I recently 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.

An interesting if slightly rose-tinted view of the impact of social housing. As with all concepts vs reality opinion really is a personal view, so as a childhood nostalgia this was entertaining to absorb.

A timely reminder of how much the state has given us over the years, not just the NHS, but parks, libraries, municipal golf courses (remember them?!) and more. Yes Stuart Maconie has a left leaning viewpoint but written in his informative and humorous style, it is another winner from him. As he rightly says once these state run facilities go we won't be able to replace them and in private hands they more often then not end up in a worse state (cue Chris Grayling!).

“What was so terrible about properly funded hospitals, student grants, decent working conditions, affordable houses, trains that ran for convenience not profit, water that poured from the tap whose function was to slake your thirst, not to make shareholders a dividend ?”

That's the case put forward here. It's a case that appeals through affectionate accounts of Stuart Maconie's encounters with the welfare state from the day of his birth in a NHS hospital. It's a case that, I think. is weakened by the occasional rant about Mrs Thatcher – let the facts speak for themselves.

Those facts are impressive – we were at the lowest point of the war when the Beveridge report was published, three years before we were in any position to do anything about it, and this book includes far more than what we think of as the welfare state. Staying with the NHS (“not underfunded, just hugely mismanaged”),he visits the Grimethorpe Health Centre, founded by Arthur Scargill's son-in-law with ideas from Cuba, and applauds its multi-agency one-stop approach. He then turns to education by reflecting on his own schooldays and those of his contemporaries., throwing in thoughtful asides like the fact that the 1945 Housing Ministry included Health in its brief.

Where the book scores, though, is his overview of all the other things that “the Council” used to provide (“how well cared for we were”) before we started “nationalising the role but privatising the profit” - so we're given a chatty but incisive tour around public libraries, swimming pools, parks, housing, public transport, new towns and privatised water services. Significantly, the dole and the benefits system don't crop up until the later chapters of the book, alongside the private monopoly of social media and the internet. (Apple's reserves, he says, are larger than the US Federal Reserve.)

That's a crude précis: the heart of the book is the recurrent hymn to everything the state used to do for us and some of the things that have just managed to survive; so there's a glowing account of Thimblemill Library in Smethwick, or Birkenhead Park which inspired Central Park in New York. The bitter edge is always there, though, coming vividly to the surface when he compares the 'crackpot' deregulation of buses (32% less use and 35% higher fares) with Nottingham's municipal bus service. (Why don't other cities follow Nottingham ? The regulations don't allow them.) Or consider Severn Trent Water – huge profits, huge dividends, but no compensation for their customers' loss of water after flooding, or the 27% of their water that leaks from their pipes.

Symbolically, the book ends with a glance at the people of Eyam who quarantined themselves to stop the Great Plague infecting their neighbours. “No intellectual theory of complete free-market liberalism can really deal with the pesky concept of altruism.” Wars - and pandemics - can change things for the better: that's what the original Nanny State was all about, but the real question is, how on earth did we manage to create that revolution in those dreary debt-ridden postwar years ? And could we do it again when this wretched virus is a thing of the past ?

A timely book given the (temporary) coronavirus-prompted privatisation of much of the UK's economy, this is a celebration of the benevolent state, covering the NHS, education, transport, housing, libraries and more, and tracking their decline since the rampant privatisation of Thatcherism and beyond. Like Maconie's other books, it's a nostalgic and sentimental read, and Maconie is a charming companion. But it veers too hard towards polemic. Maconie clearly feels passionately about his subject matter, but this reader much preferred his "travelogue"-style social histories. Maconie's books are genial in style, and rarely seem to be based on rigorous research. This isn't a problem when he breezes through lighter material, but here it lets him down. There is enough in here to enjoy, but overall a slightly disappointing addition to the Maconie canon.

