Sixty years ago, on this day, November 18, 1953 Harold Macmillan, who would go on to be British Prime Minister, told the truth about the function of (most) committees set up by politicians.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 353ppm. As of 2023 it is 419ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was
The London Smog of 1952 had killed 4000 people. Even though most of these were The Old and The Sick, still the cry went up, “something must be done.” So the Beaver committee (chaired by Sir Hugh Beaver) was set up…
What I think we can learn from this
The game is the game. But sometimes, thanks to external factors and pushing, committees’ recommendations do actually get implemented and matter…
What happened next
The Beaver Report made a series of recommendations, and as if by magic, the 1956 Clean Air Act.
Macmillan became Prime Minister in 1957, after Anthony Eden suffered a little local difficulty over the Suez Canal.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.