Cockers, the Johnny Marrs? In doing so he completely overlooks grime – a whole genre of working class and independent music.

I also found his defence of the BBC a little hard to swallow, and a little disappointing too.

That said, however, this is a really important book. The ‘nanny’ state is not a terrible, interfering, wasteful behemoth that needs continuous overhauling – it is a lifeline for many that definitely needs proper funding (might help if the rich paid their taxes). We need those Sure Start Centres, those public libraries, the school playing fields, the public swimming pools. And we most certainly need free university level education. I couldn’t have done without these things. I wish the generations after me had had the benefit of them too.

A much-needed warning, well-written, very readable, and an important book, especially as we head into the uncertainty of 2022.

[Paul Middle Name Lester · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all this is a thoroughly enjoyable read which is packed, as always, with Stuart Maconie's wry humour and fascinating facts about Britain's social history. As with all of his other books it leaves me with lists of further topics to explore, books to read and places to visit.

But more than that, a vital and timely message runs through the pages of this book. Put succinctly, despite the braying of libertarian dolts and the phony (and increasingly tedious) 'culture wars', society definitely does exist and it's about time we went back to showing it a little bit of TLC. This book is at once a polemic against runaway capitalism, with its insatiable thirst for privatisation, and a love letter to the glory days of the welfare state, for all its faults. You know, when looking out for the well-being of its citizens was high on the agenda of government.

Far from a ranting call to arms to all comrades to storm the palaces, this is a thoughtful and factful exploration of the benefits of supplying people with the basics, not just to survive, but to have the chance of leading a fulfilling, fruitful life. And a warning against continuing down the path we find ourselves walking.

The final lines read, "The Nanny State made me. It made you too. We have never needed her more. It's time to bring her back." I couldn't agree more.

[Kimberley Manderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird trip to read this post-covid

While I agree with the overall sentiment of the book, it was interesting to read this post-covid and all the horrible things and Tories that have happened since then.

Chuckled a bit at the very end when Maconie refers to a town that bubbled themselves in to prevent infection and save anyone outside. I wonder if he knew?!

However, one main criticism of books like this is that they never take the Scottish position seriously in all this. Yes, he visited Shetland, yes he mentioned the Scottish NHS, but there's no real credence given to the differences in the devolved powers which sees Scotland receive more nanny-state-like societal benefits than English counterparts, such as nationalised water, free prescriptions, free university tuition, baby boxes, Social Security Scotland etc. Whilst I enjoyed seeing Norway receive a nod to an alternative way of nanny state and capitalism coexisting, it would have been nice to acknowledge how some devolved UK powers are already working to achieve that.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, before the pandemic, the last event I went to, was to see Stuart Maconie talk about this book. It was a fascinating night and I was excited to go and read the book.
18 months later, and I've finally done it!

And it did not disappoint. I listen to Stuart regularly on his 6music so I knew I was in for a humorous but frank journey through the public services of the UK. The book is well researched, with a healthy dose of personal anecdotes. With chapters on the NHS, libraries, parks and transport (among others) we see the good and more recently bad of our public assets. It is starkly laid bare how the privatisation of so many of these assets is having a detrimental impact upon life in the UK.

I can only hope that books like this encourage others to see the value in our state run services and spurs on the fight to save those we still have, and bring back some of those we have lost.

Oh, and I got this from my local library - only seemed right!

[Rob Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stuart Maconie looks into the ‘Nanny State’. This is the derogatory term used for public or nationalised services by people with in power. Or, as Maconie says “people who had nannies”. Maconie looks back with rose-tinted glasses to a life led under the glory days of state intervention. However, Maconie becomes too misty-eyed to keep a focus. Topics are wide ranging, and only touched upon. It's also relentlessly negative. Chapter after chapter of invective becomes tiresome. His praise of society under the auspices of government funding leads to a highly personal and polemical book. Clinging to a romanticised past for the majority of the book it's only in the last chapter that Maconie touches on the real problem. This is the growing social and political emphasis on individuality and identity. He has a point, albeit made far too late.

