4 December 2005
It appears that the expert on bread rationing is Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska who has written extensively on austerity and food rationing in the UK in the post-war period.
The first piece by her I found is the chapter on “Consensus and Consumption: Rationing, Austerity and Controls after the War” in the book “The Myth of Consensus” edited by Harriet Jones and Michael Kandiah (Macmillan Press 1996). In this she says:
“…food was the most important single issue on the public mind during the late 1940s as a result of unprecedented shortages. Bread was rationed for the first time from July 1946. The policy was controversial because the entire system of food control depended on ample supplies of bread and potatoes, as well as restaurant and canteen meals. Labour justified bread rationing as a necessary step to guarantee the bread supply and ensure fair shares in the context of the world food shortage, which required sacrifice in Britain to prevent famine in continental Europe and elsewhere.”
“During the spring and summer of 1946 intense opposition to bread rationing was led by the Conservative Party, which doubted that the policy was really necessary and that substantial savings in wheat could be made. The Party leadership deplored the added burden placed on consumers and alleged that the government had mismanaged the supply situation. The Conservatives were backed by the right-wing press, which highlighted opposition to bread rationing among bakers as well as the British Housewives’ League. This episode was the first concerted campaign against the Labour government on a major policy issue and marked the beginning of the debate about postwar food policy.”
The Conservatives “argued that that austerity was largely due to Labour’s incompetence, mismanagement and socialist inspired policies, which were making matters much worse than they need be. Controls were imposed for control’s sake, while excessive bureaucracy stifled the economy and hampered recovery. The Conservatives claimed that for the majority of the population living standards under Labour were worse than during the 1930s, and that only a return to the free market and the abolition of wartime controls would restore living standards.”
The unpopularity of controls led to a swing away from Labour to the Conservatives, first apparent in the Bexley, Pontypool and Battersea North by-elections in July 1946.
A footnote in this article refers to an earlier (1993) piece in the journal “Twentieth Century British History” on “Bread Rationing in Britain, July 1946 – July 1948.” I must get a copy and read it.
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