Victorian reformer’s diaries show little has changed

Beatrice Webb, co-founder of both the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Fabian movement, left behind an insightful account of social upheaval and history over a 70-year period.

Along with her personal struggles, they document her place in the front line of public life from the late 19th century to her death in 1943.

Many parallels can be drawn between then and now, such as her attack on bankers and politicians in reaction to the financial crisis of the early 1930s.

Writing in September 1931, she said: “We know now the depth of the delusion that the financial world have either the knowledge or goodwill to guard the safety of the country over whose pecuniary interests they preside.

“They first make an appalling mess of their own business – involving their country in loss of business and prestige – and then by the most bare-faced dissimulation and political intrigue they throw out one Cabinet and put in their own nominees in order to recover the cost of their miscalculation by hook or crook from the community as a whole.”

She also described the effects of the crisis on the Labour Party conference that year as: “Dull, drab, disillusioned but not disunited.”

Mrs Webb showed equal directness in more personal affairs, including her first impressions of future husband Sidney Webb, recorded in 1890.

She wrote: “His tiny tadpole body, unhealthy skin, lack of manner, cockney pronunciation, poverty are all against him.

“He has the conceit of a man who has raised himself out of the most insignificant surroundings into a position of power – how much power no-one quite knows.

“This self-complacent egotism, this disproportionate view of his own position is at once repulsive and ludicrous.”

However, she married him anyway and in 1895 they founded LSE.

Mrs Webb remained a busy researcher all her life, publishing studies on poverty, housing, wages, equality and co-operatives, among other subjects.

Two versions of the diary have been digitised – 9,000 pages of the actual manuscript as well as 8,000 pages of a transcribed version – with both able to be viewed side by side for comparison.

They can be viewed at http://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/