[John Buckland · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took a disaster of epic proportions

This review being written as we enter the critical escalation phase of the Coronavirus epidemic in UK. The government has already bungled a couple of vital decisions which have made many suspect that they are more fearful of losing business than losing people. Some early but still faint signs that people are becoming more aware of what a gift the NHS is and e goes of the sentiments expressed by the author beginning to show in social media posts/ blogs. It will be interesting to see if a resurrected 'Nanny State" emerges when this has all passed.

[Ali Bird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant as always. Particularly poignant now though. It's a celebration of the fantastic way the post war generation created a 'nanny state' that really did look after us all. For the people's good, not the shareholders' profit. And how, since 1979, we've gradually been dismantling it, leaving people vulnerable and with less rich lives. Worth a read as we perhaps begin to rethink what and who are important in our society. And there's a great bit about Thimblemill library!

[Derek Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather appropriately I finished this on the anniversary of VE Day. A day the country came out of a war with renewed hope and a promise of a brighter future. A future of decent public services for all - education, health, transport and a safety net for the poorest, and one which also valued culture with parks and libraries.

Here we are now where none of these things seem to matter as greed and profit and the free marketeers who always hated it have taken over. Maconie takes us superbly through the services he benefited from from birth to now and how they shaped him (and indeed me). This is a brilliant defence of how strong public services are good for all of us and how in the last 40 years we have seen them diminished by cuts and privatisation and replaced in many instances by less efficient more incompetent organisations who exist only to benefit heir shareholders rather than the nation as a whole. The biggest irony in many instances being that some of these are actually owned by foreign Governments who reinvest the profit in their superior public services.

It's written with a lightness of touch and a sense of humour that takes what could have been a dry polemic and turns it into a joy to read.

It's release couldn't have been better timed with the current pandemic showing that there are some things only the public sector can provide.

[Jennifer Lynch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was born a few years after Margaret Thatcher first became Prime Minister so my memories involve funding cuts being made to my school and my mother's worry over the introduction of the poll tax. Thankfully, this book is a reminder of the many wonderful things different governments have done for this country. It feels timely to have this reminder at a point where we need our current Government to step up and puts its people first.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting thoughts in this book, though it could do with being updated following all that has happened in the five years since he wrote it.
And, yes, it did make me feel that my life was actually better supported by the State in my youth.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at life in Britain under the Welfare State. Stuart raises points about nationalising the internet and his ideas on the BBC as not partisan, which is refreshing. There were parts which read as if all governments since 1990 have been inept in their handling of the state, which I don't believe to be exactly true. The book is written with Stuart's usual wit and repartee and for fans of his, there is plenty to enjoy.

[Ophelia Sings · Rating 5 out of 5]

I write this on the day Brexit finally 'got done' - also the day, ironically and darkly portentously, coronavirus arrived in the UK. I wasn't feeling too upbeat already as it goes, but finishing this love letter to the welfare state - four decades into the start of its managed decline, and now under a new Tory government which seems determined to finish what it started all those years ago - has just about finished me off.

The Nanny State Made Me (which, actually, it really did) is a timely polemic on all that is good about said 'nanny state', and all that we have lost from it. And all we still stand to lose. Maconie writes with his usual passion, wit, warmth and knowledge - not just facts and figures, but the first hand stuff, the stuff you can't learn, the stuff that made you. I'm a child of the 70s and 80s who grew up in South Wales under the shadow of Thatcherism - my uncles were striking miners, their communities eventually and irreversibly decimated - so I feel a great affinity with his take on working class life and how, as the twentieth century drew to a close, it got harder for those least able to bear it. And so it continues, to this day.

This is a timely reminder of why the 'nanny state' is not the mollycoddling, soft-soaping yet sinister helicopter parent certain sections of the media and Westminster would have us believe. Rather, it's the strict but fair, gently maternal provider of care, shelter, inspiration, leisure and hope that is there for us not just in extremis, but also when we fancy an afternoon pottering in the park or slaking our thirst for knowledge, for free, at our local library. Except it's not really, not any more, because bit by bit, it's all being stripped away.