My thanks to NetGalley and Ebury publishers for a copy of “The Nanny State Made Me ... “ for an honest review.
I loved this , thought provoking, impassioned and often sad look at today’s society, but told with wit and humour.
Being of a similar age to Stuart Maconie, I loved the nostalgic memories that he evoked .
Maconie was able to express so eloquently how I feel about the decline of services that we have taken for granted , and now seem to have been decimated before our eyes..
As a librarian of 38 years I particularly enjoyed the chapter on the importance of libraries and the large gap that has been left with closures and underfunding .
I feel happy to be a product of The Nanny State but pessimistic for the future of the next generation .
Will definitely be recommending

I do enjoy reading Stuart Maconie. He knows how to tell a story with pathos and wit and there is a lot of both in this book. I’m a bit older than he is but the working class north (in my case Scotland) and the reliance on the welfare state in its various guises to lift you out of the humdrum is beautifully captured. Whether it’s the nod to libraries or the Tales of the NHS, he takes you with him every step. He laments the end of free higher education, the politicisation of the NHS, the privatisation of the railways and water etc but this isn’t a rant. It is a well researched, well thought out argument for all that was good about those things and why they matter. He is particularly good talking about the BBC and its sad erosion.

A few quotes will give a flavour:-

“In this book, I’ve looked at how schools, hospitals, houses, transport - essential life resources for us all that should be owned by us all - are now in the hands of a few for private profit.”

“Maybe we should embrace the joy of our communal peasant hood, rise with our class rather than out of it.”

“The people who complain about the nanny state are the people who had nannies. They continue to divide and rule, to buy and sell, to trade in our future for their profit.”

Mr Maconie might be slightly sentimental but he doesn't revel in it. He always gives cold facts and backs up his views with interviews and citations. I would love to have a pint with him and lament the passing of the days when politicians were more honest and universities were truly available for all, regardless of family background or income.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Stuart Maconie's The Nanny State Made Me is a love letter to the welfare system, and a plea in its defence against successive Tory governments who have done all in their power to defund and dismantle it. Back in the 1980s in the UK, t'old Maggie T - the Maleficent of Disney villains to both socialists and mining families alike (of which I am both) - ascribed the apparently disparaging title to the United Kingdom's shining asset: the welfare system, that included (but was not limited to) the national health service, the benefits system, public libraries and nationalised transportation. Far above everything else that the United Kingdom has ever done and perhaps will ever do, this lowly enemy of Tory politicians is the country's shining asset. No competition.
Maconie clearly feels the love that I, and so many others, share. He delves into its history (Arthur Scargill was a particular highlight with my own family history being so tied to his actions), its mechanisms and its long-lasting impacts of all of its varied aspects, and brings his articulate narrative to life with a warmth and passion that seeps through every single word of its pages. And perhaps, with a less keen eye this could end up sounding like naive, preaching claptrap but oh, no: Stuart Maconie is far from blind to its flaws, both in its heyday and now in the present day. But, that makes his eagerness to thrust the welfare state into a greater golden age than it has ever known, even more compelling. Because you don't just give up when something has its flaws, you all come together to fix it.
We were all made by it, after-all, and now the onus is on us to sustain it.

This is a fantastic read. It cuts right to the bone of Britain's society and reveals what exactly has gone wrong in recent years and how so much of the nonsense could be done away with if leaders focused on the needs of the British people. Good health care, access to education, literacy and public libraries are some of the needs that Stuart Maconie focuses on, that were provided by the nanny state and are compulsory in successful societies. Where would Britain be without the provisions of the nanny state? I found this to be such an insightful read and it's more poignant than ever now during the Covid 19 pandemic when the NHS and the government's resources are stretched to the limit. Without the nanny state current situation might be a whole lot worse than it currently is.

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!

Stuart Maconie writes with both humour and intelligence. This book is a delight to read and offers great insight in to just how lucky we are to have grown up with the 'nanny state'....

Brilliantly written - another cracker from Stuart Maconie. Nostalgic, no-holds barred look at what truly made Britain great. Maconie for PM anyone...

I read this book in Stuart Marconi’s voice, I couldn’t help it!
Stuart Maconie, is a writer, broadcaster and radio host from the North of England born in the 1960’s to a working class family. He is well-known for his wit and down to earth wisdom and Marconi is a decent wordsmith.

