But as war broke out in 1939 and rationing took hold, the lunch was forced to evolve.

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But they were every bit as good as the private sector in terms of choice and quality - if not far better, particularly after the 1944 Education Act and the founding of the NHS, which offered services and opportunities transformed from the pre-war years within a post-war economy and society governed by rationing, funding constraints, and pervasive low skills and aspirations.

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Rationing during and after World War II gave rise to the make do and mend ethos that saw many people exercise their ingenuity to feed and clothe themselves.

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In 1948, however, austerity was rather more austere: there was a fuel shortage, strikes, mass homelessness and even meaner rationing than there had been during the second world war.

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Medical rationing is never easy, and is hardly helped by the war of words between large and small transplant centres.

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