The sad thing is that those who really should read this book probably won't, because they'll likely dismiss it as a work of whining snowflakery or somesuch. They'll do so even as they book a GP appointment or moan at the lateness of their train or how run down their local high street is, with no sense of irony or awareness whatsoever. And while they harp on about how Brexit will make Britain great again, when we had the very tools to do that at our disposal all along - well, we did until we threw them away in a fit of privateering pique.

The Nanny State Made Me is, yes, a love letter to the welfare state. Let's hope - really, truly, fervently hope - that it is not also an obituary.

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I probably should preface this review by saying that I have studied Social Policy and so I have previously read in-depthly around this topic and this potentially has influenced my rating of this book but this is also the reason this book stood out to me as one that I would like to read.

The reader is taken through the varying areas of the Welfare State in the UK such as the Education system, the NHS, the BBC and the transport system and Maconie argues that the UK should move back to public ownership and Government control. He refers to these things as being under the umbrella of the 'Nanny State', a term that is often sneered at. However I would debate that when people sneer at the concept of the Nanny State it is usually the benefits system that they are referring to and not comprehensive schooling, leisure centres or the NHS etc.

On the whole I agree with Maconie's viewpoint but my main issue with this book is that it is a book of description and a rose tinted view on Socialism of which there are many flaws but none of them are addressed in this book. It lacks any analysis and simply lists Maconie's personal viewpoint which makes for a very one-sided read and feels like a trip down memory line for the author. It is overwhelmingly pro-socialism and state ownership across all avenues (with the exception of the BBC which Maconie thinks should be a subscription service as to allow advertising on the BBC would be to put other channels out of business because no one would want to advertise on them) but even this follows pages spent defending the BBC, which made for an incoherent argument, is Maconie for or against the BBC because he seems to be both? However despite this I think the chapter on the BBC was a better more well-rounded chapter for considering both sides of the argument with some critical analysis.

I enjoyed some chapters more than others, the NHS chapter was very interesting and I particularly liked where other people's anecdotes and stories were used such as the all-in-one GP service set up by Margaret Scargill and her Husband James or the story of the lady who runs the library in Smethwick. There were many interesting facts scattered throughout the book and Maconie writes with warmth and fond memories of life before the bulk privatisation of the late 1970's and 1980's.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the UK's public services model because regardless of what knowledge level you are currently at on the topic there are plenty of interesting anecdotes and facts to be found in this book.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

By 'eck but Maconie is an enjoyable read when he's writing about what he knows. Here we get a potent coming together of what he's lived through and what he cares about. He's lived pretty much the same life as me (I'd count my successes up with his but happily below the national radar) and he cares about the same things: each other.

Read it and get your friends to read it. There are an awful lot of popular social histories around at the moment written by people who have experienced what they write about instead of by people who have studied it. It is a welcome development and one that I hope is part of a movement that will bring us back to our communal senses again.

I was free-school meals, a little bottle of milk at playtime, comprehensive education (though I ended up in a grammar school when the family crossed the Pennines, full student grant and short periods of supplementary benefit while I spent seven years (aged 16-23) trying out every non-career (unskilled) job in West Yorkshire, Staffordshire and North Yorks. I've never begrudged a penny in tax for schools, roads, hospitals, police force and I wish I could still be paying utility bills to the country and not to fat cats who probably don't even know they supply my electric/gas/water. Oh, and bring back trains that I can afford and which are not chronically over-crowded.

How the term nanny state ever became a pejorative I have no idea. We never had a paid employee as nanny. Our nannys were usually called grandma, nan or granny. They were almost invariably tough old parties who we didn't associate with fun. But they cared about us and we cared about them.

We must find out all we can (our responsibility to ourselves) and be kind to each other (our responsibility to other people)... and undo the terrible damage Mrs Thatcher did to this lovely country.

