No Bangs, No Whimpers

New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 870, 6 April 1956, Page 26

No Bangs, No Whimpers

T was agreeable, after the above gloomy prospect so cogently outlined for us, to hear on the same evening, Donald Boyd’s first talk in a BBC series, Private Reports. He called this talk Commonplaces, a review of the events and changés he has seen through fifty years. Mr. Boyd regards the Welfare State as the magnificent consummation of the liberal movernent which he joined in spirit as a boy in the early 1900's and later, in fact. His backward view over fifty years is humorous and unsentimental, and his reverence for the British devoid of any taint of jingoism or flag-wagging. He says in effect of the last two wars against Germany: "We English just couldn’t be ruled by those barbarian German leaders," and consequently socks had to be pulled up to make this inipossible. The redistribution of wealth which is now proceeding in England he views dispassionately as a logical development, while admitting its hardship to some, But he managed to convey most agreeably that the world is now better than when~’he was born, for reasons in which he was personally involved. This talk warmed me with its style and pleasant good sense, and I look forward to the others.

B.E.G.

M.