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I occasionally had a dispute with my father who had a strong work-ethic according to which he as an individual worker should do the best possible job, and do it in such a way as to make a profit for his employer as well. He did not favour the trade-union movement, and would sometimes say ‘What this country needs is a million unemployed’. At the time this was shocking to me as a late teenager, and I did not hide my disagreement. But, upon reflection, I put it in the context of the times long before when he worked for his father, and had reportedly as a young person been capable of fashioning a group of workmen and labourers and craftsmen into a collaborative and sufficiently happy team wanting to do a good job, and receiving an adequate recompense by the standards of that time.