Neil Kinnock on the post-war-like challenges facing Keir Starmer

I HAD CERTAINLY not reached political consciousness when the second world war ended. I was, after all, just three years old. But I do remember the period of reconstruction under a Labour government that brought the National Health Service, free secondary schooling, the introduction of meaningful welfare support in unemployment, sickness and old age, legal aid, millions of affordable new homes, public ownership of utilities and the rescue of the coal, steel and rail industries.It certainly wasn’t all sweetness, sunshine and Stanley Holloway’s jolly black-and-white morale-boosting films. Chronic shortages of basic foodstuffs, fuel, clothing and building materials meant rationing, black-market crime and widespread animosity. The continuation of wartime regulations and obligations, including National Service, generated resentment.