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

As soon as I read the first page of this book I knew I was going to devour it very quickly. It's so relevant to the time that we are living in now.
The Nanny State is a title used by the same people who talk about PC brigades and snowflakes. People who are so rich and, or so well connected that they don't need the Welfare State set up by the Labour government after WW2.
Using his own life as the basis of the book Stuart Maconie explains why people born between 1948 and 1979 had the best healthcare, education, libraries and housing all provided by the state and financed through proper taxation. Since Thatcher got to power in 1979 everything that was once state controlled has been privatised to its detriment even the beloved NHS is being sold off so that shareholders reap the dividends.
A relative of mine worked for BR for over 30 years and said that if the government had pumped as much money into the railways then as they have since privatisation we would have been the envy of the world for our rail transport.
This is a relevant read for the Coronavirus times when our beloved NHS is stretched to its limits and we need something, perhaps a nanny, to help the most vulnerable people.
Please read if you want to see how cavalier governments of all colours have been with the legacy of the far-sighted people like Nye Bevan, but don't blame me if your blood pressure goes through the roof!

[Michelle Best · Rating 4 out of 5]

thoroughly enjoyed this book even though at times I was furious! (not at the book but at the actions of some politicians who are supposed to work for the betterment of the country)

The book was well structured, each section focussing on a different aspect of the ‘nanny state’ Each section was a satisfying combination of facts, figures & history alongside witty stories about the author’s experiences growing up.

The wit & humour of the author brought some light to what may have been a very dry topic if just given the history. I do suspect that the writing maybe viewed as somewhat one sided but it is a side of the argument against privatisation that is worth a listen. If only our current politicians would listen!

I would’ve given this 5 stars but found the arguments being repeated a little across each section.

On the whole though a really well written and enjoyable book about politics and society. I would highly recommend it.

I received a free copy of this book from netgalley, in return for an honest review.

[Ietrio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just because mommy was white, she was entitled to good hospital care paid by the working darkies. Just because he ”studied” he deserves the best education guns, tanks, and rockets can make on the third world market, propping up the next violent dictator over there.

Still, I am going to read this book some day, just to watch his contortions, why his skin makes him so much more valuable than ten college educated Chinese engineers, you know, the math Maconie could never be bothered with.

[Joe O'Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

If the Covid-19 pandemic can be said to have had any silver lining, it is that it has shown us the importance of strong government and public services. Just as there are no atheists in a foxhole, there are no libertarians during a pandemic and public health crisis.

That we have had to re-learn the importance of public services is largely due to the near-50-year-long right-wing assault on the very concept of a benevolent welfare state. This conservative assault, that has spanned right-of-centre political parties to national newspapers and pro-free market think-tanks, has formed the neo-liberal economic consensus of our time, persistently ridiculing the public sector as inefficient, outdated, and fit for nothing more than dismantling and selling off to the highest bidder. In “The Nanny State Made Me”, Stuart Maconie aims to retort to this ideology of free-market fundamentalism and instead offer a passionate – and timely – argument in favour of the public sector and welfare state. Drawing on chapters from his own life, Maconie makes the case for a strong ‘nanny state’ (attempting to reclaim this pejorative term from the right) and examines how the U.K.’s dogma of private enterprise – selling off practically every element of the state from railways, water, schools, to prisons – has reduced the country to the status of ‘the sick man of Europe’.

Forty-plus years of this form of free-market fanaticism has left Britain a country riven between private riches for a select few and public squalor for the broad mass of the population not steeped in privilege (and who remain dependent on what’s left of public services in Britain). Each chapter of “The Nanny State Made Me” focuses on one element of the public realm – from health, education, broadcasting, transport – that has been ravaged by the ideological revolution of Thatcherism (and, in many cases, privatised and sold off to the Tories’ financial cronies).

Maconie is at his most impassioned when demonstrating the positive effects the welfare state has had on his own life chances (not least in his chapter on the Tories’ idiotically appalling attacks on the public library system). “The Nanny State Made Me” is forensic in outlining the iniquities of privatisation, particularly in the chapters on water, energy, and rail where a bewildering array of private companies are now running what are supposed to be public services, making it impossible for citizens to know who is ultimately responsible and to hold them accountable. “The Nanny State Made Me” also does sterling work in attempting to rehabilitate the reputation of the 1970s, a time derided by conservatives but when the post-war, social democratic consensus was at its zenith ... and income inequality was at its lowest level in human history.

