What politicians and the media said about the benefits system in the 1990s and 2000s caused the public to turn against welfare by 2010

Why has Britain’s welfare system been reformed so radically and why, until recently, did the public enthusiastically endorse such changes? Tom O’Grady traces the evolution of British welfare policy, politics, discourse, and public opinion since the 1980s, and argues that since the 1990s, a long-term change in discourse from both politicians and the media caused the public to turn against welfare by 2010. That, combined with the financial crisis, left the system uniquely vulnerable to cuts.