6.0 A Different State

A DIFFERENT STATE

Such was the success of the scheme that the pubs remained under state control well past the proposed wartime duration and into the 1970’s. The state-managed pubs of Carlisle resisted the rise of the big six breweries and marketisation of the industry only to be finally sold off by the Conservative administration.

Reginald Maudling, the Conservative Home Secretary dealt the final blow claiming that, “…there is no longer sufficient, social or economic justification for the continuance of State Management of the liquor trade.” 26 Contrary to Maudling’s claim, the State Management Scheme consistently brought in profit. Contemporary critics see this ‘coded reference to a lack of social justification’ as purely a way ‘to reverse the process of collectivism which was an anathema to the new political right.’ 27 Indeed, it is unsurprising that a government such as this would return a public asset to private control.

The Carlisle Experiment could also be viewed as part of the progressive movement to centralise all parts of public life. Specifically, the ‘fewer and better’ policy forced the closure of about 1/3 of public houses in order to invest in those that remained

open. This centralisation and control of England’s social space predates the State’s ambition to centralise leisure and social facilities into institutions like the community centre. As Gutzke puts it, ‘Carlisle, an experimental laboratory and microcosm of the entire industry, provided a tested blueprint for postwar reconstruction.’ 28

The decisive reformation of both pubs and housing become methods of social engineering that undoubtedly mirror the political intent of the party in power. Conversely, the system which exists today of absolute control by the private sector becomes devoid of any ideological vision beyond financial gain.

27 Carlisle City Centre Business Group, ‘The State Management Story’, The State Management Story <https://thestatemanagementstory.org/the-history/?> [accessed 23 March 2021].