It would be a mistake to dismiss “The Nanny State Made Me” as merely a militant anti-capitalist tract. Maconie makes a reasonable case for capitalism being a potential springboard to creativity, but he also adheres to Billy Bragg’s dictum about free markets: “Capitalism is like fire. Controlled it can give us heat and light and energy. Uncontrolled it destroys everything in its path”. Instead, “The Nanny State Made Me” is against the kind of cronyism and corruption that has become synonymous with deregulated free markets, and offers a spirited defence of libraries, public parks, council housing, nationalised railways and, of course, the unofficial national religion of the NHS.

The pandemic proved dramatic state intervention could be mobilised in a time of crisis. Some of Stuart Maconie’s proposals in “The Nanny State Made Me” might appear radical (such as his rallying call to ‘nationalise the internet’); but others such as his endorsement of a Universal Basic Income are becoming increasingly mainstream (and have even been partly - albeit only temporary - implemented during the pandemic furloughs).

Neo-liberalism isn’t working (if it ever did in the first place). This excellent, polemical book shows how it was discredited by the 2008 financial crash, then rendered obsolete by the response to the coronavirus. The question now is what replaces it. A cock-eyed optimist might hope that the lessons of “The Nanny State Made Me” might be taken on board by some of the rogues gallery that comprise the current Tory party leadership candidates. However, whether out of ideological fervour, blind loyalty to Thatcherism or just intellectual blindness, the only thing you can count on is that the Tories will never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and personal, the first third was brilliant as Maconie examined the role of the state and the effects of privatisation on the UK. He did the same in the whole book, but it didn't have the same spark in later sections and nor did it have the same level of research.

Fundamentally, it was driven by story and case study rather than a cold analysis, but with research to back up his overall points. He went to many places of interest, from the first comprehensive school in Wales to a municipal golf course to his old council estate, while also using his contact book to speak to the head of BBC Radio and Jarvis Cocker. For the most part he got the balance right, and it wasn't overly nostalgic - one of his mates had hot ash thrown in his face and had to wear a balaclava to hide the results, and Simon Armitage was called gay when living in the flat above his school for a week to prepare for adult life at the first newly built comprehensive.

What elevated this book was Maconie's wit, from having a well-deserved pop at disingenuous Tories to the state of daytime tv (more on that later) and the attitudes of parents who send their children to private school. There were facts and figures to back up his points too, although the chapters on trains and television were much more subjective - privatised rail might be worse than British Rail but there wasn't much evidence for it, and I have also been on old rolling stock on the public railways of France and Italy. Bus use has fallen thanks to privatisation and he was moaning about overcrowded trains, suggesting people are at least using them. But in general, the evidence backed up his arguments.

He spoke to a mixture of qualified people and entertaining interviewees who had grown up using public services, again mixing serious points with more amusing anecdotes. But after criticising snobbery, he saw the argument to make the BBC subscription funded because it could have quality programmes only rather than have a schedule full of filler. Moran was a staunch defender of libraries but got annoyed that it had plenty of Mills and Boon in Wolverhampton (which its members presumably liked to read.) This seemed to jar with their general attitude towards elites telling commoners what they should do (and whatever their upbringing and current net worths, culturally Maconie and Moran are in the high echelons). And if you're going to look down on pop culture, don't use the truly terrible The Dice Man as one of three books defending works of the 70s.

Even a seasoned reader of similar arguments would probably have found enough new in here from his contacts and trips around the country, and the focus was on entertainment rather than academic rigour making this an enjoyable read - the jokes were genuinely funny. On the whole he was reflective rather than purely idealogical and I admired his personal touch. The later chapters just didn't have the same punch or levity of the first few and while he got rid of a mawkish draft about Grenfell, he could have done with removing the haughtiness about Cash in the Attic too.