“And to be fair, society is a lot more equal now. The main proposals in the Beveridge Report have been put into practice, we've been promised full employment, there's Nye Bevan’s health service, there's proper education for walks of life, and even with the rationing we're better fed now as a nation than we've ever been. This new Britannia is looking good, but where I think we're going to have a problem with letting the old Britannia go. It's clear the Empire had its chips, with India ready to abandon ship, but what's the betting that will try to hang onto our status as a grand world power, up there with Russia and the Yanks, despite the fact we’re in debt to her eyeballs? We can have the decent country we've been guaranteed, or we can keep up the illusion that we're still a great one, but I can't see that we'll have the money to do both. And knowing us, we'll probably decide that destitution is not too bad, so long as you can dress it in the Union Jack waistcoat.”