1. In Scotland, where the annual rate of increase was already down to 0.6 per cent in 1911, the population increased subsequently by a only quarter of a million, before stabilizing at around 5 million in the mid twentieth century. But the difference north and south of the border was due to migration rather than a radically different pattern of births and deaths. The natural rate of increase in Scotland was marginally higher than in England and Wales.
1. The Registrar-General’s model was used from the 1911 census onward. It identified a linear social hierarchy with professionals at its apex as Class I, and unskilled manual workers as Class V Not everyone who used the model subscribed to eugenic theories, but it made them easier to test. There was subsequent reclassification, notably an expansion of Classes I and II, which means that comparisons over time need to be treated with caution.
1. The gilt-edged public debt which Labour inherited was £13 billion and a further £2 billion was added by 1951, almost entirely in compensation for nationalization. Since gilt-edged bonds bore a fixed interest rate, based on the nominal value of the stock, the actual price at which they traded would slump if the nominal rate of interest were lower than market expectations. Thus £100 of stock, bearing an interest rate fixed at 2 per cent in a market where the market expects a return of 2.5 per cent, would actually change hands at £80; since the annual payment by Government on this stock is fixed at £2, the actual return on £80 works out at 2.5 per cent.
1. The Inland Revenue taxed property incomes under Schedule A (cf. self-employed earnings under Schedule D, incomes from employment under Schedule E). The whole system was based on archaic assumptions. When an owner-occupier filled out a return, he (seldom she) was assessed on the notional rent he received as owner from the occupier (himself). But if he had a mortgage, the interest paid was allowed against tax. The abolition of Schedule A removed the tax liability but continued the general tax allowance for interest payments – an allowance restricted to mortgages alone in 1968. Since British owner-occupiers also escaped capital-gains tax, they henceforth enjoyed an internationally unparalleled position of fiscal privilege.