He argues the case for the welfare state and public ownership. To do this he pits himself against those people who like to deride any kind of resistance to the free market as the unwanted intervention of the “nanny state”. People, he notes, who tend to have been brought up by “nannies”.
It’s a timely subject, given the increasingly polarised debate on the failings of privatisation, it’s an ambitious book that looks at: health, education, housing, transport, the benefits system and even public libraries and parks – the perspective is Maconie’s own but with some injection from others as well as historical information.
His was a teenager in the 1970s and he feels that period was “the last Golden Age for the benevolent state and the British working people”. It’s an era, he says, that has been traduced by populist historians (all flared trousers and football hooligans) and unfairly remembered for inflation, strikes and power cuts.
In fact, he writes, much of this time was “bloody great”, and he cites his favourite films, music and literature from the 70s. It is a teenage nostalgic and sentimental approach – which is a nice way to remember your childhood. But it is interspersed with information of fiscal, economic and social issues.
This all started to come to an end with the Conservative Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Thatcherism. Everything went wrong after that. The NHS collapsed, privatisation wrecked the social landscape, and the reform of the benefits system meant no more working-class kids in popular music.
“Where have all the Erics, Joes, Bills, Georges and Brians gone that formed the rock elite of the 60s and 70s?” Maconie asks, sounding very much like a man in his late 50s. He complains about the advent of Hugos and Orlandos in indie rock, but fails to mention the Stormzys, Skeptas or Professor Greens of grime and rap. But then doesn’t every generation decry the next generations music choices?
Maconie ends with the growing social and political emphasis on individuality and identity. He has a point, in particular when he writes that, for all the ideological talk of self-empowerment, “the state is there for you when you do not feel proud or sexy or empowered”. I loved this book as it wasn’t too political ‘heavy’ but very informative and as Stuart is the same age as myself and from the North, it was nostalgic for myself also. I’m sure lots of people will disagree with Stuart, and that’s fine, that’s what democracy is all about.

This fascinating and well written social history should be mandatory reading. I found it readable and informative and Stuart Maconie's passion for his subject come across very well.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Very well-researched and intelligent book about public services - at a time when we most need these services, it was good to be reminded that they are not always safe and that they must be protected: I didn't agree with everything the author says, but it is well-written and very engaging.

Maconie focusses on what truly put the "great" into Great Britain and suggests that with a more caring and equal approach from everyone in society we could all be in a much improved country. (waiting to appear on Amazon)

I received an ARC of this book in return for an honest review. I have read several books by Maconie and this one has engendered similar feelings in me. He writes in an easily understandable way and provides a structure to his writing that generally works well However, he does over egg the pudding in reiteration at times that makes for a read that loses some of it impetus. I am of the same generation as Maconie and from the same neck of the woods. I went to a lot of the local places he describes, the swimming pool in Wigan being one with many memories and I enjoyed the way this took me back to a place and time. What i didn't like is his assumption that anyone from that era must almost necessarily share his political views and equally that this view is the right one. Whilst i understand that the book is meant to be his political polemic on how dismantling nationalisation I feel that there is a lack of balance in the text. I was very weary of it by the end

In unprecedented times we are getting unprecedented state intervention, by a Tory government of all things. We have never been prouder of the NHS, that symbol of democracy, which is getting symbolic support through weekly applause, if not practical and financial help. UK railways have been part nationalised under emergency powers. Supermarket trips involve lengthy queues and a limit on the number of items that can be bought. Financial aid is akin to a Universal Basic Income. Even in 1948 Beveridge could not have foreseen this.


But witty and erudite Stuart Maconie wrote his love letter to the welfare state long before coronavirus hit the world. The Nanny State Made Me: A Story of Britain and How to Save it sees Maconie tell Britain's Welfare State story through his own history of growing up as a northern working class boy. He champions building a fairer and more just society that looks beyond profit and loss, and takes care of its fellow citizens.
He visits hospitals and doctors surgeries, and hears how increasing bureaucracy is stopping them care for patients. He goes to old factory towns and learns how life stopped once the doors were shut for the final times. He revisits his old schools, which includes a grammar school, and explores whether they were really a leg up for poorer schools, or just added elitism. And, man after my own heart, he spends time in the library, that bastion of educational and cultural democracy.

When I do those ‘where do you fall on the political spectrum?’ quizzes I come out more left than Lenin. Yet I wasn’t convinced by Maconie, love him though I do. It’s all too easy to romanticise the past, believe that we can return to fairer days. The welfare state needs a big overhaul. He’s right about that. And I like that he comes at this from an ideological point of view – like, let’s just all look out for each other. That’s how we should approach all policy making – from a place of heart and feeling, followed up by the practicalities. If only it was that simple.

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.

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.