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The Reality Is That I Doubt If Any Other Government Would Have Acted Any ...

The reality is that I doubt if any other Government would have acted any differently in the circumstances.
My own view based upon the evidence is that the Labour Government acted very much in accordance with the principles of the Beveridge Report. They sought to operate a contributory insurance scheme, with flat rate benefits. According to Jim Tomlinson:
The main difference was that Labour emphasised its commitment to the idea of social insurance should deliver a national minimum, the long standing aim of labour in the social welfare field, and Beveridge and the Coalition White Paper were seen as providing only the first steps on the road to such a minimum. The incompatibility between a flat-rate insurance system and the policy of a national minimum seems hardly to have been recognised in Labour ranks at the time.(11)
Tomlinson goes on:
Thus Labour's approach to social insurance in government may be seen as attempting to combine a Beveridge-type insurance structure with the idea of a national minimum. It was from the interplay and tension between these two approaches that Labour created the new system.(12)
Whilst I agree very much with Tomlinson regarding the tensions creating the policy, I believe he underplays the extent and the number of the tensions interplaying. He has neglected two key aspects; that of economic circumstances and political needs, when analysing the interplay. In summary, Labour devised its policy by combining the need to be both financially and politically prudent, with its desire to formulate a system within the Beveridge model, but taking the model a stage further. Because of these tensions, Labour were happy to place greater emphasis upon means tested benefits than Beveridge wanted, or indeed they would have ideally wanted themselves. They created a welfare state based upon a vision, but heavily flavoured with compromise and political expediency. The question we must ask is, was it a recipe for success?